Research

VP


My research explores the intersections of U.S. and global media politics, media history, democratic theory, and communications policy. Since entering graduate school in 2001, I have investigated the ways in which media both constrain and enable democratic practices.
During my Master's degree at the University of Washington, my work followed two tracks, both falling under the rubric of political communication.

The first drew from my research on Internet activism, issue networks, and social movement theory. This focus informed my thesis, which was based on a nearly three-year study of the first Independent Media Center, an innovative communications model formed in Seattle during the 1999 WTO protests. Several journal articles came out of this research.

The second track fell within more traditional political communication research in the sense that it centered on several content analysis studies of how political elites used mainstream print media strategically and how these media were representing elites and social issues such as the global justice movement.

Since beginning my doctoral work at the Institute of Communications Research, I have focused more on the historical and political economic dimensions of these issues. This research has produced a number of papers on telecom and journalism history, Internet policy, and global communications.

My dissertation, "Media Democracy Deferred: The Postwar Settlement for U.S. Communications, 1945-1948," explores the origins of the social contract between U.S. media institutions and the public that emerged from 1940s media policy debates and initiatives, such as the Hutchins Commission, the FCC Blue Book, and the Fairness Doctrine. In this research, I demonstrate that these historical debates hold much contemporary relevance for the media problems facing U.S. society today.

Selected Publications

Academic Journal Articles
Victor W. Pickard (Under Revision). 'Whether the Giants Should Be Slain or Persuaded to Be Good': Revisiting the Hutchins Commission and the Role of Media in a Democratic Society. Critical Studies in Media Communication.

Victor W. Pickard (2008). Cooptation and Cooperation: Institutional Exemplars of Democratic Internet Technology. New Media and Society.

Sascha D. Meinrath and Victor W. Pickard (2008). The New Network Neutrality: Criteria for Internet Freedom. International Journal of Communication Law and Policy, 12, 225-243.

Victor W. Pickard (2007). Neoliberal Visions and Revisions in Global Communications Policy from NWICO to WSIS. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 31 (2), 118-139.

Victor W. Pickard (2006). Assessing the Radical Democracy of Indymedia: Discursive, Technical and Institutional Constructions. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 23 (1), 19-38.

Victor W. Pickard (2006). United yet Autonomous: Indymedia and the Struggle to Sustain a Radical Democratic Network. Media Culture & Society, 28 (3), 315-336.

Lisa McLaughlin and Victor W. Pickard (2005). What is Bottom Up About Global Internet Governance? Global Media and Communication, 1 (3), 359-375.

W. Lance Bennett, Victor W. Pickard, David P. Iozzi, Carl L. Schroeder, Taso Lagos, and Courtney Evans-Caswell (2004). Managing the Public Sphere: Journalistic Construction of the Great Globalization Debate. Journal of Communication, 54, 437-455.

Kevin Coe, David Domke, Erica Graham, Sue John and Victor W. Pickard (2004). No Shades of Gray: The Binary Discourse of George W. Bush and an Echoing Press. Journal of Communication, 54, 234-252.

Book Chapters
Sascha Meinrath & Victor Pickard (Under Revision). Community Intranets and Participatory Democracy. Globalization and Communicative Democracy: Community Media in the 21st Century (Ed. Kevin Howley), to be published by Sage.

Victor Pickard (Under Revision). When the Barbaric Becomes Sublime: How the New York Times Normalized the Iraq War. Twenty Years of Propaganda (Ed. Paul Boin), to be published by Routledge.

Articles in Progress
Victor W. Pickard and Sascha D. Meinrath. Feudalizing the Internet: Enclosures and Erasures from Digital Rights Management to the Digital Divide.

Victor W. Pickard. The People's Airwaves: Radio Activism From Above and Below, 1945-1949.

Reference Articles
Victor W. Pickard (2008). Communication Rights in a Global Context. In Robin Anderson and Jonathan Gray (Eds.), Battleground: The Media, Vol. 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp. 91-97.

Victor W. Pickard (2008). The Indymedia Model: Strengths and Weaknesses of a Radical Democratic Experiment. Global Civil Society Yearbook 2007/8: Communicative Power and Democracy. London: Sage Publications, pp. 207, 210-212.

Victor W. Pickard (2007). Alternative Media. In Todd M. Schaefer and Thomas A. Birkland (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Media and Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press, pp.12-13.

Victor W. Pickard (2007). Telecommunications Act of 1996. In Todd M. Schaefer and Thomas A. Birkland (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Media and Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press, p.280.

Book Reviews
Victor W. Pickard. Future Active and the Future of the Internet. Review of Graham Meikle's Future Active: Media Activism and the Internet. Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. November 2005.

Power of the Press. Review of John R. MacArthur's Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. Published on the website CounterFight. December 2001.

Trade/Popular Journal Articles
Victor Pickard & Sascha Meinrath. No Room for Neutrality on Net Neutrality. Public i, V6, 8. Oct. 2006.

