When Stars Grow Old – Cultural and Media Processes of the Celebrity/Ageing Nexus

An Introduction to the Special Issue

Authors

  • Antonella Mascio University of Bologna
  • Roy Menarini University of Bologna
  • Sara Pesce University of Bologna
  • Mario Tirino University of Salerno

Keywords:

Celebrity, Age, Celebrity capital, Media, Sport

Abstract

Introduction to the Special Issue of Mediascapes Journal "Celebr-Age: Celebrity and Ageing in Media and Sports Contexts"

Author Biographies

Antonella Mascio, University of Bologna

Antonella Mascio (antonella.mascio@unibo.it) is Associate Professor in Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes at the University of Bologna, for the Department of Political and Social Sciences. In recent years, her research has focused primarily on online social relations and the interaction between television series and audiences, using a sociological and media perspective that includes research on fandom, fashion and celebrity culture, and studies on nostalgia. She collaborates with Henry Jenkins on the Pop Junctions project (http://henryjenkins.org/). Her latest publications include: Serie di Moda  (FrancoAngeli, 2023); ‘Streaming Audiences: Deconstruction of Fashion Gender Stereotypes Through the Imitation of TV Series Outfits’ (in The Routledge Companion to Media Audiences, Routledge, 2024); ‘Media Convergence, Fashion and TV Series’ (in The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies, Routledge, 2021); ‘Sponsored Things: Audiences and the Commodification of the Past in Stranger Things’ (in Investigating Stranger Things Upside Down in the World of Mainstream Cult Entertainment, Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).

Roy Menarini, University of Bologna

Roy Menarini is Full Professor at the University of Bologna, where he teaches Cinema and Cultural Industry. He is a senior editor (and former editor-in-chief) of the academic journal Cinergie – Il cinema e le altre arti. He co-directs the international research centers CFC (Culture, Fashion, Communication) and INC (Italian Research Network in Celebrity Studies). He has published extensively on contemporary cinema and topics such as film criticism methodology, cinephilia theory, and film analysis.

Sara Pesce, University of Bologna

Sara Pesce is Associate Professor of cinema at the University of Bologna, where she teaches film history, cinema and literature, and performance studies in audiovisual media. She was a Fulbright scholar at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, and at Columbia University, at the Department of English. She has undertaken research on the cultural roots of the Hollywood film industry, on cultural memory and digital culture in the contemporary global context, and on screen acting, stardom, celebrity culture, and fashion. Her research is published in journals and edited collections. She is the author of books: on Hollywood Jewish founders (2005. Dietro lo schermo. Gli immigranti ebrei che hanno inventato Hollywood), on World War II and Italian Cinema (2008. Memoria e immaginario. La seconda guerra mondiale nel cinema Italiano), and on Laurence Olivier (2012 Laurence Olivier nei film). She is editor and author of a book on film melodrama (2007. Imitazioni della vita. Il melodrama cinematografico) and of one on time, memory, and paratextual media (2016, The Politics of Ephemeral Digital Media. Permanence and Obsolescence in Paratexts). She is co-founder of INC, the Italian Research Network on Celebrity Culture.

Mario Tirino, University of Salerno

Mario Tirino is an Associate Professor at the University of Salerno, where he teaches “Media Communication Sport” and “Sociology of Sports Cultures” and is Scientific Director of the Digital Cultures and Sports Research Laboratory (DiCS Lab). On the mediatization of sport, he has written several articles, published in national and international scientific journals, and edited the volumes Sport e scienze sociali [Sport and Social Sciences] (with L. Bifulco, 2019, CONI Prize), Sport, pratiche culturali e processi educativi [Sport, Cultural Practices and Educational Processes] (with M. Merico and A. Romeo, 2022), Sport e comunicazione nell’era digitale [Sport and Communication in the Digital Age] (with L. Bifulco, A. Formisano and G. Panico, 2023, CONI Prize) and L’atleta digitale [The Digital Athlete] (with P. Russo and S. Castellano, 2024). He also edited the monographic issue of the journal “Im@go”, entitled “The Sports Hero in the Social Imaginary” (with L. Bifulco, 2018), and the monographic issue of the journal “Eracle”, dedicated to “Media, Society and Cycling Culture” (with P. Landri, 2022). He has been Visiting Professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He directs the scholarly publishing series "Binge Watchers. Media, sociology and the history of seriality" (with M. Teti).

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Published

2025-07-01

How to Cite

Mascio, A., Menarini, R., Pesce, S., & Tirino, M. (2025). When Stars Grow Old – Cultural and Media Processes of the Celebrity/Ageing Nexus: An Introduction to the Special Issue. Mediascapes Journal, 25(1), I-X. Retrieved from https://rosa.uniroma1.it/rosa03/mediascapes/article/view/19203

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 1 (2025): Celebr-Age: Celebrity and Ageing in Media and Sports Contexts

Section

Editorial

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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