Dr. Jada Watson

Dr. Jada Watson is an Associate Professor of Digital Humanities in the School of Information Studies at the University of Ottawa. In 2018, Dr. Watson launched the SongData project, a research program focusing on representation and systemic racial and gender inequity on radio programming and popularity charts in the US and Canada. This serves a larger interest in understanding how genre cultures and communities form, develop and change over time. Her research on the declining presence of women on country radio was cited in a brief filed with the US Federal Communications Commission in response to the National Association of Broadcasters’ proposal for additional ownership deregulation. Her studies were cited in the Grammy Recording Academy’s Report on Inclusion and Diversity and in the Black Music Action Coalition’s industry report on racism in the country music industry. In 2020, she was research partner on CMT’s EqualPlay initiative and recently released a report on representation across all radio formats in Canada in partnership with Women in Music Canada and the National Arts Centre called Share the Air. Dr. Watson’s research has been featured in national and international publications, as well as in media outlets such as Apple Country Radio’s Color me Country with Rissi Palmer, the New York Times’s Popcast, CBC’s The National and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.