So far, I have published a post on several major EU daily papers covering development and on the role of community media in development.

Let's now take a look into the world of glossies.

First, theory:

Stars. It's a technique that earnest journalists and activists can find distasteful, but the use of stars of music, cinema or sport to publicise development issues is a very good way to engage your audience (...) UN agencies have made particular use of these goodwill "ambassadors". Central European Journalists' Guide to Reporting Development, page 12.

And now, practice.

The text I photographed appeared this spring in Vogue, and tells the story of several young successful women active in humanitarian actions around the world. But this is hardly an exception. Their pieces about stars often touch on their activities related to international aid programs.

Here are two examples, from the US Vogue:

Penelope Cruz: Bono refers to Penélope as "the Cruz Missile." She is, he says, the "secret weapon" that his humanitarian campaign (RED) has up its sleeve. It's true that she is phenomenally serious about the work they are doing to prevent the spread of AIDS, TB, and malaria in Africa. Bobby Shriver, Bono's business partner, is continually impressed with what he calls her "worker mentality." She doesn't just turn up for the photo-ops, Shriver says; she comes to meetings with a notebook and sends E-mails with to-do lists afterward. "People say they're committed," he concludes, "but I say, Commitment, schmommitment—you're only committed if you sweat the details. And Penélope sweats the details.

Chisty Turlington: Right now she is studying for a master's degree in public health at Columbia University, working in a world of issues and acronyms. She's also making a film following mothers and the people who treat them in Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Guatemala. Which is why, in May, she and her crew were in El Triunfo, a hot, dusty village for displaced indigenous people in Guatemala, filming as an obstetrician named Linda Valencia, eight months pregnant herself, attended to some 400 women in native dress and velvet turbans. Valencia took Pap smears by candlelight and fixed them on slides with hairspray. The documentary No Woman, No Cry is scheduled to come out next year, to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Development Goals. Her friend Dallas Brennan Rexer is producing, and Turlington is financing it herself. "I can talk about things that people in the field are afraid to bring up because their funding is tied to administrations and policy."

There are also texts that through the use some of the standard glossy magazines' techniques actually deal with development issues, or with people who are to work on them. Such is the story about inauguration of the United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice. In the text there is the story on how the official perception of the United Nations has changed since Obama replaced Bush, and what are  the main international issues to try to solve, but there is also a lot of emphasis on person rather than on the topic, likewise abundant details on where and how:

It is a cold, rainy night in mid-April, and hundreds of people have packed a ballroom at the Millennium U.N. Plaza Hotel in New York to meet the new United States ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice. It is the kind of obligatory happy-hour event that most people in the diplomatic community usually dread—cheese cubes and shoptalk. But that is not the mood tonight. First of all, there is a record turnout, with more than 100 ambassadors in attendance. There is also a sprinkling of New York society and the media elite mixed in among the eggheads and policy wonks, a rare occurrence at these things. As everyone waits for the guest of honor to arrive, there is a building sense of excitement; the women are dressed up, drinks are being downed, and there is a loud roar—the sound of people actually enjoying themselves.

Searching for examples of the presence of development topics in lifestyle and fashion magazines, I have also found interesting study "The Burqa in Vogue: Fashioning Afganistan" which 'explores the burqa's evolution from shock to chic in the pages of Vogue's magazine' throughout this decade, and what cultural and anthropological conclusions could be drawn from that change.

To sum up:

These are just few cases, and the role of fashion and lifestyle magazines in covering gender, racial, ethnic, class and many other differences is a topic much wider than it could be put into a single blog post. My goal was just to show that there are some aspects of development issues in them. How effective is their approach, and if there is something in their method that could be used in other types of media is something I would like to hear your opinions about.