ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with the mediated communication about celebrity philanthropy and activism, analysing how it provides inroads for audiences and society to discuss societal issues through the complex spectre that is the celebrity construct. It focusses on a specific range of issues that dominate celebrities' societal engagement: international relations and diplomacy, development and humanitarianism. The book wants to provide not so much a conceptual and empirical exploration of celebrity philanthropy and activism as such but of the mediated communication, the mediatised narratives that these endeavours provide. The book pays tribute to, as well as brings together, insights from philanthropy and welfare regime studies, over international politics and diplomacy to postcolonial studies, but also from marketing, from celebrity, star and fan studies, and from media, communication to cultural studies.
