Entertainment vs Information in Popular Culture
A huge thanks to new readers for joining my social media. Special thanks to Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) media expert and social media manager Christine Bode for her insightful and inspiring comments on the posts always. Gratitude also goes to former CMCS seminar “Moving Forward” panelist and Ryerson University’s Sal Greco for his opinions on my latest interview in Humber News. Here’s what Sal has to say about the Jimmy Kimmel’s Show video that I mentioned in the interview: “Upon seeing the video shown on the Jimmy Kimmel Show, that...
Read MoreFrom Manhattan to Mumbai
It has been just over nine weeks since I came back from Manhattan, where I hosted the last Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) conference on journalists, personas, and celebrity culture. We received such a phenomenal response that I am now sponsoring the next conference Bridging Gaps: What are the media, publicists & celebrities selling? in Barcelona. A huge thanks to my co-chairs Dr Jackie Raphael and Dr Celia Lam for organizing this exciting conference series. I will be working on the conference as I travel – flying to Mumbai and Kolkata today. I am also excited to...
Read MoreFame and the Cities
New York City is like a star. It is either hyped or criticized. My experience of NYC was nothing like I thought. It wasn’t the mediated version of Sex and the City which, by the way, I adore. I was fortunate to be in the Upper West Side in between Central Park and Riverside Park that was eclectic, charming, calm, and vibrant at the same time. And it was there that the exciting journey of my debut book Fame in Hollywood North started. After a pre-launch reading of the book at America’s first conference on celebrity culture, it is now being presented at exclusive media events in...
Read MoreKim or Caitlyn? Breaking Boundaries in Fame
A question that often comes to our mind: why is fame an important area to reflect on? For me, fame has had a pervasive presence in how fans engage in pleasures and identification, and in how they develop para-social relations with celebrities. The relationship is both material and symbolic. Fan practices such as circulation and re-mixing of celebrity images and texts have physical components. The practices also reflect and reinforce imaginary relations that hold affective and cultural values While the Kardarshians offer pleasures of hybrid identities, they also silence articulations of and...
Read MoreConference Corners
I have just over 7 days left for the inaugural Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies (CMCS) conference in Toronto – it will be an honour and pleasure to finally meet all delegates in person. Part of me is in New York as I am also organizing our next media conference there and being interviewed for Shannon Skinner’s new radio show this week. I am grateful for the opportunities to speak and looking forward to sharing views on celebrities at the conferences and in media. Historically, stardom had its origins in Hollywood where film played a role in creating the actor as a star....
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