Cinema Studies Department Hero image
Cinema Studies
Profile picture of Janet Wasko

Janet Wasko

Professor of Media Studies
Knight Chair in Communication Research Emeritus; Affiliated Faculty, New Media & Culture Program
SOJC, SOJC-Media Studies Master's, SOJC-Media Studies PhD, SOJC-Media Studies Undergrad, Cinema Studies
jwasko@uoregon.edu
Phone: 541-346-4174
Office: 208 Allen Hall, 1275 University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1275

Biography

Janet Wasko studies the political economy of media, communication and the environment, media theory, and international communication. She is author or editor of twenty-four books, a recipient of the C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy, and Fellow of the International Communication Association.

Wasko was selected as an inaugural member of the UO Sustainability Faculty Fellows, and shared the Eugene Convention Leadership Award for presiding over 1,000 scholars at the IAMCR’s Reimagining Sustainability conference. She is founder and co-director of the What is…? Series, and has served as Philip H. Knight Chair in Communication Research and President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR).

Back to Top

Education

  • PhD, University of Illinois, 1980
  • MS, California State University, Northridge, 1974
  • BA, California State University, Northridge, 1973

Back to Top

Research

Wasko engages an interdisciplinary approach to focus on media markets, industries, and corporations, with an emphasis on ownership, control, power and the environment. Much of her work has explored the US film and television industries, the Walt Disney Company, and democratic institutions.

Back to Top

Publications

Selected works:

Duncan, Phillip D., Janet Wasko, and Zak Roman. “Political Economy of Disneynature.” In P. D. Duncan and D. Moscato (eds.), Environmental Communication and the Wild: Image, Industry, and Technology. Bloomsbury Academic, 2025, pp. 139-153.

Swartz, Jeremy and Janet Wasko (eds.), LIFE: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry, Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 2023.

Murdock, Graham and Janet Wasko, "Contested Critique," in J. Becker and R. Mansell (eds.), Reflections on the International Association for Media and Communication Research: Many Voices, One Forum, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp. 21-53.

Wasko, Janet, “Origins of Research into Media Industries Conducted in the United States,” in P. McDonald (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Media Industries. Routledge, 2022, pp. 44-54.

Swartz, Jeremy and Janet Wasko (eds.), MEDIA: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry, Intellect Books/University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Wasko, Janet, Understanding Disney: The Manufacture of Fantasy, 2nd Edition, Polity Press, 2020.

Wasko, Janet and Eileen R. Meehan (eds.), A Companion to Television, 2nd Edition, Blackwell Companions in Cultural Studies Series, Wiley-Blackwell, 2020.

Swartz, Jeremy, Janet Wasko, Carolyn Marvin, Robert K. Logan, and Beth Coleman, "Philosophy of technology: Who is in the saddle?" Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 96, no. 2 (2019): 351-366.

Wasko, Janet, "From Global Media Giants to Global Internet Giants: Reflections on Media Diversity," in L. A. Albornoz and T. Garcia Leiva, (eds.), Audiovisual Industries and Diversity: Economics and Policies in the Digital Era. London: Routledge, 2019.

Wasko, Janet, “Entertainment Industry in the Information Age” (in Japanese), in W. Takesota, K. Tsutomu, and N. Hitoshi (eds.), Encyclopedia of Media & Communication Studies. Sekai Shisōsha, 2019 , pp. 31-37.

Wasko, Janet, “Le modèle hollywoodien” (in French), in J. Augros, (ed.), CineAction (CinémaArgent), no. 171 (2019): 114-120.

Wasko, Janet, "Studying Political Economies of Communication in the Twenty-first Century," Javnost - The Public 25, no. 1-2 (2018): 233-239.

Series co-editor:

Birkinbine, Benjamin J., Rodrigo Gómez, and Janet Wasko (eds.), Global Media Giants - Book Series, Routledge, 2021-present.

Wasko, Janet and Karin Gwinn Wilkins (eds.), Global Handbooks in Media and Communication Research, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011-present.

Back to Top