WACC is saddened to learn of the death of Professor Jörg Becker, a long-time associate and friend of WACC.

With a background in political science, German studies, and education, Becker received his doctorate (Dr. phil.) from the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Marburg, where he also completed his Dr. habil. in 1981. In 1987, the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Marburg awarded him the title of Honorary Professor, and the Technical University of Darmstadt granted him the title of Privatdozent (lecturer).

From 1987 to 1992, Becker was a Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG), and from 1999 to 2011, he taught as a visiting professor at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Innsbruck.

For many years, Becker’s focus was on international media policy, particularly with regard to Latin America, Africa, and Asia. While his work on children’s and young adult literature initially centred on the portrayal of the Third World in German media, he soon turned to structural questions surrounding the projected New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO).

In the 1980s, Becker organized numerous international conferences and oversaw many projects on the democratisation of communication for GEP (Frankfurt), the Evangelical Academy (Arnoldshain), the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Bonn), and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (Eschborn). From 2000 onwards, he concentrated on the thematic areas of media and war, and media and migration.

In 2008 Becker took part in WACC’s fourth international Congress held in Cape Town, South Africa, on the theme “Communication for Peace”. The event highlighted communication projects challenging social division and discussed strategies to address violence-affected communities.

Jörg Becker was a long-serving member of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), whose history he wrote together with Professor Robin Mansell of the London School of Economics. Over many years, he also contributed articles to WACC’s journal Media Development.

A meticulous and often controversial scholar, Becker saw himself as a social theorist who investigated the political function of communication and media in society, rather than as an expert in communication and media. In addition to his work as a social scientist, Becker was a respected journalist who regularly published articles in several European newspapers and journals.

In private letters, Jörg often wrote about his family – most recently his grandchildren – of which he was naturally very proud, his involvement in the social and political life of the town of Solingen where he lived, his enormous collection of books, and the music of Bach and Bruckner.

WACC sends condolences to his wife, Ursula, his children and grandchildren. The fields of mass and political communication are the poorer for his passing.