SComS Best Paper Award 2025

The Studies in Communication Sciences (SComS) Best Paper Award for 2025 has been awarded to Guillaume Zumofen (University of Bern) for his article Bringing content into the equation: Using a Wordscores method to compare the effect of newspaper and television on vote choice in referendums (Vol. 25, Issue 1).

The article addresses a central question in political communication: how different media types—newspapers and television—shape individual vote choice in referendums, and for whom these effects are most pronounced. While media effects are well established, systematic comparisons across media types under comparable conditions remain rare. The study closes this gap by combining a Wordscores content analysis of media coverage with a three-wave panel survey (n = 686), thereby linking variation in media content directly to individual-level changes in political preferences over time. This integrated design enables a differentiated assessment of how exposure to distinct media environments translates into measurable opinion shifts.

The contribution stands out for its methodological integration and empirical rigour. By combining content-analytic scaling with longitudinal survey data, the study advances the analysis of media effects beyond isolated approaches and allows for a more precise identification of causal mechanisms. Reviewers highlighted both the ambition and the coherence of the design, describing it as an “ambitious and extensive empirical analysis that is overall convincing” and noting its ability to “link media content and individual-level behaviour in a particularly coherent and methodologically rigorous way.” The article thus makes a substantial contribution to communication science and political science, particularly in the study of referendum campaigns and media influence.

The Best Paper Award was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Swiss Association of Communication and Media Research (SACM) in Winterthur on 23 April 2026. The selection process involved an initial pre-selection by Thilo von Pape (University of Fribourg) and Franziska Oehmer-Pedrazzi (University of Applied Sciences of the Grisons), followed by a final evaluation by the award jury consisting of Hannah Früh (HAW Hamburg University of Applied Sciences), Federico Lucchesi (USI Lugano), Benjamin P. Lange (IU International University of Applied Sciences), Werner A. Meier (University of Zurich), and Tobias Rohrbach (University of Fribourg).

We warmly congratulate Guillaume Zumofen on this achievement. We also extend our sincere thanks to the members of the jury and to those involved in the pre-selection process for their careful and dedicated evaluation of the submissions.

Philipp Bachmann
Journal Manager