Make Poverty History : political communication in action / Nicolas Sireau.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sireau, Nicolas, 1973-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Make Poverty History (Organisation).

Poverty--Government policy--Great Britain--Citizen participation.

Poverty.

Economic assistance, British--Developing countries--Citizen participation.

Economic assistance, British.

Social movements--Great Britain.

Social movements.

Political participation.

Poverty--Government policy.

Great Britain.

Developing countries.

Physical Description:

xv, 248 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Summary:

Make Poverty History was a major episode of protest that took place in 2005 in the United Kingdom with the aim of influencing the G8 meeting in July of that year in Edinburgh. This book follows the campaign throughout its lifetime and unpacks the tensions that developed around the branding of Make Poverty History, particularly the conflict between campaigners and marketeers over the content of messages. Looking at how attitudes towards government and political opportunities influenced the negotiation of communications, it analyses how these were understood by the campaign's three audience segments: the mass public, the interested and the activists. It looks at public stereotypes on global poverty and whether the campaign managed to modify them. It maps out Make Poverty History's frame on economic justice and confronts it with audience reactions. The book ends by looking at the campaign's troubled relationship with celebrities.

Contents:

2 A Short History of Make Poverty History 14

The origins of the idea 14

The coming together of the coalition 15

Plans accelerate as 2005 draws near 17

The first six months 18

Live8, the Edinburgh rally and the G8 summit 22

Other activism around the G8 summit 25

The second half of the year 26

Wrapping up the campaign 28

Part II The Production of Make Poverty History's Communications

3 Make Poverty History as Brand 33

What is a brand? 34

The branding of Make Poverty History 39

Make Poverty History as brand name 48

The need for brand consistency 55

4 The Tension between Marketing and Campaigning 60

No Logo and the anti-brand debate 61

Conceptions of branding within Make Poverty History 64

Skills imbalance in marketing and campaigning 66

Simplicity versus complexity in messaging 70

The problem of control of resources 78

A question of strategy 81

5 Radical Outsiders, Moderate Insiders 89

The insider-outside dilemma 90

Insider-outsider strategies 93

Political opportunity structures and movement communications 98

Part III The Consumption of Make Poverty History's Communications

6 Collective Beliefs on Global Poverty 113

The formation of collective beliefs 114

Collective beliefs about Africa 116

Collective beliefs about helplessness 121

Colelctive beliefs about corruption and poverty 125

7 Audiences and the Economic Justice Frame 133

The framing of collective action 134

Make Poverty History's collective action frame 136

Understandings of the economic justice frame 138

The difference between fair trade and trade justice 146

What will it cost us? 151

Blaming the West for global poverty 153

8 Why People Attended the G8 Rally 157

What motivates people to action? 158

Make Poverty History's prognostic frame 161

Expectations and values about success 164

Post-event framing 167

What did Make Poverty History achieve? 172

9 Celebrities and the Construction of Communications 177

Celebrity endorsements and branding 177

NOGs, Make Poverty History and celebrities 178

Choice of celebrities 183

Live8, celebrities and the problem of message control 187

Geldof, Make Poverty History and the G8 reaction 194

Conclusions on the production of the communications 199

Conclusions on the consumption of the communications 201

Lessons from political marketing 202

Final points and further research 204

A note on methods 207

The structure of Make Poverty History 212

Primary research material 227.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-242) and index.

ISBN:

9780230218550

0230218555

OCLC:

244661189