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48
employee. Erika, however, is a full-time employee, and her online biography blatantly
shows her lack of PR knowledge:
Working at Command PR is Erika’s first job. She knows nothing about PR and
little about business culture in general (E! Entertainment Television, 2011).
While Kell on Earth also shows this image, the show proves that a lack of
experience is no excuse for poor performance at work. One of the characters, Stephanie
Vorhees, was a finance major and states in the second episode that she decided to switch
to public relations because she wanted something more “fun.” During the season, she
puts the wrong stamps on fashion show invites and even spells one of the designer’s
names incorrectly on a press release. Despite her lack of experience, Cutrone holds her to
the same expectations as the rest of the staff, and she is eventually fired.
These images reaffirm Morris and Goldsworthy’s claim that PR is shown as an
easy industry to enter, and requires no previous knowledge in the field (2008, pp. 6 – 7).
However, Kell on Earth illustrates somewhat of a different approach to this portrayal.
When Stephanie Vorhees did not meet the expectation, regardless of her experience, she
was let go. While there were some mishaps in the other television series, the employees
were not punished for their mistakes. Although the beginning of Kell on Earth showed
Stephanie Vorhees with a lack of experience, much like the women in PoweR Girls and
The Spin Crowd, there is one key difference in Kell on Earth: that although someone may
be hired as a publicist without previous experience, if the employee does not prove
themselves, they are no longer part of the team.
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 48 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 48 employee. Erika, however, is a full-time employee, and her online biography blatantly shows her lack of PR knowledge: Working at Command PR is Erika’s first job. She knows nothing about PR and little about business culture in general (E! Entertainment Television, 2011). While Kell on Earth also shows this image, the show proves that a lack of experience is no excuse for poor performance at work. One of the characters, Stephanie Vorhees, was a finance major and states in the second episode that she decided to switch to public relations because she wanted something more “fun.” During the season, she puts the wrong stamps on fashion show invites and even spells one of the designer’s names incorrectly on a press release. Despite her lack of experience, Cutrone holds her to the same expectations as the rest of the staff, and she is eventually fired. These images reaffirm Morris and Goldsworthy’s claim that PR is shown as an easy industry to enter, and requires no previous knowledge in the field (2008, pp. 6 – 7). However, Kell on Earth illustrates somewhat of a different approach to this portrayal. When Stephanie Vorhees did not meet the expectation, regardless of her experience, she was let go. While there were some mishaps in the other television series, the employees were not punished for their mistakes. Although the beginning of Kell on Earth showed Stephanie Vorhees with a lack of experience, much like the women in PoweR Girls and The Spin Crowd, there is one key difference in Kell on Earth: that although someone may be hired as a publicist without previous experience, if the employee does not prove themselves, they are no longer part of the team. |
