A Louisiana Tech assistant professor of communication and media studies has had a chapter published in “Building Bridges in Celebrity Studies,” a book published by Waterhill Publishing. Dr. Judith P. Roberts’ chapter, “Commodifying Celebrity: Social media, sensationalism, and how the media plays a role in creating celebrities” discusses how celebrities and politicians market their persona using social media and how sensationalized reporting has led to celebrities and politicians making a name for themselves based on headline-grabbing antics. “This publication represents another area of expertise that Dr. Roberts brings to our program,” said Dr. Brenda Heiman, director of Louisiana Tech’s School of Communication. “Her research and teaching contributions to the School of Communication at Louisiana Tech University have continually enhanced and improved our curriculum. This research adds to the wealth of knowledge Dr. Roberts brings to our students.” The publication came after Roberts presented her research at the Bridging Gaps Conference in New York City last fall. Roberts has worked at Louisiana Tech since 2006 and teaches a variety of journalism and communication courses, including Media Law, Media Literacy and Copy Editing. The book is available on Amazon and is edited by Jackie Raphael, Basuli Deb and Nidhi Shrivastava.