Dear colleagues,
On behalf of the 2026 Baker Award Committee, I have the distinct honor and privilege to announce the 2026 Baker Award winners. Co-sponsored by the Communication Law and Policy Division as well as the Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division, the C. Edwin Baker Award recognizes work that has made significant contributions to the development, reach and influence of scholarship on media, markets and democracy.
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 the enormous contribution made by Professor Baker to communications scholarship.
This award recognizes work that has accomplished one or more of the following:
* opened up new theoretical and/or methodological territory in research on any aspect of the interrelations between media, markets and democracy;
* made other important contributions to the advancement of scholarship on these inter-relations;
* engaged in activism that advanced scholarship on these inter-relations.
The award welcomes nominations that reflect the diversity of media and communications scholarship in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality as well as geographical regions.
The award committee members reviewed a number of nominations and agreed unanimously on the challenge in selecting this year's award winners as all the nominations demonstrated rigorous scholarship, accomplished scholars, and committed activism in our field. We are proud to announce the following 2026 Baker Award recipients:
* Professor Richard R. John
Dr. Richard R. John is Professor of History and Communications at Columbia Journalism School who specializes in the history of business, technology, communications, and American political development. His publications include many essays, eight edited books, and two monographs: "Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse" (1995) and "Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications" (2010). "Spreading the News" received several national awards, including the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians and the Herman E. Krooss Prize from the Business History Conference. "Network Nation" won the first Ralph Gomory Book Prize from the Business History Conference and was the 2010 Best Book in Journalism and Mass Communication History from the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. In 2019, he was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship for his research on the history of American anti-monopoly thought.
* Professor Mark Lloyd
Professor Mark Lloyd is an Associate Professor at McGill University (Canada) in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies. He is a communication lawyer, scholar and journalist. Besides numerous articles, he is author of the book "Prologue to a Farce, Communication and Democracy in America" (2007) and co-editor of "The Communication Crisis in America and How to Fix It" (2016). From 2009-2012, he served as an associate general counsel at the Federal Communications Commission, advising the Commission on how to promote diverse participation in the communications field with a focus on research into critical information needs and broadband adoption by low-income populations. Prior to joining the FCC, Lloyd was the vice president for strategic initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights/Education Fund, where he led a national campaign to assist vulnerable communities make the successful transition to digital television service. He also served as a member of the Biden Policy Committee on Innovation, serving on the subcommittees on Digital Equity and Anchor Institutions. Lloyd was also an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist.
Let me take the opportunity to thank our award recipients for their contributions to our field and congratulate them on their well-deserved recognition. Our gratitude and congratulations also go out to each and every nominee this year whose critical work has shaped and will continue to shape scholarship and policy on media, markets and democracy. Colleagues who committed their time and efforts in supporting and nominating their colleagues for the Baker Award also deserve our heart-felt appreciation. Finally, I want to recognize this year's Baker Award Committee that includes, besides myself, Dr. Aram Sinnreich (American U, Chair of Communication Law and Policy Division), Dr. Victor Pickard (U of Pennsylvania, last year's Baker Award recipient) and Blue Miaoran Dong (Carleton U, International Liaison and student representative of Communication Law and Policy Division).
For those of you attending this year's ICA annual conference in Cape Town, I hope you can join Communication Law and Policy Division's business meeting where we will personally acknowledge and congratulate these award recipients.
Warm regards and best wishes on behalf of the award committee and our leadership team,
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Min Jiang
Professor of Communication Studies
Affiliate Faculty, International Studies & Ph.D. Program in Public Policy
University of North Carolina - Charlotte, USA
Vice Chair, Communication Law & Policy Division, ICA
Digital Futures, Non-resident Scholar, New America
CTS-FGV Visiting Professor, FGV Law School, Rio, Brazil
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