McQuail Award for a contribution to epistemic authority in the digital public sphere

(28.06.2026) The article “Epistemic authority in the digital public sphere. An integrative conceptual framework and research agenda” has been awarded the ASCoR Denis McQuail Award 2026. The article was published in 2025 in the journal Communication Theory.

The ASCoR Denis McQuail Award is presented for the best article that advances research in communication theory and was published in a peer-reviewed journal within the past two years. The article is selected by an international award committee. The prize will be accepted by the lead author of the winning article, Prof. Dr Anne Bartsch.

The authors of the article also include Prof. Dr Thorsten Quandt from the Institute of Communication Studies at the University of Münster. Together with Anne Bartsch, Christoph Neuberger, Birgit Stark, Veronika Karnowski, Marcus Maurer, Christian Pentzold, Oliver Quiring and Christian Schemer, he develops in the article an integrative conceptual framework for the role of epistemic authority in the
digital public sphere.

Publication:
Bartsch, A., et al. (2025). Epistemic authority in the digital public sphere. An integrative
conceptual framework and research agenda. Communication Theory, 35(1), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtae020

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