Sut Jhally

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Sut Jhally (born 29 May 1955) is a professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the producer of several documentaries on media literacy topics^[1]. He is regarded as one of the world’s leading cultural studies scholar in the area of advertising, media, and consumption ^[2].

He is also the founder and executive director of the Media Education Foundation, a non-profit established in 1992 which "produces and distributes video documentaries to encourage critical thinking and debate about the relationship between media ownership, commercial media content, and the democratic demand for free flows of information, diverse representations of ideas and people, and informed citizen participation^[3].

Jhally is often highly critical of popular culture and advertising. In his video "Dreamworlds" he describes the image of women in music videos as male adolescent fantasies: young and pretty women, willing and eager to please men, saying no when meaning yes, often reduced to outward appearances and body parts. He concludes that an unhealthy attitude towards sexual violence can be fostered by these videos, and calls for balancing them with other cultural representations of sexuality. In his essay "Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse" and his video "Advertising and the End of the World" he argues that the major cultural force today, pervasive advertising, by constantly reinforcing a bogus association between consumerism and happiness and by focusing on individual immediate needs, stands in the way of a discussion of societal and long-term needs and leads to a squandering of resources. In his 2006 video "Reel Bad Arabs" he attempts to show the vilification of Arabs in American cinema.

Sut Jhally was born in Kenya, and raised in England. He moved to Canada in 1978 after accepting a scholarship to the University of Victoria. He continued his studies at Simon Fraser University, where he received his Ph.D.^[4].

Contents 1 Works 1.1 Video documentaries 1.2 Books 1.3 Articles 2 References 3 External links

[edit] Works

[edit] Video documentaries

(preview trailers available on the Media Education Foundation website)

• Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies People (2006)
• Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (with Bathsheba Ratzkoff), (2004)
• Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire (2004)
• No Logo (2003)
• Killing Us Softly 3 (1999)
• Advertising and the End of the World (1998)
• Dreamworlds II: Desire, Sex, Power in Music Video (1997)
• Enlightened Racism
• Tough Guise: Men, Violence and the Crisis in Masculinity
• Beyond Beats & Rhymes: Hip Hop & Manhood
• Pack of Lies
• The Killing Screens
• The Date Rape Backlash
• Slim Hopes
• Off the Straight and Narrow

[edit] Books

• Social Communication in Advertising (with William Leiss, Stephen Kline, and Jacqueline Botterill), (2004), ISBN 04-159-667-60
• The Codes of Advertising (1999), ISBN 04-1590-353-X

[edit] Articles

• Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sut Jhally's personal web page
• Sut Jhally's page at U. Mass. Amherst
• Media Education Foundation
• NYT Filmography
• Sut Jhally at the Internet Movie Database