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Awards

Each year the Division for Global Communication and Social Change issues Best Paper and Best Book awards to scholarship that contributes to the overall mission of the division: to promote theory, research, critical analysis and professional education in the area of global communication and social change. Awards are open to all active fee-paying members of the division. 

Paper Awards

As detailed in the by-laws, each year the Division for Global Communication and Social Change identifies and issues awards for Top Papers, of which at least one shall be a Top Student Paper. These awards are identified from the top overall scores yielded electronically from averages of reviewer scores, adjusted by standard deviation, as determined by the Chairperson in consultation with the Vice Chairperson. 


In addiiton to the awards sponsored by the division, each year, and thanks to the support of the African Journalism Studies journal, the division also recognizes the best paper about Africa. The division is exploring partnerships to create similar awards for other world regions. If you are interested in supporting one of these awards, please get in touch with the division.


The list below includes the winners of the best papers in recent years.

2025
  • Top Faculty Paper: "‘S’ Certification and Sex-Education Films in India: Archiving Slippages Between State Narratives and Pirate Histories" by Darshana Sreedhar Mini (University of Wisconsin–Madison). 
  • Top Student Paper: "Indigeneity on Record: Hearing Race, Gender, and Power in Late 19th and Early 20th Century North America" by Luz Ruiz Martinez (University of Colorado Boulder)
  • Faculty Runner-up "Populist Connective Memories: YouTube Users' Reactions to the Coverage of the January Insurrections in Brazil and the United States" by Raiana de Carvalho (Furman University), João Ozawa (University of North Dakota), & Arthur D. Soto-Vásquez (University of Nevada, Las Vegas).
    "Selective Exclusion for Inclusion: Disrupting and Consolidating the Framing of Refugees on Humanitarian Organisations’ Social Media" by Minkyung Kim, Victoria Fields, & Ethan Morrow (University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign)
  • Student Runner-up: "Navigating Cultural Norms from Within: Challenges Community Members in Leadership Roles Face in Resolving Gender-Based Violence and Other Topics" by Saraniya Tharmarajah (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg University), with Maria Lapinski (Michigan State), Rohini Ganjoo (George Washington), Manoj Parida (DCor), Tanisha Luthria, Daryl Stephens, & Rajiv Rimal (Johns Hopkins)
    "Global Flows, Local Frames: Netflix’s Glocalisation Strategy in the Indian Market" by Mansa Narain (University of Texas at Austin)
  • African Journalism Studies Award: "Counterfeit Journalism as Information Warfare: Analysing a Russian Influence Campaign in the Central African Republic" by Javie Ssozi, Brian Ekdale, & Sang Jung Kim (The University of Iowa)
2024
  • Top Faculty Paper: "Communicating Big Data for Development (BD4D): Development discourse in the age of Big Data" by Michael Dokyum Kim (SUNY New Paltz, US)
  • Top Student Paper: "Between self-Orientalism and strategic self-image: Navigating discourse from ASEAN tourism advertising videos" by Xiaotong Liu (Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin, US)
  • Faculty Runner-up: "Enhancing social change: Nurturing nuanced communication for addressing gender-based violence within Namibian LGBTQI+ communities" by Tammy Rae Matthews (St. Bonaventure University, US)
  • Student Runner-up: "Storytelling and audience engagement in China's global communication: A big data analysis based on CGTN" by Xuejin Jiang (Department of Media and Communication, Dongguk University, Korea), Liming Liu (Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State University, US), Biying Wu-Ouyang (School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China), & Han Lin (School of Communication, Soochow University, Suzhou, China)
2023
  • Top Faculty Paper: "Three Approaches to Global Platform Studies: Cobweb, Billiard Balls, and Ant Societies" by Jack Qiu. 
  • Top Student Paper: "A Global Crisis with Divided Research Agendas? A Comparative Review of Brazilian and International Research in Communication on the Covid-19 Pandemic" by Felipe Martins
  • Faculty Runner-up: "Bringing Intercultural Experiences to the Mobile Phone: A Case Study of Slack as a Learning Tool in Intercultural Communication in the U.S. and Yemen" by Monica Chadha & Jeannine Relly
  • Student Runner-up: "Comparing Online Incivility Expressed About the Russian–Ukraine War in China and the United States" by Yanbo Li
  • African Journalism Studies Award: "Reclaiming Africanness in Communication Studies" by Fatima Alaoui
2022
  • Top Faculty Paper: "Does Context Matter? Opportunities and Challenges for Migration NGOs in Two Neighbouring Countries" by D. Dimitrova (Iowa State U) & E. Ozdora Aksak (Bilkent U). 
  • Top Student Paper: "Social Media for Community Organizing: Saving Oconomowoc Dispatch" by R. Italiano & F.A. Ramirez (Louisiana State U)
  • Faculty Runner-up: "Venezuelan refugees in Brazil, communication rights and digital inequalities in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic" by A. Alencar, (Erasmus U Rotterdam), J. Camargo (Federal U of Roraima) & D. Cogo (ESPM - São Paulo)
