Victor Pickard, co-director of the Media, Inequality & Change Center at the Annenberg School for Communication, has received the 2025 C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy. The award is given annually by the Philosophy, Theory & Critique and Communication Law & Policy divisions of the International Communication Association for scholarly and related work that has made a significant contribution to the development, reach, and influence of scholarship on media, markets, and democracy. Dr. Pickard shares the 2025 award with Pablo J. Boczkowski of Northwestern University.

Dr. Pickard’s research focuses on the history and political economy of media institutions, media activism, and the politics and normative foundations of media policy. His work is particularly concerned with the future of journalism and the role of media in a democratic society.

He has authored or edited six books, including the award-winning Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society (Oxford University Press) and America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform (Cambridge University Press). He frequently speaks to the press about media-related issues and has been interviewed widely about his research in leading news organizations such as NPR, The New Yorker, The Nation, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, and The New York Times.

“This award is especially meaningful to me because Ed Baker is one of my intellectual heroes,” Dr. Pickard told the audience while accepting the award at the International Communication Association Conference in Denver, Colorado. “His meticulous and empirically-driven argumentation for why media markets fail democracy remains unrivaled.”

The Baker Award was established in 2010 through an endowed fund created from the estate of Professor C. Edwin Baker (1947-2009), who was the Nicholas F. Gallichio Professor of Law and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and is intended to honor Dr. Baker’s contribution to communications scholarship.