Professor Jason Jacobs
Professor
School of Communication and Arts
+61 7 336 53136
Researcher biography
Jacobs has an international reputation as a historian of television drama, its institutions, technology and aesthetics. He has taught film and television studies at the University of East Anglia, the University of Warwick, and Griffith University. His first book, The Intimate Screen (Oxford University Press, 2000) is a pioneering study of early television drama; his second book Body Trauma TV (British Film Institute, 2003) explores the aesthetics of the hospital drama in relation to the contemporary cultural imagination. More recently he published Deadwood (Palgrave Macmillan/British Film Institute, 2012), as part of the BFI TV Classics series. He is currently working on an Australian Research Council funded project called 'The Persistence of Television: How the Medium Adapts to Survive in the Digital World', and is writing a book on David Milch, the author of Deadwood (Manchester University Press).
Books
Jacobs, Jason (2023). Reluctant sleuths, true detectives. Albany, NY, United States: State University of New York Press.
Jacobs, Jason (2020). David Milch. Manchester, United Kingdom: Manchester University Press. doi: 10.7765/9781526107084
Jacobs, Jason (2012). Deadwood. 1st ed. London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jacobs, Jason (2003). Body Trauma TV: The New Hospital Dramas. London: British Film Institute.
Jacobs, Jason (2000). The intimate screen : Early British television drama. New York: Oxford University Press.
Book Chapters
Taylor, Alison and Jacobs, Jason (2023). Real human beings: realism, pressure, and time in the pusher trilogy. Pusher Trilogy Collector's Edition: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Pusher Trilogy Box Set. (pp. *-*) edited by Nicolas Winding Ref'n (Director). Kew, VIC, Australia: Umbrella Entertainment.
Jacobs, Jason (2022). Oddity and Catastrophe in The Big Short. Autism in Film and Television: On the Island. (pp. 83-93) edited by Pomerance, Murray and Palmer, R. Barton. Austin, TX United States: University of Texas Press. doi: 10.7560/324912
Jacobs, Jason (2015). Television Drama. The SAGE Handbook of Television Studies. (pp. 315-324) edited by Manuel Alvarado, Milly Buonanno, Herman Gray and Toby Miller. Los Angeles, CA United States: SAGE Reference. doi: 10.4135/9781473910423.n23
Jacobs, Jason and Peacock, Steven (2013). Introduction. Television aesthetics and style. (pp. 1-20) New York, NY United States: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Jacobs, Jason (2011). Christopher, Osama and AJ : Contemporary narcissism and terrorism in the Sopranos. The essential Sopranos reader. (pp. 65-80) edited by David Lavery, Douglas L. Howard and Paul Levinson. Lexington, KY, United States: University Press of Kentucky.
Jacobs, Jason (2011). Television interrupted : Pollution or aesthetic. Television as digital media. (pp. 255-280) edited by James Bennett and Niki Strange. Durham, NC, United States: Duke University Press.
Jacobs, Jason (2010). South Park. The Essential Cult TV Reader. (pp. 229-236) edited by David Lavery. Lexington, KY, U.S.A.: The University Press of Kentucky.
Jacobs, Jason (2006). Al Swearengen, Philosopher King. Reading Deadwood: a western to swear by. (pp. 11-22) edited by Lavery, David. London: I. B. Tauris.
Jacobs, Jason (2006). Television and history: Investigating the past. Tele-visions: An introduction to studying television. (pp. 107-115) edited by Glen Creeber. London, United Kingdom: British Film Institute Publishing.
Jacobs, Jason (2005). Violence and therapy in The Sopranos. The contemporary television series. (pp. 139-158) edited by Michael Hammond and Lucy Mazdon. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
Jacobs, Jason (2004). ER. Fifty key television programmes. (pp. 80-84) edited by Glen Creeber. London: Arnold.
Jacobs, Jason (2004). Charlie's Angels. Fifty key television programmes. (pp. 45-49) edited by Glen Creeber. London: Arnold.
Jacobs, Jason (2004). Experimental and live TV in the US. The television history book. (pp. 72-75) edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Jacobs. London: British Film Institute.