  • Student Runner-up: "Social Inequality and News Media Repertoires in Seven MENA Countries" by R. Leuppert (Hochschule fur Musik Theater und Medien Hannover), I. Allagui (Northwestern U. - Qatar) & C. Klimmt (Hochschule fur Musik Theater und Medien Hannover)
  • African Journalism Studies Award: "From Connective Action to Collective Action: The Role of Sudanese Professionals Association in Sudan’s 2019 Revolution" by H. A. Guta (Qatar U)
2021
  • Top Faculty Paper: "(B)orders of Immobility: Politics of Movement and Poetics of the Frontier" by Nabil Echchaibi, U of Colorado Boulder, USA
  • Top Student Paper: "Palestine Postnationality and Poetic Vision in the Works of Elia Suleiman and Mahmoud Darwish" by Emily Edwards, Bowling Green State U, USA
  • Faculty Runner-up: "Safeguarding the Open Science Movement from Predatory Journals: Academic Publishing Towards Global Communication and Social Change" by Kerk Kee, Glenn Cummins, Karin Ardon-Dryer, Lyombe Eko, Jesse Starkey & Amy Koerber, Texas Tech U, USA
  • Student Runner-up: "Advocating ‘Refugees’ for Social Justice: Questioning Victimhood and Voice in NGOs’ Use of Twitter" by Michael Dokyum Kim and  Dibya S, U of Miami, USA
2020
  • Top Faculty Paper: “Grounding Data and Recursivity in the Postcolonial Smart City” by Rolien Hoyng, The Chinese U of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
  • Top Student Paper: “For Growth, For Glory, For Governance: Understanding connectivity efforts in Andhra Pradesh” by Revati Prasad, U of Pennsylvania, USA
  • Student Runner-up: “Communicating Development through Development Agency Representation: Development Discourse on Instagram” by Michael Dokyum Kim and Karin Gwinn Wilkins, U of Miami, USA
  • African Journalism Studies Award: "In the Press We Trust: Rwandan Citizens Highly Trust State-Run News Media" by Karen McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth U, USA; Meghan Sobel Cohen, Regis U, USA
2019
  • Top Faculty Paper: "Intimacy and Rivalry: Becoming a “Self” in Journalistic Virtual Reality Films on Migration by Tuija Parikka, St. John’s U, USA
  • Top Student Paper: Trollerati: Rodrigo Duterte and the Art of Trolling in Global Media by Ryan Greene, Colorado State U, USA
  • Faculty Runner-up: "Words Transcend Borders? Proper Distance and Global News Coverage of the Migration Crisis of June 2018" by Alexa Robertson and Nadja Schaetz, Stockholm U, Sweden
  • Student Runner-up: "Tricksters on Television: Reviving Female Transgression through the Musalsal" by Heather Jaber, U of Pennsylvania, USA
  • Top 3 Faculty Paper: Science Journalism for Development in the Global South: A Systematic Review of Its Characteristics, Issues and Challenges by An Nguyen and Minh Tran, Bournemouth U, United Kingdom
  • African Journalism Studies Award: "Radio News Production: The Marginalization of Indigenous Language News and Oral Epistemologies in Ghana" by Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed, Pennsylvania State U, USA
2018
  • Top Faculty Paper: “Democratic Globalization” or “Global Coloniality”? An Antagonistic Discourse of an Anti-Corruption Movement in Russia by Olga Baysha, Higher School of Economics, Ukraine
  • Top Student Paper: "Digital Disruption? Journalism Start-Ups in India" by Revati Prasad, U of Pennsylvania, USA
  • Top 3 Faculty Paper: "Female Creators and the Politics of (Dis)Appearance on YouTube Morocco" by Mohamed El Marzouki, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA
  • Top 3 Faculty Paper: ""BT Cotton and the Voices of the Widows in the Face of Farmer-Suicides" by Ashwini Falnikar and Mohan Jyoti Dutta, National U of Singapore, Singapore
2017
  • Top Faculty Paper: "Sanitizing Language, Dehumanization, And Predatorization: Revealing and Understanding Islamic State’s World View And Self-Perception" by Thomas Frissen and Leen S. J. d'Haenens, KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Top Student Paper: "Social Pan-Africanism: Expanding the #FeesMustFall Movement Across a Networked Africa" by Ignacio Cruz, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, U of Southern California, USA; Mehr Mumtaz, Pennsylvania State U, USA
  • Faculty Paper Runner-up: "Female Creators and the Politics of (Dis)Appearance on YouTube Morocco" by Mohamed El Marzouki, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA
  • African Journalism Studies Award: "Postgenocide Rwanda: A Changing Press Freedom Landscape" by "Meghan Sobel, Regis U, USA and Karen Elizabeth McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth U, USA
2016
  • Top Faculty Paper: "Visual Framing of the European Refugee Crisis in Der Spiegel and CNN International: Global journalism in Visual Reporting" by Xu Zhang, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA; Lea C. Hellmueller, Texas Tech University, USA
  • Top Student Paper: "Masculinity, Transgressive Play, and Offline Action on Discussion Boards in the US, Taiwan, and Japan" by Joshua Cader and Yi-Ren Lin, The University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Faculty Paper Runner-up: "Communication for Development and Social Change: Lessons Learned in Community Engagement in the Ebola Response" by Juliet Bedford, Anthrologica; Rafael A. Obregon Galvez, UNICEF; Savita Naqvi, UNICEF; Nance Webber, UNICEF; Kshitij Joshi, UNICEF; Rania Elessawi, UNICEF; Ketan Sudhakar Chitnis
  • African Journalism Studies Award: "The Case for Communication Rights: A Rights-Based Approach to Media Development" by Charu Uppal, Karlstad U, Sweden; Paola Sartoretto, Latin American Institute - Stockholm University, Sweden; David Cheruiyot, Karlstad University, Sweden

