Dr. Derek Johnson's research explores the collaborative, but uneasy, negotiations required of corporations, creators, and consumers as "franchised" intellectual properties have been shared among multiple sites of cultural production in the television, film, game, and comic industries. As part of this historical project, he has examined the licensing of Marvel Comics™ characters, the creative reimagining of Battlestar Galactica, the transnational partnerships supporting Transformers, and the grassroots production of video game mods. He has also written extensively on fandom and the role of audiences as creative laborers within the media industries. His work has been published most recently in journals including Popular Communication and The Velvet Light Trap, as well as the anthologies Reading Lost and Convergence Media History.

After receiving a BA in Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California, Dr. Johnson went on to receive both an MA and a Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the Media and Cultural Studies program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. While at UW, he served on the editorial board of The Velvet Light Trap. Dr. Johnson has also worked a Consulting Researcher for MIT's Convergence Culture Consortium since 2008.

At UNT, he teaches a wide variety of courses related to critical and cultural studies of media, including "Television Cultures," "Video Game Theory and Design," and "Television History."