Ribke, Nahuel. Righteous A Genre Approach to Celebrity Politics. Global Patterns of Passage from Media to Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
The study of celebrities has been the focus of several works from two main fields: Cultural Studies and Political Communication. But up until now, such works have produced only fragmented views of links between celebrity culture, the entertainment industries, and the political systems, which this book attempts to transcend. Analyzing the movement of celebrities to politics, this book contributes to a thorough understanding of the links between media industries and the political system, providing tools for grasping the varied ways in which media capital is converted into electoral power. To achieve this goal, Nahuel Ribke has assembled a wide range of data from the United States, Brazil and Israel, providing a complex comparative view of the migration of celebrities to politics, which incorporates a historical and cultural analysis, an examination of the respective political institutions, as well as an understanding of the impact local cultural industries had on the development of celebrity politics.
Table of Contents
1. Celebrity Politics: A Theoretical and Historical Perspective
PART I: TELEVISION CELEBRITIES AND ISRAELI POLITICS
2. Female Models in Israeli Politics: From the Runway to TV, and from the Small Screen to the Knesset
3. Like Father Like Son: Converting Media Capital into Political Power (Or, How an Israeli TV Presenter Became Finance Minister)
PART II: MAKING MUSIC MATTER: THE ELECTORAL POLITICS OF POP CELEBRITY IN LATIN AMERICA
4. Tropicalizing Politics: Gilberto Gil’s perplexing Miscegenation of Music and Politics
5. The Harvard Lawyer against The Bad Boy from Bronx: Explaining the Political Performance Gaps Between Rubén Blades and Willie Colón
PART III: CINEMA CELEBRITIES IN AMERICAN POLITICS
6. The American Pattern of Celebrity Politics: From ‘Military’ Role Model to Civilian Hero?
7. Entertainment Industries and ‘Liberal’ Celebrities: The Failure of Converting Attention into Political Power
PART IV: CELETOID POLITICS: VICTIMS, HEROES AND ORDINARY PEOPLE AS A VALUABLE ELECTORAL ASSET
8. Juan Carlos Blumberg and the Populism of Fear Politics in Argentina: Converting Mediatic Crimes into Political Capital
9. Reality Shows and Celebrity Politics: An Accelerated Platform for Rookie Politicians?
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
NAHUEL RIBKE obtained his PhD from Tel Aviv University in 2010. His doctoral thesis examines the emergence and expansion of the Globo Television Network during the military regime in Brazil (1965-1985) through the analysis of historical, political, economic, cultural and technological aspects of television work. His research interests cover Institutional and Cultural Processes through Latin American Mass Media, Celebrity Politics and Mass Media History.
Books
Online Israel Studies Bulletin Board 