Joseph Turow: A career immersed in research of audiences
During the five decades of his academic career, Annenberg School for Communication professor Joseph Turow has tackled many topics related to advertiser-sponsored media industries.
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Joseph Turow has written about TV’s doctor dramas, explored the rise and social implications of target marketing; scrutinized the customer tracking practices in online and physical stores; probed biometric issues related to smart speakers; and investigated Americans’ “digital resignation” regarding marketers’ use of data about them.
Turow has authored 12 books, edited five, and written over 160 articles on media industries. In 2005, The New York Times referred to him as “probably the reigning academic expert on media fragmentation.”
“When it comes to privacy and advertising, Joe is one of the foremost scholars in the field,” says Sarah Banet-Weiser, Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School. “His groundbreaking research has helped us to understand the power dynamics in marketing and digital media and how these industries shape and influence public perception.”
Turow’s book “Breaking Up America” is about the rise of target marketing and advertisers’ exploitation of consumer differences in income, age, gender, race, marital status, ethnicity, and lifestyle. Over the following decades, MIT Press and Yale University Press published five more books by Turow that explore the social implications of new marketing and advertising technologies.
From 1999 to 2006, he collaborated with Kathleen Hall Jamieson at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC). During his time at APPC, Turow convened three internationally attended conferences: on the implications of new technologies for the home, the social meaning of the hyperlink, and issues regarding copyright and fair use in academia. The first two resulted in edited books. The third led to greater freedom for academics’ use of copyrighted material.
As Turow gets ready to retire in July 2025, Banet-Weiser notes that he is an integral part of the Annenberg community. “His presence will continue to be felt, even as he enjoys his much-deserved retirement.”
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