Staff Profile

Dr Bethany Usher is a journalist and author of Journalism and Celebrity (2020) and Journalism and Crime (2023), both published by Routledge's prestigious Media and Communications series.

Before embarking on a career as a lecture in journalism practice and studies, Bethany worked as a staff correspondent for national and regional newspapers. Her current public engagement and journalistic work often focuses on the development, manifestations and societal consequences of 'attack journalism' and she argues for the need to changes to journalistic codes of practice. She also writes about the use of crime-as-clickbait and the relationships between journalism, politics, celebrity, culture and crime ,which she highlights as the un(Holy) trinity for news production. Bethany has also written book chapters, articles and magazine features about how David Bowie interacted with journalists as part of his creative endeavour.

As an experienced leader in Learning and Teaching, Bethany is now Director of Education for taught postgraduate studies in the School of Arts and Culture. She has a proven track record in the development of pedagogy for journalism media and creative industries and was originally employed at Newcastle as Degree Programme Director for Media, Culture and Heritage's MA Media and Journalism and MA International Multimedia Journalism.

Bethany welcomes PhD applications from scholars looking to relationships between journalism, politics, celebrity or crime cultures. She has a particular interest in studies that focus on the construction and deconstruction of persona.

Bethany us the author Journalism and Celebrity (2020) and Journalism and Crime (2023), both published by Routledge's prestigious Media and Communications series. She is a member of the international editorial board for Persona Studies, a member of the Entangled Media Histories Research Network and has two articles in the top twenty by citation for the Celebrity Studies journal.

Her research looks to relationships between news, politics, celebrity and crime cultures from their earliest origins to the current day. Between 2015 and 2020 she published a series of articles that looked to networked reality and how digital persona construction draws from narratives and discourses of journalism for politicians, journalists, mainstream celebrities and social media influencers or "microcelebrities".

Bethany teaches primarily on the MA Media and Journalism and MA International Multimedia Journalism programmes and she led redevelopment of these as degree programme director in 2020.

In Semester 1 she teaches MCH8054 Researching Media, Journalism and Communications where students are able to develop methodological competencies for research and also to advance their practical journalism skills around digital features and infographics. She guides students to propose their own original postgraduate research.

In Semester 2, Bethany teaches MCH8018 Journalism and Celebrity which looks to the relationships between the two and their influence on our self-identities from their earliest origins in the 18th century press to contemporary networked celebrity practices.

• Articles

  • Usher B. The celebrified columnist and opinion spectacle: Journalism’s changing place in networked public spheres. Journalism 2021, 22(11), 2836-2854.
  • Usher BRW. Rethinking microcelebrity: key points in practice, performance and purpose. Celebrity Studies 2020, 11(2), 171-188.
  • Usher BRW. ME, YOU, And US: Constructing political persona on social networks during the 2015 UK General Election. Persona Studies 2016, 2(2), 19-41.
  • Usher BRW. Twitter and the celebrity interview. Celebrity Studies 2015, 6(3), 306-321.

• Authored Books

  • Usher B. Journalism and Crime. London: Routledge, 2023.
  • Usher B. Journalism and Celebrity. London: Routledge, 2020.

• Book Chapter

  • Usher B, Fremaux S. Turn myself to face me: David Bowie in the 1990s and discovery of authentic self. In: Devereux E; Dillane A; Power MJ, ed. David Bowie: Critical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2015, pp.56-81.