Victor Pickard

Victor Pickard is the C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where he co-directs the Media, Inequality & Change Center. Previously he taught at NYU and the University of Virginia and has held visiting appointments at Cornell, Goldsmiths, and LSE. He also worked on media policy in Washington, D.C. as a Senior Research Fellow at the media reform organization Free Press and the think tank New America, and as a Policy Fellow for Congresswoman Diane Watson. His 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 about the future of journalism and the role of media in a democratic society.

Pickard has authored or edited six books, including the award-winning Democracy Without Journalism? Confronting the Misinformation Society (Oxford University Press, 2020) and America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform (Cambridge University Press, 2015). Other books include After Net Neutrality: A New Deal for the Digital Age (with David Berman; Yale University Press, 2019), Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights (with Robert McChesney; The New Press, 2011), The Future of Internet Policy (with Peter Decherney; Routledge, 2016), and Media Activism in the Digital Age (with Guobin Yang; Routledge, 2017).

Pickard has also published more than 150 articles, essays, and book chapters in leading scholarly journals, magazines, and anthologies, and he has co-authored three major policy reports. In 2009, he was the lead author of the first comprehensive report on the American journalism crisis, “Saving the News: Toward a National Journalism Strategy” (published by Free Press as part of the book Changing Media: Public Interest Policies for the Digital Age). In 2017, he co-authored the major report “Essential Principles for Contemporary Media and Communications Policymaking” (with Robert Picard; published by the Reuters Institute, University of Oxford). In 2018, he co-authored the report “The Media Democracy Agenda: The Strategy and Legacy of FCC Commissioner Michael Copps” (with Pawel Popiel; published by the Benton Foundation).

Pickard sits on the editorial board of 12 major communication journals and book series. He chairs the board of directors for Free Press, and he frequently advises and collaborates with activists, policymakers, journalists, and community groups focused on media reform. Since 2012, he has co-directed the annual Consortium on Media Policy Studies (COMPASS) program in Washington D.C. He has delivered lectures and keynote addresses at conferences and on campuses around the world, and he has received numerous article and book awards, including the Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism book award, a James Tankard finalist book award, the ICA Journalism Studies Public Engagement Award, and the Harry W. Stonecipher Award for Distinguished Research on Media Law and Policy.

Pickard maintains an active profile as a public scholar. 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, Pacifica, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Pickard often publishes op-eds and essays in venues like The Guardian, The Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, NiemanLab, Common Dreams, U.S. News & World Report, The Seattle Times, The Huffington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Harvard Business Review, Jacobin, The Progressive, The Nation, and The Atlantic.