My congratulations to Professor Steve Jones, the UIC Distinguished Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), who has been awarded the Williams Prize for Contribution to the Study of Communication and Technology. The award was announced at the 74th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, held in Australia from 20-24 June 2024. While I chaired the Awards Committee, I was unable to attend the meeting, but want to add my own congratulations to Professor Jones.
Professor Zizi Papacharissi, a distinguished professor and colleague of Steve Jones, at the University of Illinois Chicago, nominated Professor Jones for the Frederick Williams Prize for his Contribution to the Study of Communication and Technology. She noted the singular contributions Professor Jones has made to the study of new media, which is a field the late-Professor Frederick Williams helped define in his book, The Communications Revolution (1982).
Fred Williams published this book towards the end of his tenure as the founding Dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California and former President of the ICA. Professor Williams was Dean when I joined the Annenberg School in 1980, and it was his interest in focusing communication research on new media that led to my appointment. Therefore, I am particularly delighted to see his award continuing to attract an increasingly strong multidisciplinary range of stellar faculty – for whom Steve is an exemplar. It is a credit to Fred’s legacy as well as major recognition of the contributions of Steve and other scholars who have been recognized by this award.[i]
His nomination recognized Professor Jones’ contribution as ‘pioneering and inspirational’ – a ‘founding father of New Media Studies’. I recall an early meeting of the ICA in the early 1980s in San Francisco (if my memory serves me), at which Steve Jones organized a group of colleagues interested in the study of new media. It was a sizeable but not large group, involving 50-100 colleagues and led to ICA creating a new special interest group on ‘Communication and Technology’ (CAT). Since then, it has become one of the largest divisions of the ICA, with membership rocketing with the rise of the internet, social media, and each new innovation in communication and technology. Steve later became the founding President of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), which is a key international scholarly association in the field of internet studies.
Steve has been a prolific author of influential books in the study of communication and technology, focusing primarily on the social and cultural implications of the internet and digital communication technologies. His work explores topics such as online communities, the cultural implications of digital media, and perspectives on communication technologies and the transformation social interactions and structures. His most widely read publications include: CyberSociety: Computer-Mediated Communication and Community (1994) and CyberSociety 2.0: Revisiting Computer-Mediated Community and Technology (1998), with many more books, articles, and book chapters following these foundational themes. Jones’ work is broadly interdisciplinary, drawing on theories and methods from sociology, cultural studies, media studies, and communication, including a widely cited article on ‘Music that Moves: Popular Music, Distribution and Network Technologies’, Cultural Studies (2002).
I look forward to following future recipients of this award. Unfortunately, only one award can be given, but as a member of the committee, there are many nominations deserving such an award, so keep your eye on this bellwether for the field of communication and technology.
