Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Child Abuse : Creating The Public In The Public Service Advertisement, Mark Brennan

Theses : Honours

This thesis seeks to examine the discursive construction of the public. Unlike studies before it, it explores a site that has yet to be analysed in depth- the public service advertisement. While the characteristics of this genre are understood in cultural common sense, what has been neglected is a consideration of how these advertisements can be understood to address an entity that is amorphous and unknowable. This study argues that such an address is only possible in this genre through the discourse of childhood. By employing an interdisciplinary approach that includes cultural and-media studies, political theory and sociology, the history …