Jhally is often highly critical of
popular culture,
advertising, as well as various aspects of
US foreign policy. In his 1991 video
Dreamworlds, he describes the image of women in music videos as male adolescent fantasies: young and pretty, willing and eager to please men, saying no when meaning yes, often reduced to outward appearances and body parts. He concludes that an unhealthy attitude towards
sexual violence can be fostered by these videos, and calls for balancing them with other cultural representations of sexuality. When MTV complained about his use of parts of
copyrighted music videos, he claimed
fair use and contacted the media about the story. In the 2004 video
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land, he attempts to establish the influence of
Israeli propaganda and
PR on the United States public opinion regarding the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In the 2004 video
Hijacking Catastrophe, he argues that the "
war on terror" has been used by U.S. officials as a pretext to project military power across the world. In his 2006 video
Reel Bad Arabs, he explores the
vilification of Arabs in
American cinema, following
Jack Shaheen's 2001 book
Reel Bad Arabs.
Criticism Laurie Meeker of
Evergreen State College criticized Sut's
Dreamworlds for "failing to draw attention to his own manipulations of the medium" of rock video.
Video documentaries •
Pack of Lies – the Advertising of Tobacco (with
Jean Kilbourne) (1992) •
The Killing Screens (with
George Gerbner) (1994) •
The Date Rape Backlash (1994) •
Slim Hopes (with
Jean Kilbourne) (1995) •
Dreamworlds II: Desire, Sex, Power in Music Video (1997) •
Advertising and the End of the World (1998) •
Off the Straight and Narrow (with
Katherine Sender) (1998) •
Tough Guise: Men, Violence and the Crisis in Masculinity (with
Jackson Katz) (1999) •
Killing Us Softly 3 (with
Jean Kilbourne) (1999) •
Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying & Battering (with
Jackson Katz) (2002) •
No Logo (2003), based on
Naomi Klein's book
No Logo •
Playing UnFair, The Media Image of the Female Athlete (2003) •
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear & the Selling of American Empire (with
Jeremy Earp), (2004) •
Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (with
Bathsheba Ratzkoff), (2004) •
Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2006), based on
Jack Shaheen's 2001 book
Reel Bad Arabs •
Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex & Power in Music Video (2007) •
The Codes of Gender (2010) • ''The Occupation of the American Mind: Israel's Public Relations War in the United States'' (2016) •
Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse (2017) •
Atrocity Inc: How Israel Sells its Destruction of Gaza (with
Max Blumenthal) (2024)
Books •
Cultural Politics in Contemporary America, edited by
Ian H. Angus and Sut Jhally (Routledge, 1988), •
Enlightened Racism (with
Justin Lewis), (1992), . Argues that
The Cosby Show reinforced the myth that Blacks who don't "make it" have only themselves to blame. •
The Codes of Advertising (1999), •
Social Communication in Advertising (with
William Leiss,
Stephen Kline, and
Jacqueline Botterill), (2004), •
The Spectacle of Accumulation: essays in culture, media, & politics, (2006),
Articles • "Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse", in: Robin Andersen and Lance Strate (eds),
Critical studies in media commercialism, New York, 2000 == References ==