For sale — Peace of mind: (Neo-) colonial discourse and the commodification of third world poverty in world vision's ‘telethons’

Abstract

Abstract World Vision Canada's television fundraising appeals construct Canadian sponsor identity in relation to a ‘needy’ ‘Third World’ other. These programmes utilise structures of identification reminiscent of earlier forms of colonial discourse and are dependent upon discourses of consumercapital. World Vision's presentation of the act of sponsorship as a life-changing act of self-fulfillment deludes the viewer or sponsor of the complex relations which perpetuate poverty, and in which Canadians are implicated. World Vision's marketing discourse constructs world poverty outside history and sells the possibility of instant gratification through the act of sponsorship as a form of consumption.