Introduction to Journalism, Media and Communication: Professional Biography - Emma Watson Case Study

Emma Watson's career in relation to the concepts of Globalization, Media Convergence, and Public Sphere

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson, or widely known as Emma Watson, is a young yet cunning British actress and rising model. She has been globally recognized not only thanks to her phenomenal role as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter franchise, but also for her impressive career as an activist. Through her career, Emma Watson has effectively utilized the concepts of globalization and media convergence to make great contributions to the public sphere.

Born in France in 1990, and later resided in the U.K, young Emma Watson had expressed her love for performing in stage productions and plays. In 1999, after eight auditions, she was finally cast to play the role of Hermione Granger in the first Harry Potter film series. The film broke several records and together with its seven subsequent blockbusters, earned the title as “‘the highest-grossing films of all time” (The Famous People, 2016). Accordingly, Watson rose to stardom for her brilliant presence and acting skills on screen. Watson also partnered with well-known labels such as Burberry, Lamcôme and ‘People Tree’ for her modeling career. She also showed her versatility through establishing her own fashion line for underprivileged children under UNICEF. During her busy schedules of both acting and modeling, she managed to complete her university degree in English Literature in 2014. In the same year, in recognition of her social activities, UN Women appointed Watson as their Goodwill Ambassador. The actress then launched her “HeForShe” campaign to advocate for the equal opportunities and rights of women and gained worldwide support. Her latest movie is a live-action remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, in which she was the heroine (Astrum People, 2018).

As a big fan of the Harry Potter franchise, I have witnessed how Watson has progressed through her acting career and how she has been actively involved in addressing humanitarian issues as a feminist. She successfully overcame the big shadow of a book-wise, level-headed character she played in Harry Potter to show a more versatile image with different roles throughout her career. Besides her impressive persistence to pursue education despite conflicting schedules, she earned my respect for the profound impact on society she had exerted through her “HeForShe” campaign. Although she is not traditionally a journalist, Watson has proved her ability to address humanitarian and gender equality issues with her dual status as a celebrity and a Goodwill Ambassador of UN Women.

With the help of globalization, Emma Watson has successfully established her reputation as a feminist campaigner and a UN Ambassador. Globalization is a process refers to the change in the human organization that connects many communities and furthers the reach of power relations on a worldwide scale (Held and McGrew as cited in Flew, 2007). It is her accumulated global success through the famous Harry Potter franchise and her other internationally famous movies that springboards her influential career as the UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador. As also suggested by Flew (2007), globalization facilitates the rise of many transnational organizations. Thanks to the international development of the UN, Watson has been enabled to positively influence many countries in the world. According to The Guardian (2015)’s article, Malala Yousafzai, a Nobel peace prize winner from Pakistan, was inspired by Emma Watson's speech at the UN to kick-start her “HeforShe” campaign and then later described herself as a “feminist". Besides using the term “feminist" in many of her speeches, it is worth to mention that Watson also uses the controversial concept of “feminism" although many labels it as a man-hating trend instead of equality between men and women. For example, in 2017, in the response to her photoshoot for Vanity Fair magazine in which she went nearly topless, she stated “Feminism is about giving women choice, […] about freedom, [...] about liberation, [...] about equality (The Guardian, 2017). Her photoshoot and statement aroused a heated debate on social media as some argued that it was “hypocritical" of Watson to do and say so as a feminist. However, most people advocated her courageous shoot. By referring to the term “feminist” and “feminism", Watson has caught global attention and received much support for her inspiring viewpoints on issues regarding gender equality. As a matter of fact, Emma Watson has utilized the advantage of globalization to expand her career and engage more audience around the world.

Not only did Watson communicate to the general public through conventional media release but she also used many technological platforms to maximize the impact of her message. Had it not been for this era of converging media, her influence would have been much more limited. According to Jenkins (2004), media convergence blurs the relationship among many elements of media systems namely technologies, industries, and content. Although Watson rarely disclosed her private life online and even expressed her doubts towards the effectiveness of communicating through these platforms in her interview with Hooks (2016), she had chosen to distribute her message with the help of media convergence. As her UN speech went widespread on the Internet in 2014, the link to ‘HeForShe’ movement ’s website and Watson’s social media accounts were included in several journal articles and magazines to allow as many people to access via different platforms as possible (UN Women, 2014). Together with Tom Hiddleston, many other famous celebrities like Russell Crowe also showed their support for this brave initiative on their social media accounts, which drove this campaign to become more viral in reach. Social networks had witnessed a record of more than 1.3 billion times the #HeForShe hashtag being used. Subsequently, the issue of gender equality was publicly questioned in the workforce of the top 10 companies including many big names (UN Women, 2016). It is evident that Emma Watson successfully employed the concept of media convergence for the extensive reach of her campaign.

Undeniably, the rise of globalization and media convergence gives rise to the extension of the public sphere - a metaphorical place where everyone can discuss different topics without any prejudice (Leaning, 2009). In this non-judgemental place where disregards genders, races and other social factors, Emma Watson was able to use her rights to contribute to the public sphere, in relation to her wish to “engage in the topic with people who wouldn’t normally” (Hooks, 2016). Not only could she express her opinions regarding different issues related to her “HeForShe” campaign and her other humanitarian activities but she could also receive constructive comments and feedback from the general public through her website and social media platforms. Later on, in 2016, she founded the feminist Goodreads book club: Our Shared Shelf, whose aim was to encourage discussion on the topics regarding gender equality and exchange ideas among the participating audience (Astrum People, 2018). In recognition of Watson’s contribution to the public sphere, Laura Dunn, founder of SurvJustice, stated that tough issues could be explained easier to the new generation with the help of Emma Watson - the representative of the “Harry Potter generation” (Crockett, 2014). Throughout her career as a UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador and a feminist activist, Watson has made great contributions to the public sphere.

All in all, Emma Watson’s career has been profoundly influenced by the trends of globalization and media convergence. She has valued these concepts to engage and reach more of the general public. Besides, by contributing to the public sphere, she has opened a room for discussion on different topics among the public and earned huge respect from many people. These are the reasons why she, as a media professional, has deeply inspired me to dedicate more to my career in journalism, media and communication.

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