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Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of tables -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Why this book? -- Roadmap for the reader of this book -- PART I Celebrity philanthropy and activism: Origins, celebrity and the media -- 1 Philanthropy and activism -- Introduction -- Defining philanthropy and activism -- Looking back: the history of philanthropy and activism -- Marketisation and corporatisation of philanthropy and activism -- Criticism of marketisation and corporatisation -- 2 Celebrity philanthropy and activism -- Introduction -- Conceptualising celebrity -- Types of celebrity -- Celebrity philanthropy and activism -- Philanthropy/activism and the celebrity construct -- Engaging celebrities: advantages and disadvantages -- 3 Mediated celebrity philanthropy and activism -- Mediated communication and the celebrity construct -- Celebrity journalism and celebrity news -- Covering celebrity philanthropy and activism -- Mediated 'stories' of celebrity philanthropy and activism -- A look at audiences -- PART II Celebrity philanthropy and activism in international relations and diplomacy, development and humanitarianism -- 4 The white man's burden: Celebrity philanthropy and activism in world relations and development issues -- Introduction -- Roots of celebrity engagement in international relations, development and humanitarianism -- Humanitarian traditions, marketisation, the West and the Rest, and celebrity engagement -- Celebrities and marketised philanthropy and activism in world relations -- Conclusion -- 5 Celebrity philanthropists as authoritative voices: Framing world relations and development issues -- Celebrity philanthropic and activist documentaries: a framing analysis -- Stories of celebrity philanthropy and activism in world relations

AbstractDigitalisation seems to have reached enough momentum to dominate discussions regarding the state and future of public service broadcasting (PSB) in recent years. Starting from a background overview of the main developments in PSB (policy, structure and content) since its inception, the article analyses current debates regarding the future of PSB. The most heard stakeholders, the dominant positions, discourses and arguments regarding the position of PSB in the 'new' digital, interactive, personalised media future are identified. Next, and crucially, this article intends to lay bare the technological determinism implicit in much of this debate and the implications for the way in which the discussion is being held. Taking instead a social constructivist point of view, the article concludes with an analysis of the way in which the main goals of access, universality and quality can be reinterpreted in the light PSB's position in a changing society.

The aim of this article is to study the way in which PSB - as a typical modernist project of a certain cultural elite - has tried to create and maintain a national identity using a uniform, high culture as a vehicle to `educate' its audience into being `citizens' of the community. In particular, the analysis will concentrate on the policy in this regard of Flemish public service television. Our hypothesis is that the (cultural elite within) Flemish PSB - and particularly television - tried for a long time to contribute to the recognition and development of Flemish identity and culture by offering a uniform Felmish culture. An analysis of Flemish public television between 1953 and 1960 is used to illustrate this.

This contribution analyzes government, opposition, public service media, media stakeholders and audience views regarding the role and remit of public service media in the run-up to and their impact on the renewal of the 2021–2025 management contract between public broadcaster VRT and the Flemish Government. Results show that, despite a shifting media ecosystem and academics and government pushing for fundamental reform, audiences and most stakeholders' views stick to a centralised, broad and multiplatform public media institution. Moreover, they expect public service media to solve ever more media and societal issues (e.g. fake news) within a shrinking budget. The case illustrates how mature, evidence-based multistakeholderism pushes public service media to meet an increasingly challenging set of expectations, hampers both public service media and government to build a well-balanced, long-term vision of public service media's role and, instead, pushes them to pursue their own agenda. Lastly, an evidence-based process also suffers from issues of validity of the data.

This contribution starts from the contemporary surge in conspiracism to develop a theoretical framework to understand how conspiracy theories make it from the margins to the mainstream. To this end, it combines a view of conspiracy theories as ideology and its propagandists as ideological entrepreneurs with insights into how the affordances of digital media and popular culture are instrumental in propagating the conspiracy theories. It further complements sociological and psychological explanations with a fandom perspective to grasp the diversity of conspiracy audiences. Together, it is argued, these factors allow ideological entrepreneurs to push conspiracy theories from the margins to the mainstream. Alex Jones and QAnon are discussed as cases in point.

