Centre for Media & Celebrity Studies

Photo c/o cmc-centre.com

The Centre for Media & Celebrity Studies, CMCS, was organized as an answer to the clamor of bridging the gaps between higher education and media.  It was launched in 2012 and from then on went from strength to strength tasked with the examination of celebrity culture and other forms of popular art through research and media.  It has steadily grown into a 1,500-member international network who regularly meet through conferences, publications, and media commentaries.  I'm reminded of my colleagues from AIJC, the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication based in Manila, who seem to be doing similar tasks but more on a regional scale, Asia-Pacific.

Dr. Samita Nandy, CMCS founder and director was doing her doctoral research in Australia, when she saw the need for the merger of academic and public demand for critical knowledge of celebrities.  Social media was on the rise which further fueled the need for research on celebrity studies.  It was also a time when citizen journalists began to appear online and in the process adding more impact on the celebrity cult.

I would like to believe that PhDchannel.com draws some parallelism with CMCS although on a smaller and modest scale.  It is our vision that PhD researches, theses, and dissertations shouldn't just be confined to the libraries and databases, rather they should be shared and disseminated to as wider public as possible.