In 1979 he wrote and directed the documentary film "Responses to HOLOCAUST in Western Germany" which is collected at Paley Center for Media in New York.
His Ph.D. dissertation in 1985 on the History and Cultural Technique of the Video Recorder became the book "Zur Geschichte des Videorecorders".
In 1989 he took up his first full professorship in audiovisual studies at the University of Salzburg in Austria, where he set up a department for teaching, research, and production of "Audiovisions".
In 1993, Zielinski was appointed professor of communication and audiovisual studies at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne; where, in 1994, he became its founding director.
He also teaches techno-aesthetics and media archaeology at the European Graduate School (EGS) in Saas Fee, Switzerland, where he holds the Michel Foucault professorship.