Hamel Family Distinguished Chair in Communication Arts
College of Letters & Science | Department of Communication Arts
Hometown: Toronto, Canada; grew up in Toronto, England, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Vancouver
Growing up in 5 countries, Professor Jonathan Gray quickly learned how media worked both as pass-keys to fitting in and as concentrates of a culture’s values and norms. He aims to study these processes in his work that focuses especially on television entertainment (especially comedy), streaming media, and audience cultures. He has written or co-edited 17 books, served on the George Foster Peabody Board of Jurors for six years, and is an International Communication Association Fellow. He has also won the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and at UW teaches classes on television, global media, media and national identity, comedy, audience cultures, and adaptation.
Talks:
Streaming Media Audiences
Television and other media distribution have been revolutionized in the last decade with the advent of streaming. But what has happened to the audience? Drawing on extensive quantitative and qualitative data, this talk will survey the landscape of what has changed and what has not.
Who's Laughing Now? The State of Television Comedy
Comedy has long been a central site for cultures to embed norms, values, aspirations, and fears. But what are today’s comedies doing and saying, and why should we care? This talk surveys comedy’s various contemporary sub-genres, and what image of the nation they’re creating for us.