In 2017, Flemish public broadcaster Vlaamse Radio en Televisieorganisatie (VRT), that serves the approximately 6.5 million people of the Flemish community in Belgium, proposed launching a separate television channel for preschool children, making use of existing brand Ketnet Jr. VRT argued such a service was necessary given the different needs of preschoolers compared with older children, and the limited reach of their online offers within certain social-political strata. A universality rationale thus underlined VRT's plans. This chapter analyses the process, contents, and outcome of the public value test procedure applied to this proposal. The focus of the analysis is on whether universality arguments were seriously taken into account by the regulator and government, or made subordinate to competitors' logic. Our document analysis makes it clear that the opinion of commercial broadcasters, rarely substantiated by evidence, disproportionally impacted the regulator's assessment, and eventually resulted in a negative decision on a service of which the market impact was in fact limited and the public interest motivation high. ; Go to the full book to find a version of this chapter tagged for accessibility.

This contribution compares personalisation strategies of public service media (PSM) and how these are reconciled with PSM's core values, especially universality. To this end, it combines mapping of a sample of PSM with in-depth analysis of Flemish VRT and Norwegian NRK. The theoretical framework discusses universality in relationship to PSM's historical remit and to contemporary personalisation through digital options like algorithms. Subsequently, strategies of the sampled PSM are analysed, using data from documents, an online survey and interviews. Results suggest that most PSM, including VRT and NRK, engage in implicit and explicit digital personalisation, yet vary in type of engagement and in views on how personalisation strengthens or threatens universality. It is argued that histories and the understanding of technology within specific institutions affect their personalisation approach. We argue that policies focus on news and information but that negotiating universality and personalisation, while dealing with issues like filter bubbles and privacy, extends to the entire range of PSM programmes and goals.

Taking the case of the relationship between small European public broadcasters and the international content sales activities of BBC Worldwide, this contribution analyses if and to what extent the commercial arm of public service media institution BBC is strengthening the hegemonic position of Anglo-Saxon content in European media markets, and undermining the objectives public broadcasters stand for. To this end, it takes a comparative approach, combining and triangulating results from analysis of relevant documents, from BBC Worldwide and from public broadcasters that acquire their programmes, with data from semi-structured expert interviews with representatives from small European public broadcasters' acquisition departments. Results indicate that, despite its public service claims, BBC Worldwide is an international content distributor like any other and that its activities contribute to cultural homogenization of audiovisual content in Europe, thus limiting small European public broadcasters' possibilities for content universality, creativity, diversity and quality.

AbstractThis article provides insight into one form of audience involvement with celebrities: parasocial relationships (PSR). To address several shortcomings in PSR research – focus on TV, confusion between PSI (parasocial interaction) and PSR, use of student samples, neglect of socio-demographic variables – a representative online survey was conducted with 1000 Flemish adults who indicated 382 celebrities as favorites. A new scale reveals that PSR contain two important elements: emotional connections and an analogy with social relationships. Confirming previous research, most favorite celebrities are male, and cultural proximity is especially important for older respondents. In one combined model, respondents' and celebrities' (socio-demographic) characteristics are included as potential PSR predictors. This model nuances previous research and reveals that people who are male, older, more lowly-educated, and interested in celebrity news have stronger PSR. Further, stronger PSR are found for local and religious, political, sports, and music celebrities than for film celebrities.

AbstractWhile media coverage is a main aim of celebrities' societal engagement, academic analysis of its news-making ability is scarce. As a diverse phenomenon, we argue that the ability of celebrities' societal engagement to attract media attention depends on how certain characteristics (i.e., celebrities' claim to fame, roles they take on and issues they support) fit news selection criteria to a greater or lesser extent. First, this article determines how the three studied components (claim to fame, role and issue) relate to each other by means of an internet search and analysis. Second, using the internet data as a benchmark, the article looks at how celebrities' engagement is covered in Flemish newspapers. Results suggest that certain forms of celebrities' societal engagement are more likely than others to generate media coverage, as Flemish newspapers tend to focus more on the issue of development aid, ad hoc celebrity roles, and local Flemish celebrities and issues.

Abstract
Technological convergence is remaking and even erasing the borders between industries once considered separate, and is forcing policymakers to evolve new regulatory frameworks for a rapidly changing industrial environment. Using the advocacy coalition framework, the authors investigate a struggle by Flemish broadcasters against video distributors to protect the integrity of their broadcast signals. The authors argue that the case may be an indicator of the struggles to come as the television space struggles with convergence, with implications for the European Union and other regions.

Abstract
Technological convergence is remaking and even erasing the borders between industries once considered separate, and is forcing policymakers to evolve new regulatory frameworks for a rapidly changing industrial environment. Using the advocacy coalition framework, the authors investigate a struggle by Flemish broadcasters against video distributors to protect the integrity of their broadcast signals. The authors argue that the case may be an indicator of the struggles to come as the television space struggles with convergence, with implications for the European Union and other regions.