Victor Pickard

C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy, University of Pennsylvania

Chapter Member: New Jersey-Philadelphia SSN

Areas of Expertise:

Media & Public Opinion

Connect with Victor

About Victor

Pickard’s research focuses on the history and political economy of media institutions; media activism; and the politics and normative foundations of media policy and journalism. Previously he taught at NYU and UVA and has held 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; the think tank New America; and Congresswoman Diane Watson's office. He has published over 200 articles and essays on media democracy as well as six books; including Democracy Without Journalism? and After Net Neutrality. He co-directs the MIC Center.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Save Local Journalism

Policy Recommendation, May 2020

How to Reduce Commercial Pressures that Encourage News Organizations to Undermine Democracy

Key Findings Brief, November 2017

In the News

Opinion: " Biden’s Broadband Plan Is a Good Start—But America Needs Guaranteed Broadband for All," Victor Pickard (with David Elliott Berman), The Nation, May 21, 2021.

Opinion: "Why Local Journalism Must Be Considered Infrastructure," Victor Pickard, The Hill, April 18, 2021.

Opinion: "Instead of Killing the U.S. Postal System, Let’s Expand It," Victor Pickard, The Nation, May 7, 2020.

Quoted by Brian Fung and Tony Romm in "FCC Chairman Has ‘Serious Concerns’ about the Sinclair-Tribune Merger and Could Seek to Block the Deal," The Washington Post, July 16, 2018.

Research discussed by Anna Kramer, in "The End of Net Neutrality: Will Users Notice Their Missing Internet Freedom?," WHYY, June 12, 2018.

Guest on KALW's Media Roundtable, April 13, 2018.

Opinion: "The Problem With Our Media is Extreme Commercialism," Victor Pickard, The Nation, January 30, 2017.

Opinion: "Yellow Journalism, Orange President," Victor Pickard, Jacobin, August 29, 2016.

Guest on On the Media, WNYC, February 27, 2015.

Quoted by in "The Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC," February 18, 2015.

Opinion: "Before Net Neutrality: The Surprising 1940s Battle for Radio Freedom," Victor Pickard, The Atlantic, January 29, 2015.

Guest on Radio Times WHYY, January 12, 2015.

Guest on C-SPAN Book TV New America Foundation, June 20, 2011.

Publications

"America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform" (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Traces the historical and ideological roots of the American media system by drawing from extensive archival research. In particular, it analyzes the critical juncture in the 1940s when policymakers, social movements, and communication industries grappled over the role of a commercial press in a democratic society.

"Will the Last Reporter Please Turn Out the Lights: The Collapse of Journalism and What Can Be Done to Fix It " (with Robert McChesney) (The New Press, 2011).

Assembles key writings on the crisis in journalism and offers policy proposals for how we might begin to re-imagine the ownership and control of news media so that it can better serve democracy.

"Saving the News: Toward a National Journalism Strategy" (with Josh Stearns and Craig Aaron) (Free Press, 2009).

Defines the nature of the journalism crisis, catalogued alternative models, and proposed public policy initiatives to sustain public service journalism in the first comprehensive study of the journalism crisis that accelerated in 2008-2009.