By Erika Pribanic-Smith, History Division Chair, University of Texas-Arlington, epsmith@uta.edu

The History Division leadership team has been busy in the three months since the convention in Washington, D.C. Although you may have seen some of this news already, I thought it worth recapping to give the membership a sense of where we are and how much we have accomplished in this short time.

The national AEJMC organization looks for our activities to be divided into three categories: teaching, research, and PF&R (Professional Freedom & Responsibility). The latter encompasses the core areas of Free Expression, Ethics, Media Criticism and Accountability, Diversity and Inclusion, and Public Service.

When the division went through its five-year review in August, it became clear that the division has focused heavily on research in recent years. Teaching and PF&R activities had been limited to Clio columns and conference panels. Thus, generating more balance and synergy among the three areas became a goal for this year. We are well on our way to accomplishing this aim.

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A Narrative History of the American Press uses the tools of reporters and historians to re-create and interpret a compelling narrative of press, media, and communication history for today’s students. While providing a new understanding of personalities and events by closely examining primary sources, this book also looks at the development of American press with the insight of scholars who have studied it.

The individual chapters you will read in this book stem from lectures I have delivered for more than a decade in the Hank Greenspun School of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). As a media historian, I have headed dozens of semesters of classes for both undergraduate and graduate students that focus on the history of journalism. The people, events, developments, and concepts found in this book in most cases came straight from lecture materials and the written work of students, and they now compose a text for use by other instructors and students alike.

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(in alphabetical order)

Ross F. Collins (North Dakota State University, Fargo) has been elected president of the American Journalism Historians Association for 2018-19. His research specialties are World War I journalism history, U.S. frontier journalism history and French journalism history. He earned a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Donna L. Halper (Lesley University, Cambridge) won the 9th Annual Collectors Award from Historic New England for her work preserving memorabilia related to the history of broadcasting.

Janice Hume, Department Head and Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair at the University of Georgia, has grounded her research in public memory and how individuals are remembered through obituaries. Uncovering the stories of the past through the people who lived it has also provided numerous opportunities for her students and future historians to “play detective” and uncover stories untold. We talked over the phone on November 13, 2018, chronicling Hume’s path to discovering media history and how she has complemented her research and scholarship in the classroom 

How did you come to your area of scholarship?

I took a seminar in media history at the University of Missouri. It was almost an instant connection for me that this is what I wanted to study. The final paper out of this course would become my Master’s Thesis. I examined what qualities defined a heroic woman in the nineteenth century. My dissertation was a cultural studies of obituaries, comparing over 8,000 obituaries in the 1800s and 1900s. In the nineteenth century, I discovered that people were remembered for attributes of character. After the industrial revolution, however, obituaries showed that individuals were remembered for wealth or associations or for wealthy marriages.

What history-based courses have you taught and how does your research inform your teaching?

I currently teach a course in the history of American Mass Media. I have also taught historical methods. In my history of American Mass Media course, every year the class completes a project grounded in primary documents in materials. I ask them to find a primary inspiration document and build a paper around that document.

I also find opportunities to allow my students to connect journalism history with current events. WSB, the local ABC affiliate in Atlanta, recently celebrated their fiftieth anniversary, and my students were tasked to identify the top news stories of a particular decade. Many of their choices were actually selected by the station and were part of their hour-long retrospective!

What advice do you have for junior faculty?

There are lots of grad students interested in media history. It is most important to find topics that you are passionate about. It can take a long amount of time and not knowing what your primary sources are. It’s like a detective story.

Interviewed by Colin Kearney

Name: David Davies
Where you work: University of Southern Mississippi
Where you got/are getting your Ph.D.: University of Alabama, 1997
Current favorite class: Introduction to Social Media
Current research project: Anti-Communism Crusaders in Mississippi in the 1940s
Fun fact about yourself: I was a French major as an undergraduate and have enjoyed refreshing my knowledge of the language over the last few years. Who’s up for Paris?

Name: Flora Khoo
Where you work: School of Communication and the Arts, Regent University
Where you got/are getting your Ph.D.: Regent University (where she’s the current vice chair of BEA’s History Division).
Current favorite class: Theories and Effects of Mediated Terrorism
Current research project: Colin Kapernick Nike Ad: Strategic Use of Twitter in the Role of Public Debate of Sensitive Social Justice Issues
Fun fact about yourself: I love canoeing!

Name: Wendy Melillo
Where you work: School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C.
Where you got your degrees: I am AU born and bred. I hold the following degrees:

• A. in International Relations and Print Journalism from American University
• A. in International Communication from American University
• A. in the History of Ideas from Johns Hopkins University

Thinking about getting a Ph.D in American History to improve my historical research methods. Anyone out there willing to discuss the wisdom or folly of earning a Ph.D post tenure?
Current favorite class: Ethics in Strategic Communication, which is a course I developed and teach online in our Master’s in Strategic Communication program. Students are taught how to use classical theories of ethics and professional codes of ethics to make justifiable decisions in response to thorny ethical scenarios. Since no course is ever complete without some history, we trace the rise of the Protestant work ethic and the role it played in the birth of modern capitalism. We also explore the roots of propaganda.
Current research project: I am juggling two book projects. One involves women in political communication. The second focuses on the chief lobbying organization for liquor manufacturers and the legacy of prohibition.
Fun fact about yourself: I hold a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. The training gave me great confidence when I covered night cops for the Washington Post.

Name: Andrew Stoner
Where you work: California State University, Sacramento
Where you got/are getting your Ph.D.: Colorado State University
Current favorite class: Writing Public Information
Current research project: I’m completing final edits on a new book, The Journalist of Castro Street: The Life of Randy Shilts, the first-ever biography on America’s AIDS chronicler. It will be released in 2019 by University of Illinois Press.  I’m also completing a manuscript examining the Presidential campaigns of Alabama Governor George C. Wallace between 1964-1976 in states outside of the Deep South.
Fun fact about yourself: I occasionally appear on true-crime TV programs such as “Snapped: Killer Couples” and “Crime Watch Daily” based on my writing about infamous crime cases across America. I also sold the rights to my book Cobra Killer for a 2016 feature film, “King Cobra.”