Annenberg Scholars Honored at the 2023 ICA Conference in Toronto

At the 73rd annual  International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, held from May 25-29 in Toronto, Canada, numerous Annenberg School for Communication faculty and students were honored with divisional awards. 

Professor Victor Pickard received the 2023 Public Engagement Award from the Journalism Studies Division. This award recognizes a member of ICA’s Journalism Studies Division who has successfully engaged with publics and organizations outside of academia, in ways that have contributed to the impact of academic scholarship and to journalistic practice. 

In presenting Pickard with the award, the division noted that Pickard’s scholarly work establishes that our media systems aren’t natural or inevitable, but rather the result of active choices made by government, corporations, and society. Also cited was PIckard’s work with the non-profit Free Press as well as his establishment of the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center, which “focuses specifically on developing nonprofit and radically democratic alternatives to failing commercial media institutions.”

Annenberg’s top paper award winners include:

• Professor Jessa Lingel and Communication major alum Nathalie Marquez (C’23): Top Faculty Paper award from the Activism, Communication, and Social Justice Interest Group for “The publics and counterpublics of incarcerated media”
• Doctoral Student Matthew Conaty: Top Student Paper Award from the Communication History Division for “Contra the ‘Gerbnerian Contention’: J. Mallory Wober’s Trans-National Critique of George Gerbner and the Political Economy of Violent Content Regulation”
• Upcoming graduate Mia Jovanova, Postdoctoral Fellow Prateekshit “Kanu” Pandey, Research Director Yoona Kang, Research Director Dani Cosme, Professor David Lydon-Staley, and Professor Emily Falk: Top Paper Award from the Communication Science and Biology Interest Group for “Registered Report: A Person-Specific Approach to Study Health Behavior: Proof of Concept with Alcohol Use”
• Research Director Dani Cosme, alum Christin Scholz (Ph.D. '18), former Postdoctoral Fellow Hang-Yee Chan, former Research Director Rebecca E. Martin, doctoral student in the Penn Department of Psychology Christian Benitez, Research Coordinator Anthony Resnick, Senior Research Coordinator José Carreras-Tartak, Research Director Nicole Cooper, Senior Research Coordinator Alexandra Paul, and Professor Emily Falk: Top Paper Award from the Communication Science and Biology Interest Group for “Neural and Behavioral Evidence that Message Self and Social Relevance Motivate Content Sharing”
• Doctoral Student Sim Gill: Top Student Paper Award from Ethnicity and Race in Communication Division for “‘We Are No Longer Using the Term BAME’: A Qualitative Analysis Exploring How Activists Position and Mobilise Naming of Minority Ethnic Groups in Britain”
• Doctoral Candidate Jeanna Sybert: Top Student Paper Award from the Journalism Studies Division for “‘It Was a Nightmare’: Difficult Memories, Institutional Identity, and Journalists’ Recollections of 9/11”
• Joint Doctoral Student in Communication and Political Science Chloe Ahn: Top Student Paper from the Communication and Technology Division for “More Than Job Loss: The Influence of Symbolic Threat from Automation on Redistribution and Technology Attitudes”

Alum Celeste Wagner (Ph.D.’22), now an assistant professor at the University of Florida, received the Best Dissertation Award from the Global Communication and Social Change Division for “Responding to Gender- Based Media Violence in Argentina and the United States: A Mixed Methods Study of the Intersecting Roles of Gender, Class, and Racialized Ethnicity Among General and Activist Publics.”

Finally, alum Magdalena Wojcieszak (Ph.D. ‘07) was inducted as an ICA Fellow in recognition of her contribution to the field of Communication. 

Congratulations to all for these awards and honors!