Frederick Wasser

Professor

Ph.D., University of Illinois, 1996

Frederick Wasser's previous background was as a sound editor and freelancer in a variety of capacities (mostly post production) in film and television in New York, Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. He received an M.F.A. in film from Columbia University, and after a detour through Hollywood, went on to get a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Urbana. His first book is entitled Veni, Vidi, Video (2001, University of Texas Press) and is based on his dissertation research into the effect of home video on Hollywood. It won a Media Ecology Association award. His most recent book is Steven Spielberg's America (2010, Polity). He is currently interested in issues of digital realism. His interests range from media and journalism history, the political economy of communication, the cultural impact of technology, to critical theory. He has published journal articles and book chapters in these topics. He has taught in several colleges and universities and in Germany. In the past, he worked as a oil barge deck hand, part-time journalist and translator (from Norwegian).

Wasser has published several book chapters, and articles in Cinema Journal, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Journal of Communication, and elsewhere. He is currently contributing columnist to FLOW.

His columns are available at http://idg.communication.utexas.edu/flow/
His online article entitled "Media is Driving Work" is available in the Journal of Media and Culture 4.5 (2001) online at http://www.media-culture.org.au/

Recent Publication

Steven Spielberg's America — http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745640822, http://politybooks.com/blog/post.aspx?id=36

Publications

Veni, Vidi, Video - Awarded The Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology in 2003, The Hollywood Empire and the VCR (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press) The Hollywood Empire and the VCR (Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press)

More examples of his published work can be found at the following locations: