ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the modern history of international development and shows how, from the very beginning, media has occupied a central role within development thinking and practice. It introduces several critiques of 'modernization theory' – including 'dependency theory', feminist critiques, and environmental critiques – and examines how these gained increasing traction within international development, and eventually gave rise to 'post-development' perspectives. The book focuses on one particular outcome of new media environments: the way in which they have cemented, and made inexorable, a link between celebrity and development. It looks at how and why this link came about, what implications it has for international development in general, and how it has forever blurred any prior distinctions between development agencies, developing world governments and their citizens, and the audiences for media representations of development.
