John is interested in media and cultural history, communication and social theory,
and understanding communication in its broad historical, legal, philosophical, religious,
and technological context. He teaches large lecture undergraduate classes such as Core
Concepts in Communication Studies and Media and Society, and smaller undergraduate
courses such as Case Studies in Transnational Media. At the graduate level, he teaches
seminars on critical theory, the history of mass communication theory, media and
modernity, pragmatism, the public sphere, and transnational media.

Articles

OpenURL

Charity and chilliness, International Journal of Cultural Studies (2011)

This article discusses the five contributions to the special issue on Roger Silverstone’s work, focusing...

 

OpenURL

Broadcasting and schizophrenia, Media, Culture & Society (2010)
 

OpenURL

Broadcasting and schizophrenia, Media, Culture & Society (2010)
 

OpenURL

Die Zurücktreibung der Medien in die Geisteswissenschaften, Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften (2010)
 

OpenURL

Resemblance Made Absolutely Exact: Borges and Royce on Maps and Media, Variaciones Borges (2008)
 

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Books

Courting the Abyss: Free Speech and the Liberal Tradition (2005)
 

Mass Communication and American Social Thought: Key Texts, 1919-1968 (2004)
 

Canonic Texts in Media Research: Are There Any Should There Be How About These (2002)
 

Speaking into the air : a history of the idea of communication (1999)
 

Contributions to Books

Preludes to a Theory of Obscenity, Obscenity and the limits of liberalism (2011)
 

Why We Use Pencils and Other Thoughts on the Archive (An Afterword)., Media history and the archive (2011)
 

Friedrich Kittler’s Light Shows.” Introduction to Friedrich Kittler, Optical Media: Berlin Lectures, 1999 (2010)
 

Friedrich Kittler‟s Light Shows, Optical Media: Berlin Lectures, 1999 (2010)
 

Mass Media, Critical Terms in Media Studies (2010)
 

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Presentations

Communication as the Discipline of the 21st Century, ICA (2011)
 

Infrastructures Old and New, University of Alberta (2011)
 

The Intellectual Situation of The Happiness Game, ICA Conference (2011)
 

Communication Infrastructures, Old and New, Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies (2011)
 

Two Cheers for Technological Determinism, Conference on Media Histories: Epistemology, Materiality, Temporality (2011)
 

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Other

The Oldness of New Media (2009)

22nd Annual Aubrey Fisher Lecture, Department of Communication, University of Utah. Published as pamphlet

 

Strange Sympathies: Horizons of Media Theory in America and Germany (2008)
 

Sinfulness, Saintliness, and Monkey-Business (2005)

Social Science Research Council. Published online (2005): http://programs.ssrc.org/media/publications/Peters.9.final.doc