Jacobs is a scholar of international media and politics. He is currently working on a book about mass media, globalization, and liberal democracy in postapartheid South Africa. Jacobs is a co-editor of Thabo Mbeki's World: The Politics and Ideology of the South African President (Zed Books, 2002) and two other books. He previously worked as a journalist and as a political analyst at the Institute for Democracy in Cape Town, South Africa. Jacobs founded the website Africa Is a Country.