In memoriam: Professor Denis McQuail (1935-2017), a pioneer of communication science

Abstract

The late British Professor Denis McQuail was a key media and communications theorist, whose work has been highly influential to students and scholars of media across the world. As the media scholar Peter Golding, in his tribute note on behalf of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), wrote, Denis McQuail was indeed a ‘founding father’ figure for media and communication studies, whose impact in the field cannot be stressed enough.

Denis McQuail studied history and social sciences before becoming a specialist in media studies. He then taught sociology in Leeds to be followed by obtaining a full professorship in communication studies at the University of Amsterdam from 1977 up until his early retirement in 1997. After that, he continued to work as a visiting professor, based in his home in Southampton, UK. Throughout his life, Denis McQuail was an active scholar, and teacher, continually developing media and communications theory, participating in various teach and research activities (such as the ECREA Summer School for Ph.D. scholars, where myself had the opportunity to meet McQuail and receive comments on my Ph.D. thesis presentation), and publishing on the field of media and communications.