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10
Jared, promises to make him a star by becoming his publicist, and gets him a billboard in
Times Square – all while having a sexual relationship with him.
Sex aside, Samantha gives the perception to viewers that public relations is about
celebrities and the good life, and that there is no real hard work in the profession. She
gets hired to throw an A-list Bat Mitzvah; lunches with Lucy Liu and uses the actress’
name to get an Hermes Birkin bag; and “called some designers” to dress Smith for his
MTV premiere. These glamorous events may have contributed to the perception of public
relations within Sex and the City’s young adult audience. Frisina (2003) states that:
Some incoming PR students think that public relations is a glamorous entree into
the world of fluff. They see themselves wearing designer clothes and sipping
cosmopolitans at lavish functions, with no understanding that those events are
meticulously planned as just one part of an overall campaign (p. 19).
However, even for those who aren’t avid Sex and the City fans, Jones’ image of
the female PR professional has been plastered on HBO for six years and syndicated on
numerous networks, making her character a household name. She exudes an image often
seen in female publicists on screen – an exciting life working with the rich and famous,
always in the know about the latest and greatest (Morris & Goldsworthy, 2008, p. 6). Her
reach is large, and she was a dominant figure of the late 1990s and early 2000s for the
female PR practitioner in popular culture.
Within five years after the series ending, reality television in the United States has
taken the fictional Samantha Jones and made her “real” with shows such as Power Girls,
Kell on Earth and The Spin Crowd, all featuring female PR practitioners in the
entertainment industry. Reality television has become one of the most popular television
genres (Ferris, Smith, Greenberg, & Smith , 2007, p. 490); A total of seven reality
Object Description
| Title | Power party girls, good looking crowds and one hellish boss: The portrayal of the female entertainment publicist on reality television |
| Author | Hashem, Camille Renée |
| Author email | chashem@usc.edu; chashem87@gmail.com |
| Degree | Master of Arts |
| Document type | Thesis |
| Degree program | Public Relations |
| School | Annenberg School for Communication |
| Date defended/completed | 2011-04-01 |
| Date submitted | 2011 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2011-05-03 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Thorson, Kjerstin |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Floto, Jennifer Saltzman, Joseph |
| Abstract | This thesis is an examination of the portrayal of the female entertainment publicist shown in reality television. With the large success rate of Samantha Jones from Sex and the City in the 1990s, female interest in public relations has increased, and good or bad, Jones has served as one of the predominate images of the publicist in the entertainment industry. Those who have performed critical analysis of the image of the public relations practitioner have deemed these representations as showing negative characteristics of those in the profession. While there has been previous research on the image of public relations in media, analysis of the female entertainment publicist in reality television has been left untapped.; The project consisted of a content analysis as well as interviews with various women in entertainment public relations. Three reality television shows featuring female entertainment publicists were watched: MTV's PoweR Girls (2005), Bravo's Kell on Earth (2010) and E! Network's The Spin Crowd. After conducting this analysis, the author found that the female publicist is put in one of two gender categories, the masculine bitch or the overtly sexy "PR Bunny." Other findings inferred that the dominant images within each series suggested that public relations is overall an easy field to enter, with little or no experience or professionalism needed. Finally, although the three series had some subtle differences, public relations is still shown as a glamorous job.; Interviewee responses showed that the negative representations of entertainment publicists on reality television are not indicative of the real life job itself, but that media's representation of it has led others to believe false or skewed images of the profession. Since these three shows' target demographics include young women about make a career decision, the impact they may have on this demographic, and how it may affect the future of public relations and the expectations of those about the enter the industry, is also discussed. |
| Keyword | communication; entertainment; media; public relations; reality television |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1990/2010 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3875 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Hashem, Camille Renée |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Hashem-4503 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Hashem-4503.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 10 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 10 Jared, promises to make him a star by becoming his publicist, and gets him a billboard in Times Square – all while having a sexual relationship with him. Sex aside, Samantha gives the perception to viewers that public relations is about celebrities and the good life, and that there is no real hard work in the profession. She gets hired to throw an A-list Bat Mitzvah; lunches with Lucy Liu and uses the actress’ name to get an Hermes Birkin bag; and “called some designers” to dress Smith for his MTV premiere. These glamorous events may have contributed to the perception of public relations within Sex and the City’s young adult audience. Frisina (2003) states that: Some incoming PR students think that public relations is a glamorous entree into the world of fluff. They see themselves wearing designer clothes and sipping cosmopolitans at lavish functions, with no understanding that those events are meticulously planned as just one part of an overall campaign (p. 19). However, even for those who aren’t avid Sex and the City fans, Jones’ image of the female PR professional has been plastered on HBO for six years and syndicated on numerous networks, making her character a household name. She exudes an image often seen in female publicists on screen – an exciting life working with the rich and famous, always in the know about the latest and greatest (Morris & Goldsworthy, 2008, p. 6). Her reach is large, and she was a dominant figure of the late 1990s and early 2000s for the female PR practitioner in popular culture. Within five years after the series ending, reality television in the United States has taken the fictional Samantha Jones and made her “real” with shows such as Power Girls, Kell on Earth and The Spin Crowd, all featuring female PR practitioners in the entertainment industry. Reality television has become one of the most popular television genres (Ferris, Smith, Greenberg, & Smith , 2007, p. 490); A total of seven reality |