Book Award

Each year, the Division shall make an award for the Best Book published in the preceding two years. These awards will be determined by a three panel committee of peers appointed by the Chairperson. The Chairperson will announce a call for nominations and procedures for nomination in the ICA newsletter. Nominations will include a cover letter from the nominator stating why the person should be recognized by the Division, the nominee’s vitae, and letters of recommendation. The nature of the award will depend on Division funds. 


Future Call for Nominations for the Best Book Award in Global Communication and Social Change will be posted on this website.

2022
  • Winner: "Populist Communication: Ideology, Performance, Mediation" (Palgrave Macmillan) by Lone Sorensen, Leeds U, United Kingdom
  • Runner-up: "Media Reform and the Climate Emergency: Rethinking Communication in the Struggle for a Sustainable Future" (University of Michigan Press) by David Park, Florida International U
2021
  • Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic
2020
  • Winner: "Guerrilla Marketing: Counterinsurgency and Capitalism in Colombia” by Alexander L. Fattal, U of California, San Diego, USA
2019
  • Winner: "Media, Geopolitics, and Power: A View from the Global South" by Herman Wasserman, U of Cape Town, South Africa
2018
  • Winner: "The Media Commons: Globalization and Environmental Discourses" by Patrick Murphy, Temple U, USA
  • Runner-up: "Stories without Borders: The Berlin Wall and the Making of a Global Iconic Event" by Julia Sonnevend, New School for Social Research, USA
2017
  • Winner (ex aequo): "How the Workers Became Muslims: Immigration, Culture, and Hegemonic Transformation in Europe" by Ferruh Yilmaz, Tulane U, USA
  • Winner (ex aequo): "The Naked Blogger of Cairo: Creative Insurgency" in The Arab World by Marwan Kraidy, U of Pennsylvania, USA
  • Runner-up: "Goodbye iSlave: A Manifesto for Digital Abolition" by Jack Linchuan Qiu, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
2016
  • Winner: "Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia" by Mohamed Zayani, Georgetown U, USA

Dissertation Award

Each year, the Division shall make an award that honours a dissertation defended in the two calendar years preceding the nomination deadline. The review committee will judge each nominated dissertation on several criteria including the importance of the problem it addresses, the strength of evidence it presents, and the significance of its conclusions all relative to the mission of the Division. The committee also will consider the soundness of methodology and quality of writing and argument, along with the nominating letter(s). The nature of the award will depend on Division funds. 


Future Call for Nominations for the Best Dissertation Award in Global Communication and Social Change will be posted on this website.

2025
  • "Laughter is the Best Poison: How Humour Mainstreams the Extreme" by Pratiksha Menon (University of Michigan)
2023
  • Pandemic Data Publics: Surveillance Culture and Civic Action in Times of Public Health Emergencies" by Youngrim Kim
  • "Responding to Media Coverage of Gender-Based Violence in Argentina and the United States: A Mixed Methods Study of the Intersecting Roles of Gender, Class, and Racialised Ethnicity Among General and Activist Publics" by Celeste Wagner