Jacobs, Jason (2004). Marty. Fifty key television programmes. (pp. 115-119) edited by Glen Creeber. London: Arnold.
Jacobs, Jason (2003). Early Television in Great Britain (The Coronation). The television history book. (pp. 69-72) edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Jacobs. London, United Kingdom: British Film Institute.
Journal Articles
Jacobs, Jason (2020). Television rewired: the rise of the auteur series. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 18 (2), 242-244. doi: 10.1080/17400309.2020.1738065
Jacobs, Jason and Thomas, Deborah J. (2017). From public–private virtue to cultural-corporate amoeba: Mr Blobby and the rise of BBC Worldwide during the 1990s. Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television, 38 (2), 1-19. doi: 10.1080/01439685.2017.1285149
Bonner, Frances and Jacobs, Jason (2017). The persistence of television: the case of The Good Life. Critical Studies in Television, 12 (1), 6-20. doi: 10.1177/1749602016682751
Jacobs, Jason (2013). Buonanno, Milly, "Italian TV Drama and Beyond: Stories from the Soil, Stories from the Sea", Jennifer Radice trans.. Media International Australia (148), 158-159.
Jacobs, Jason (2011). Convergence or diffusion? The spread of media history. Janet Staiger and Sabine Hake (eds): Convergence Media History. Cultural Studies Review, 17 (2), 399-405.
Jacobs, Jason (2011). The store of the worlds: Television's extraordinary archives. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 8 (2), 175-187. doi: 10.3366/jbctv.2011.0026
Bonner, Frances and Jacobs, Jason (2011). The first encounter: Observations on the chronology of encounter with some adaptations of Lewis Carroll's Alice books. Convergence, 17 (1), 37-48. doi: 10.1177/1354856510383361
Jacobs, Jason (2011). The medium in crisis: Caughie, Brunsdon and the problem of US television. Screen, 52 (4), 503-511. doi: 10.1093/screen/hjr051
Jacobs, Jason (2010). The Columbia History of American Television. Media International Australia, 134 (134), 157-158. doi: 10.1177/1329878x1013400121
Wilson, Jason and Jacobs, Jason (2009). Obsolete. M/C Journal of Media and Culture, 12 (3), x-x.
Jacobs, Jason (2008). Review of: Experimental British Television, L. Mulvey & J. Sexton (eds.), Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007. Screen, 49 (3), 370-373. doi: 10.1093/screen/hjn046
Jacobs, Jason (2006). Television aesthetics: An infantile disorder. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 3 (1), 19-33. doi: 10.3366/JBCTV.2006.3.1.19
Jacobs, Jason (2006). What's the Competition? [Book Review]. Southern Review: Communication, Politics & Culture, 38 (3), 118-120.
Jacobs, Jason (2006). The television archive: Past, present, future. Critical Studies in Television, 1 (1), 13-20.
Jacobs, Jason (2005). Channel 5: The early years by Christine Fanthome [Book review]. Media International Australia (114), 153-154.
Creative Works
Jacobs, Jason (2014). Criticism, submission and time: Mad Men and the killing. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2014). True Detective and practical criticism. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2014). Inside sport. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason and Peacock, Steven (2013). Television aesthetics and style: a conversation with Jason Jacobs and Steven Peacock. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2013). Beethoven, Games of Thrones and the pure aesthetic kick. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2013). Ricky Gervais and Michael Haneke: together at last. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2013). Preacher man. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2012). Homeland, time and titles. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2012). The principles of garden design. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2012). Selling the medium: a brief history of the BBC's commercial arm. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason and Peacock, Steven (2012). Luck: a critical conversation (part two). London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason and Peacock, Steven (2012). Luck: a critical conversation (Part one). London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2012). Sad screens and videots. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2012). Witnessing excellence in David Milch's Luck. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2011). Inner and outer in Homeland. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2011). Up and down with Boardwalk Empire. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
Jacobs, Jason (2011). Against Occupation. London, UK: Critical Studies in Television, University of Hertfordshire.
O'Regan, Thomas, Bonner, Frances J., Jacobs, Jason, Kilner, Kerry, Djubal, Clay and Mills, Catriona (2009). Austlit: Screenlit. St. Lucia, Brisbane, Australia: AustLit.