Professor Jonathan Hardy

Biography

Jonathan Hardy is Professor of Communications and Media at the University of the Arts London. He writes and comments on media industries, media and advertising, communications regulation, and international media systems. His books include Branded Content: the Fateful Merging of Media and Marketing (2022), Critical Political Economy of the Media (2014), Cross-Media Promotion (2010) and Western Media Systems (2008). He is editor of Sponsored Editorial Content in Digital Journalism (2023), co-editor of The Advertising Handbook (2018) and is book series editor of Routledge Critical Advertising Studies. He is a member of the editorial boards of Digital Journalism (Taylor and Francis), Political Economy of Communication, TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique and Revista Mediterránea de Comunicación Mediterranean Journal of Communication. He is Associate Editor of Media, Creative and Cultural Industries within Frontiers in Communication journal.

He is Principal Investigator for the Branded Content Governance Project. This international research project (2022-25) examines the regulation, policies, practices and communications surrounding brand-funded content. The project is jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (ESRC/AHRC ES/W007991/1). He is also Principal Investigator for UAL's Branded Content Research Hub, a network-based research and education initiative based in the Media School at the London College of Communication. For more details see https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-communication/research-at-lcc/branded-content-research-hub.