We are pleased to announce the release of the book Building Bridges in Celebrity Studies (WaterHill Publishing, 2016). The book is a special collection of extended papers presented at our NYC conference, precursor to the upcoming “Bridging Gaps: What are the Media, Publicists, and Celebrities Selling?” in Barcelona (July 3-5, 2016). Please find details of the book along with our inaugural journal CrossBridge (WaterHill Publishing, 2016) below. To order copies for libraries, courses, and research, please visit the publisher’s website:
http://www.waterhillpublishing.com/books.html.

Sincerely,

Dr Louis Massey
Advisory Board Member and Communication Manager
Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS)

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Building Bridges in Celebrity Studies (WaterHill Publishing, 2016)
Editors: Jackie Raphael, Basuli Deb and Nidhi Shrivastava
 

 
This edited book addresses the complex interplay between celebrities and media. Various themes are investigated including trend setting, consumer consumption, impact of social media, sensationalism in reporting, celebrities as a commodity, media scandal creating fame, and feminism. Building Bridges in Celebrity Studies invites scholars and media professionals to critically consider ethical and social justice directions where media and celebrities combine for a commitment to social transformation. Both media and celebrity culture are crucial parts of our daily lives, thus a greater understanding of how the two co-exist is essential. This book provides some key perspectives towards such understanding.
 
Contents

Introduction: Bridging the Gaps Between Celebrity and Media
Jackie Raphael, Basuli Deb and Nidhi Shrivastava

PART I - Bridging Celebrity Trends and Consumer Perception

Celebrity Influence on Audiences’ Consumption Practices as Parents
Elizabeth Fish Hatfield
 
Front Row Aspirations in the Online Era:
Bodies, Accessories and Fashioning Celebrity .
Rebecca Halliday
 
PART II - Bridging Sensationalised Media and Commodified Celebrities

Selling the Bromance: Sensationalism of the McAvoy /
Fassbender Relationship
Celia Lam and Jackie Raphael
 
Commodifying Celebrity: Social media, sensationalism, and how the media plays a role in creating celebrities .
Judith Roberts

Quantifying Celebrity: Influence Measurement in the Digital Age
Andrew Zolides

PART III - Bridging Media Controversy and Celebrity Status

A Persona of Global Controversy: Assange, Snowden, and the Makings of the Digital Information Activist
Andrew Munro

Corporate Colonization and the Myth of Authentic Journalism
William Huddy

Celebrity Culture and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:
Jian Ghomeshi, Global Others, and Sexual Violence
Kiera Obbard

PART IV - Bridging Women’s Issues and Media Representation

The Power of Celebrity Culture and its Response to Rape and Sexual
Violence against Women in Post-2012 India
Nidhi Shrivastava

Media Representations and Angelina Jolie’s Elective Mastectomy and
Transnational Adoption
Basuli Deb
 
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CrossBridge Vol 1 Issue 1
International Journal of Multidisciplinary & Progressive Research
Editor: Robert Caine



CrossBridge is a multidisciplinary and thought provoking cross-over between peer-reviewed academic journal, public affairs magazine, and visual art/literary review. The name CrossBridge conjures the connecting of ideas, subject areas, and philosophies, bringing together schools of thought not usually viewed as having relevant association or interconnected dis-course. The journal’s vision departs the usual solely academic focus to also include practice-based research that enables social progress, opinions and commentaries, and arts. We aim at embracing marginalized and often neglected members, ideas, and needs of and for the whole Earth community. Steven Johnson in Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation (2011) wrote that spaces that allow “collision of creativity” between people of different backgrounds facilitates innovation. CrossBridge aims at being such a space.

Bearing Witness at Slaughterhouses
Anita Krajnc and Ian Purdy

Split Mask
Brenda Clews

A Watch for Freedom
Josh Nathan

Interview with Author Basuli Deb
Nidhi Shrivastava

A False Bottom
Bruce Kauffman

Intelligent Machines are Not Intelligent... Or Are They?
Louis Massey

Self-critical Self Promotion:
Celebrity News Reporting and the Changing Public (Relations) Sphere
Stephanie Patrick

The Cloud Forest Painter
Linda Moskalyk