Garth S. Jowett
Communications
Professor of Communication
Office: 227 Communication Building
Phone: 713-743-2884
Email: gjowett@uh.edu
Dr. Jowett is the author of "Film: The Democratic Art" (Little, Brown, 1976), which is widely acknowledged as the standard social history of movie-going in America, as well as the unique and well-appreciated study "Movies as Mass Communication" (with James Linton, Sage Publications, 1989). He is the co-author (with Victoria O'Donnell) of "Propaganda and Persuasion" (7th edition, Sage Publications, 2018), the standard introduction to the history and study of propaganda, which is soon to be published in its 8th edition. Jowett’s book, "Children and the Movies: Media Power and the Payne Fund Controversy" (with Ian Jarvie and Katherine H. Fuller, Cambridge University Press, 1996) is the first detailed study of this important part of film and social science history. He is also the author of many articles and book chapters on the subjects of communication history, propaganda, film, and popular culture. Professor Jowett served as the series editor for the Sage Foundations of Popular Cult ure Series, and (with Kenneth Short) as advisory editor for the Cambridge University Press History of Mass Communications Series. He is on the editorial boards of several communication and film journals.
On a personal level, Dr. Jowett produced and hosted a radio show entitled "The Sounds of Jazz" for seventeen years on various radio stations in Houston, and is considered an expert on jazz of the 1940s and 1950s.
Critical Studies Courses
- COMM 4399 - Seminar on Alfred Hitchcock
This is a detailed examination of the life and films of the great director, Alfred Hitchcock. The seminar will consist of readings, screenings and discussions. The focus will be on the interrelationship between Hitchcock the man, his philosophy of life, and the films that he directed. We will screen a selected number of his films, both the obscure, (The Thirty-Nine Steps) and the famous, (Psycho). Students will be expected to do extensive reading and prepare a series of short papers, as well as participate in classroom discussions.
- COMM 4375 - Social Aspects of Film
This course looks at the interaction between the culture, social and historical forces in a society and the films that are the product of those forces. While the course will have an historical flow, this is not a course on film history, but will focus on what the films can tell us about the society and the historical context that surrounded them. There will be an extensive focus on "Film Noir" this semester. Students will do a series of short film analyses and a final examination.