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39
perceived them, or if they thought that would happen in the future. In other words, did
these onscreen portrayals influence the students’ desire to enter public relations as well as
the overall job roles in the profession?
After collecting answers from all four respondents, a side-by-side comparison was
enacted to show color-coded comments with similar themes or ideas. This was done in
order to visually see 1) similar responses to be used as “nuggets” of reoccurring answers
and 2) the frequency of how many times these were brought up in each interview.
Descriptions of Respondents
Purposive sampling was used for the interviews, where “researchers select sample
members because they meet special needs of the study based on the interviewer’s
judgment” (Austin & Pinkleton, 2006, p. 104). The first interviewee (Respondent A) is
the founder and previous president of her own fashion public relations firm in West
Hollywood, California. The second is a publicist who used to work in-house at an apparel
company, and then decided to start her own company in Los Angeles (Respondent B).
Among the student participants, one just recently graduated with a major in Public
Relations (Respondent C), and the other is currently a graduate student who will earn her
master’s degree in public relations this spring (Respondent D).
All four women live and work in the Greater Los Angeles area, and therefore the
sample unit is reflective of L.A. However, while the sample only contained those in Los
Angeles, the city is the number two media market, just behind New York, making these
statistics somewhat indicative of the population as a whole (Nielsen, 2009).
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 39 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 39 perceived them, or if they thought that would happen in the future. In other words, did these onscreen portrayals influence the students’ desire to enter public relations as well as the overall job roles in the profession? After collecting answers from all four respondents, a side-by-side comparison was enacted to show color-coded comments with similar themes or ideas. This was done in order to visually see 1) similar responses to be used as “nuggets” of reoccurring answers and 2) the frequency of how many times these were brought up in each interview. Descriptions of Respondents Purposive sampling was used for the interviews, where “researchers select sample members because they meet special needs of the study based on the interviewer’s judgment” (Austin & Pinkleton, 2006, p. 104). The first interviewee (Respondent A) is the founder and previous president of her own fashion public relations firm in West Hollywood, California. The second is a publicist who used to work in-house at an apparel company, and then decided to start her own company in Los Angeles (Respondent B). Among the student participants, one just recently graduated with a major in Public Relations (Respondent C), and the other is currently a graduate student who will earn her master’s degree in public relations this spring (Respondent D). All four women live and work in the Greater Los Angeles area, and therefore the sample unit is reflective of L.A. However, while the sample only contained those in Los Angeles, the city is the number two media market, just behind New York, making these statistics somewhat indicative of the population as a whole (Nielsen, 2009). |
