Sut Jhally was born in Kenya and grew up in England and Canada. He had a tenure as a professor of communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1985 until he apparently retired from full time commitment in 2020.

His lectures and talks are popular and focus on cultural studies, advertising, media, and consumer culture. Courses include media literacy subjects such as Advertising as Social Communication which considers gender and the representation of sex in the media with the aim of evaluating media influence and manipulation.

Jhally explored fantasy gender roles and attitudes as portrayed in the media, and the transfer of this behaviour to real life. He used music video featuring questionable gender portrayals as a source, and his initial teaching materials developed into a series of edited music videos and clips that he used in class. This eventually became available as a video entitled Dreamworlds : Desire/Sex/Power in Rock Video (1991) - a documentary style production of the imagery he had gathered which he also narrated (the music was removed).

This subsequently became a notable point in Jhally's career after the video raised issues with some, including Laurie Meeker of Evergreen State College who argued that the documentary perpetuated the issue by offering a condensed version of explicit scenes - and American music channel, MTV, who made a move against Jhally with a cease and desist notice claiming copyright issues and use of their logo without permission (see OTI Magazine article). Jhally responded by putting forward arguments for the educational value, fair use and the social issues raised. It was apparent that he had touched a nerve and Jhally went to the press to give more exposure to what he believed was an important issue for society to consider.

Jhally concluded it was in best interests to put distance between any conflict and the university, and he became an executive director of The Media Education Foundation (MEF) which subsequently handled the distribution of Dreamworlds. This platform is now used to raise income to ensure the continued output of projects that are independent and unbiased, with education and critical thinking in mind. Later releases featured themes covering politics, culture and the influence of mass media on the American population.

Sut Jhally is a skilled communicator when presenting how media and political influences work, and the results such influence and propaganda can have on society. His work has been recognised with a Distinguished Teacher Award from the University of Massachusetts, and he was named in a list featuring People of the Year published by New Woman magazine in 1992.

Jhally is also a writer and his work has been published in several books co-authored or edited with others including Enlightened Racism (1992) with Justin Lewis (Professor at the Cardiff School of Journalism), and an updated version of Social Communication in Advertising (2004) with Stephen Kline (Simon Fraser University), William Leiss (academic author), Jackie Botterill (associate professor), and Kyle Asquith (academic author).

Sut Jhally has a Twitter account, and his talks and lectures are available on his own website. A full list of documentary films and educational resources can be found on the Media Education Foundation website, which features an online store. Titles and trailers can be viewed on the MEF YouTube Channel.

By Matt Sheen October MMXX - See video playlist for references

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