Professor Joseph D. Straubhaar is the Amon G. Carter Centennial Professor of Communications in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, and Radio-TV-Film at The University of Texas at Austin. He was the director of the College of Communication's Latino and Latin American Media Studies Program, 2012-2018, and was the Director of the Center for Brazilian Studies within the Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies, 2003-2006. He has taught in RTF at UT since 1998 and in Journalism since 2018. He previously taught at BYU (1994-98) and Michigan State (1983-1994). Before that, he was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer (1975-1983) in Brazil and Washington DC.

His primary teaching, research, and writing interests are in global media and cultural theory, global TV, digital media and the digital divide in the U. S. and other countries, Latin American and global television production and flow. His graduate teaching includes media theory, global media, Latin American media, and qualitative and ethnographic research methods. His undergraduate teaching covers the same range plus intro to media studies, global television, introduction to global media, Latin American television, and media and society. He does research in Brazil, other Latin American countries, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and has taken student groups to Latin America and Asia. He has done seminars abroad on media research methods, the digital divide, and global media. He is a regular visiting professor at the University of São Paulo and the State University of São Paulo-Bauru. He is on the editorial board for Communication Theory, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Chinese Journal of Communication, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Comunicación y Sociedad, Chinese Journal of Communication, and Revista INTERCOM.

He has a forthcoming co-authored book, From Telenovelas to Netflix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America, on Palgrave-McMillan. His co-authored book, Television In Latin America, with John Sinclair, published by BFI/McMillan (2013). His recent co-edited book is Karin Wilkins, Joseph Straubhaar, and Shanti Kumar, editors. (2013). Global Communication: New Agendas in Communication. London: Routledge. His edited book, The Persistence of Inequity in the Technopolis: Race, Class and the Digital Divide in Austin, Texas, was published in 2011 by University of Texas Press. His book, World Television from Global to Local, was published by Sage in 2007. A revised 10th edition of his textbook with Bob LaRose, Media Now, was published by Wadsworth/Cengage.