Bob Thompson

Robert J. Thompson is founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture.

He was a visiting professor for six summers at Cornell University and served for nine years as professor and director of the N.H.S.I. Television and Film Institute at Northwestern University.

Thompson is the general editor of the Television and Popular Culture series published by Syracuse University Press. He is the former president of the National Popular Culture Association and lectures across the country on the subject of television and popular culture. In 1991 and 1992, he was awarded the Stephen H. Coltrin Award for Excellence in Communication Theory by the International Radio & Television Society.

Thompson is the author or editor of five books: “Television’s Second Golden Age” (Continuum, 1996); “Prime Time, Prime Movers” (Little, Brown, 1992); “Adventures on Prime Time” (Praeger, 1990); and “Television Studies” (Praeger 1989). He is now working on a history of television to be published by Blackwell.

Hundreds of radio and TV programs and publications have featured Thompson’s commentary, including CBS’s “60 Minutes,” “48 Hours,” “The Early Show” and “The Evening News with Dan Rather”; NBC’s “Dateline,” “Today” and “Later Today”; ABC’s “20/20,” “World News Tonight” and “Good Morning America”; PBS’s “NewsHour”; MSNBC’s “Headlines & Legends” and “Playback”; CNN’s “Newsstand”; CNBC’s “Upfront Tonight with Geraldo Rivera”; Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor”; NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “Morning Edition,” “Talk of the Nation,” “Fresh Air,” “On the Media” and “Anthem”; The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, TV Guide and Variety.

He holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and Ph.D. in radio, television and film from Northwestern University.