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Jonathan Gray. Assistant Professor of Communication and Media
Studies. Ph.D. University of London, UK;
M.A. Goldsmiths College, UK; M.A. University of Leeds, UK; B.A. University of
British Columbia, Canada.
Department
of Communication and Media Studies, Fordham College at Rose Hill.
 Office:
Fordham
University
441 E. Fordham Road
Faculty Memorial Hall 452
Bronx, New York 10458
Email:
jongray@fordham.edu
Phone:
(718)
817-4861
Fax:
(718)
817-4868
Subjects Taught:
Class,
Taste, and Mass Culture
Mass Media and National Identity
Understanding
Television
Television
and Society
International
Communication
Biography:
Though my accent betrays English roots to those west of the Atlantic, and
Canadian pedigree to those east of the pond, I grew up in Toronto, Canada;
Surrey, England; Perth, Australia; Singapore; Hong Kong; and Vancouver,
Canada. I then bounced back and forth between Canada and England for higher
education in English Literature, Postcolonial Literature, and ultimately
Media and Communication Studies, and for a work life that consisted mostly of
social services for kids and teens. Since finishing my Ph.D. in London in
2003, I have taught at University of California, Berkeley, in the Mass
Communications program, and now at Fordham.
Much of
my research has focused on television and film, perhaps because my world
travels made me realize how massively important these media are for social
belonging or exclusion, and in constituting the social and political sphere
of individual communities, of nations, and of international relations. And
whereas past generations of media scholars rarely grew up with such
media-saturated existences, hence making it easier for them to condemn the
media outright, between Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and
various other media franchises, I have grown up in part educated, amused, and
inspired by the media; thus, as a media analyst, I try to balance criticism
with appreciation, cynical distance with appreciative closeness.
In
general, I would characterize my work as focusing on the varying interactions
between media texts and media audiences. My approach is informed by British
cultural studies, and I am particularly interested in how entertainment media
contribute to the public sphere, how texts and textuality are created as socially
and culturally meaningful, how texts move and translate internationally, what
is involved in fandom and anti-fandom, and how parody and satire work. I am
also fascinated by television’s transitional moment, and by the new
television that is in the process of forming, with new innovations,
platforms, and gadgets developing daily.
Current Interests and Research:
Right now, I am working on various projects: (1) a textbook on Television
Entertainment that tries to move beyond the rather tired boundaries of “text—audience—industry,”
instead dividing the chapters thematically; the book draws from experience
teaching media in three different universities to try and make sense of
television entertainment as a relatively distinct entity; (2) a book about the
meanings of film and television hype and synergy. Much discussion of hype and
synergy turns quickly to profits and economics, but I am interested in
exploring what meaning they create for the text, and how they become a key part
of the text’s construction of meaning; (3) an encyclopedia, edited with my
colleague Robin Andersen, that looks at approximately 100 media controversies
or “battlegrounds,” from conglomeration to user-created content, the violence
debate to diasporic media, media’s role in elections to Google Books and
iTunes; (4) a co-edited collection about political parody and satire on
contemporary television. This continues my interest in comedy and parody
established in my Simpsons book, bringing together several great minds to discuss how we are to
make sense of the likes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, South Park; The Simpsons; The Boondocks, Chappelle’s
Show, and company.
I also recently became co-editor of the Taylor and
Francis journal Popular Communication: An International Journal of Media
and Culture.
Recent Publications:
Books
in Print:
· Gray, Jonathan. Watching with The Simpsons:
Television, Parody, and Intertextuality. New York: Routledge, 2006.
· Gray, Jonathan, Cornel Sandvoss, and C. Lee
Harrington (eds). Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World. New York: New York University Press, 2007.
Journal and Ejournal Articles:
· “Imagining America: The Simpsons Go Global.” Popular Communication 5.2, May/June 2007.
· (with Jason Mittell) “Speculation on Spoilers: Lost Fandom, Narrative Consumption, and Rethinking
Textuality.” Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception
Studies 4.2,
May 2007.
· “Television Teaching: Parody, The Simpsons, and Media Literacy Education.” Critical
Studies in Media Communication 22.3, August 2005.
· “Anti-Fandom and the Moral Text: Television Without
Pity and Textual Dislike.” American Behavioral Scientist 48.7, March 2005.
· “New Audiences, New Textualities: Anti-Fans and
Non-Fans.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 6.1, 2003.
· (with Bertha Chin) “‘One Ring to Rule Them All’:
Pre-Viewers and Pre-Texts of the Lord of the Rings Films.” Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media 2, 2001.
Chapters:
· (with Cornel Sandvoss and C. Lee Harrington) “Why
Study Fans?” in Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World (see above).
· “The News: You Gotta Love It” in Fandom:
Identities and Communities in a Mediated World (see above).
· (with Neil Rae) “When Gen-X Met the X-Men:
Re-Textualizing Comic Book Film Reception” in Ian Gordon, Mark Jancovich, and
Matthew McAllister (eds) Films and Comics, Oxford: University of Mississippi Press, 2007.
· “Bonus Material: The DVD Layering of The Lord of
the Rings” in Ernest
Mathijs (ed.) The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Context, New York: Wallflower, 2006.
· “Scanning the Replicant Text” in Will Brooker (ed.)
The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of a Science Fiction Classic. New York: Wallflower, 2005.
Columns:
· “Hate, Dislike, Disgust, Distemper, and Distaste”
Flow 4.11
· “Is New News Better Than No News” Flow 4.7
· “Introducing Television” Flow 4.3
· “Merging with Diversity, Or, Got MLK?”
Flow 3.11
· “Speculation with Spoilers” Flow 3.7
· “The August Audience” Flow 3.3
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