Steve Jones/Biographical Information

Steve Jones is UIC Distinguished Professor of Communication, Research Associate in the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory, Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, Adjunct Professor of Electronic Media in the School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois – Chicago, and Adjunct Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds the Ph.D. in Communication from the Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1987), M.S. in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1984) and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1984). He served as Head of the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois – Chicago from 1997 to 2003, and as Head of the Faculty of Communication at the University of Tulsa from 1992 to 1997. He served as Associate Dean of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 2006 - 2009.

Jones is author and editor of numerous books, including Communication @ the Center (Hampton), Society Online, CyberSociety, Virtual Culture, Doing Internet Research, CyberSociety 2.0, The Encyclopedia of New Media, Rock Formation: Technology, Music and Mass Communication (all published by SAGE), The Internet for Educators and Homeschoolers (ETC Publications), Pop Music & the Press (Temple University Press) and Afterlife as Afterimage: Understanding Posthumous Fame (Peter Lang Publishing). He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals including ones in IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, Cultural Studies, Journal of Virtual Environments, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, Works and Days, Iowa Journal of Communication, Stanford Humanities Review, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media and American Journalism. His research interests include the social history of communication technology, health and new media, virtual environments and virtual reality, popular music studies, internet studies, and media history.

Jones was the founder and first President of the Association of Internet Researchers and served as Senior Research Fellow at the Pew Internet & American Life Project. He has made numerous presentations to scholarly and business groups about the Internet and social change and about the Internet's social and commercial uses. He is editor of New Media & Society, an international journal of research on new media, technology, and culture, and co-editor of Mobile Media & Communication, a peer-reviewed forum for international, interdisciplinary academic research on the dynamic field of mobile media and communication. He also edits Digital Formations, a series of books on digital media, the Internet and communication (Peter Lang Publishing). His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Centers for Disease Control and the Tides Foundation. Jones was named a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2012. In addition to numerous honors and awards, the International Communication Association and the Carl Couch Center for Social and Internet Research created the  Steve Jones Internet Research Lecture at the International Communication Association annual convention in recognition of his contributions to the study of communication and technology.

His recent teaching interests encompass courses in Human-Machine Communication, Human Augmentics, Philosophy of Technology, Sound Studies, Mobile Media and Media History.