Sascha Meinrath & Victor Pickard. A Ten Point Formulation for Internet Freedom. MuniWireless, Oct. 2, 2006.

Victor Pickard. Net Neutrality is No Sham. Daily Illini, July 17, 2006.

Sascha Meinrath & Victor Pickard. The New Network Neutrality: Criteria for Internet Freedom. Free Press, April 7, 2006.

Victor Pickard. The Battle for the Internet's Soul: A Look at the World Summit on the Information Society. Public i, V5, 10. Dec./January 2006.

Victor Pickard. Silencing the Violence of War Public i, V5, 9. November 2005.

Victor Pickard. Right-wing Moving in on Sesame Street: The Silent Takeover of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Public i, V5, 8. October 2005.

Indymedia News Reports
Victor Pickard. Brutality on Broadway. Seattle Independent Media Center. May 19, 2001.

Victor Pickard. Alexander Cockburn Warns of Creeping U.S. Fascism. Seattle Independent Media Center. Dec. 4, 2000.

Selected Media Interviews/Appearances

Radio and Television
Interviewed on public affairs show Media Geek on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign to discuss the history and future of American Journalism. June 1, 2007. For the pocast click here.

Interviewed on public affairs show Media Geek on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign to discuss the new political landscape in Washington D.C. and its implications for communications policy. December 8, 2006. For the podcast click here.

Invited panelist, "What's at Stake in the Net Neutrality Debate." Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. Urbana, October 25, 2006. Broadcasted on Urbana Public Television, Channel 6, November 3-7, 2006. For the YouTube video click here.

Interviewed on public affairs show A Critical Ear on WRFU 104.5 FM, Urbana to discuss 1940s progressive media policy, historic social movements for media democracy, and implications for today's media landscape. July 27, 2006.

Conference presentation on the 1940s media democracy movement delivered at the Union for Democratic Communications broadcasted on public affairs show The Ministry of Truth on WHPK, 88.5 FM, Chicago. June 1, 2006. For the podcast click here.

Interviewed on public affairs show A Critical Ear on WRFU 104.5 FM, Urbana to discuss recent Internet policy developments, especially network neutrality legislation. April 13, 2006.

Interviewed on public affairs show A Critical Ear on WRFU 104.5 FM, Urbana to discuss the politics of Internet policy in Washington D.C. February 2, 2006.

Interviewed on public affairs show Digital Citizen on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign to discuss the recent World Summit on the Information Society and implications for Internet governance and other Internet polices. December 14, 2005.

Interviewed on public affairs show Media Geek on WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign during its pledge drive. Discussed the upcoming rewrite of the Telecommunications Act and the general policymaking process based on personal experiences working on Capitol Hill. October 14, 2005. For the podcast click here.

Radio Show Producer of the public affairs show Media Matters on NPR-affiliate WILL-AM 580 (Aug. 2003 - May 2005)

Newspaper Articles
Interviewed for news article Bush Against Big Bird in the Battle for Public Broadcasting Services. Daily Illini, Sept. 29, 2006.

Interviewed for news article Communications Conferences Raise Awareness of Media Issues. College of Communications Alumni News, pg. 10, January, 2006.

Interviewed for and research cited in news article News Fairness Debate Focuses on Iraq War. San Antonio Express-News, Aug. 12, 2005.

Interviewed for news article Speakers Discuss Corporate Media. Daily Illini, May 10, 2005.

Conferences Organized

Academic Brain Trust (St. Louis, May 12, 2005)
With Robert McChesney organized a preconference at the 2005 National Media Reform Conference to connect scholars, media activists and policy makers, bringing together around 150 scholars to form research groups focused on crucial policy debates. For some audio coverage of the event, click here.

Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation? (Urbana, May 10-11, 2005)
With Robert McChesney organized a large two-day conference, "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?" featuring journalists, policymakers, and scholars, including Seymour Hersh, Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, Bernie Sanders and Phil Donahue. For video and audio files click here or here.

Selected Awards

Paper on Net Neutrality Receives Two Awards
"The New Network Neutrality: Criteria for Internet Freedom," co-authored with Sascha Meinrath, won the Top Student Paper Award for the Law & Policy division of the International Communications Association, and also received a writing competition award from the Access to Knowledge Conference sponsored by the Yale Law School's Information Society Project.

Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities Fellowship
University-wide award given to eight graduate students for dissertation research. Participate in a year-long residency, bi-weekly symposia, and year-end conference showcasing dissertation research.

List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent, University of Illinois, 2006
Received "Outstanding" instructor evaluation scores. The status of Outstanding was given to anyone with an average of 4.5 out of a possible 5.0 for the categories of "Overall Teaching Effectiveness" and "Overall Quality of Course." I received an average of 4.8 for both categories, qualifying for the top ten percent.