In the explicitly critical tradition of communication studies, Philosophy, Theory and Critique is broadly concerned with theory and critique that cuts across the various boundaries within the study of communication and its intersections with other modes of studying human interaction. In doing so, it may draw heavy from the neighboring discipline of philosophy.

Consequently, it provides a forum in which scholars can explore the relations and intersections between the study of media and communication and the range of contemporary theoretical and philosophical concerns, arguments and positions in the service of social, cultural and political change. It is also committed to providing a space for those emergent interests challenging the common sense assumptions currently guiding our understanding of the practice of communication.

Its members come from many areas and sub-fields. The philosophical questions they raise vary greatly: from the nature of language, subjectivity or experience, to the epistemology of science and interpretation, to the politics of knowledge and communicative relations. Members bring many different philosophical orientations to bear upon these questions, including phenomenology and hermeneutics, Marxism, feminism, critical media theory, post-structuralism, pragmatism, social theory and cultural studies. The Division seeks exchange, education and conversation, and it encourages tending to the differences produced by these differing orientations.

The result is that the Division offers a lively forum for contemporary ideas toward the critical study and practice of media and communication.

C. Edwin Baker Award for the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy

Sponsored by the Communication Law and Policy and Philosophy, Theory and Critique Divisions

The Baker Award recognizes work that has made significant contributions to the development, reach and influence of such scholarship. While the awards committee favors research that consists of multiple projects and publications that have made a clear, coherent and sustained contribution to the advancement of such scholarship over time, single works and/or activities which have been highly influential in the field may also qualify someone for nomination. More specifically, nominees for this award will have accomplished one or more of the following:

• opened up new theoretical and/or methodological territory in research on any aspect of the interrelations between media, markets and democracy;
•  made other important contributions to the advancement of scholarship on these inter-relations;
• engaged in activism that advanced scholarship on these inter-relations.

The award is open to ICA members and to anyone else whose research can be shown to have a connection with the work of the ICA and its various divisions.

Members of the Award Committee may nominate, but no ICA member who makes a nomination or who is nominated for an award can serve on the committee judging the nomination. We encourage self-nominations, as well as the nomination of others. The award committee encourages nominations that reflect the diversity of media and communications scholarship in terms of gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality. We welcome nominations from any part of the world. 

All nominators must: 

Submit letter(s) of nomination, not to exceed two pages each. Letters must:

• specify the relevant body of work and/or other contributions made;
• address the work’s and/or activity’s contributions to scholarship of media, markets and democracy (in the case of research, this will involve theoretical and methodological assessments of that work); and

• make a case for its influence and impact on the advancement of such scholarship. 

The Baker Award was established in 2010 through an endowed fund created from the estate of Professor C Edwin Baker (1947-2009), who was the Nicholas F. Gallichio Professor of Law and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and is intended to honor the enormous contribution made by Professor Baker to communications scholarship. The Divisions gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Professor Baker’s sister Dr Nancy Baker.