Journalism and Media Prize

The German Association for the Study of English awards the Journalism and Media Prize every three years to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the dissemination of English-language cultures.

The winner of the 2026 Journalism and Media Award is Rob Watts, the first recipient to work in the field of digital media. Building on a career in mainstream media, such as the BBC, he has been running the YouTube channel RobWords since June 2020, which now has more than a million followers. In 2024, he launched the podcast Words Unravelled, which he produces together with an American word nerd, as well as a newsletter. Through various platforms such as Spotify, he reaches a large audience – particularly one that is non-academic and young – and raises their awareness of the wide variety of linguistic peculiarities of English, both past and present, which speakers often take for granted. He does so in a scholarly sound and entertaining manner, and with his subtle irony turns cross-cultural linguistic research into an engaging and enjoyable experience. In this way, he makes accessible the subjects, which the members of the German Association for the Study of English deal with professionally.

The award ceremony took place at the conference of the German Association for the Study of English in Munich on 14 September 2026.

The next Journalism and Media Prize will be awarded in 2029.