Future issues of Journalism History will not be covered in plastic as Taylor & Francis aims to address environmental concerns.
The publisher approached the journal’s top officials about making the change after a prior pilot program found the postal service did not damage journals. Journalism History staff agreed to join the initiative starting with the fall issue.
If anyone has a damaged issue arrive, please let Teri Finneman (finnemte@gmail.com) or Pam Parry (pparry@semo.edu) know, and you will be sent a replacement. We hope the membership agrees it is worthwhile to try this new delivery method and do our part for the environment.
Mike Conway and Josh Bennett (Indiana University Media School) have been awarded a university Public Humanities Project grant to create the Indiana Broadcast History Archive. Conway and Bennett are working with broadcasters around the state to collect archives related to the history of Indiana radio and television history.
Maddie Liseblad will be starting as an assistant professor of journalism at Cal-State Long Beach this fall. Dr. Liseblad is the current research chair for the History Division and will be its vice chair beginning this fall.
Sheryl Kennedy Haydel has been chosen as the new Director of the School of Communication and Design at Loyola University in New Orleans. Dr. Kennedy Haydel has been an assistant professor at the Manship School at Louisiana State University.
David E. Sumner (Ball State University emeritus) has been invited by Prof. Patrick Rössler at the University of Erfurt, Germany, to contribute a chapter on American magazines for The Magazine Press in the Twentieth Century: A Global History, tentatively scheduled for publication in 2022 by the German publisher Wallstein Verlag.
The book is the first comprehensive history of U.S. Spanish-language television. Drawing from ten years of archival research, original interviews, and exploration, it reveals the inside story behind the Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo, how they fought enormous odds, and finally rose as giants of mass communication in the English-speaking United States. The book argues that scholars’ study and understanding only of English-language television has hidden a key dimension of U.S. mass media, that they are extensively and endemically internationalized. Much of the book traces the rise of Mexican broadcast pioneer Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, who founded Univision as the U.S.’s fourth television network only a few years after the beginning of TV on ABC, CBS, and NBC. Chapters go on to recount events that demonstrate that, despite attracting virtually no attention or pursuit among U.S. media scholars, Mexico’s powerful Azcárraga dynasty fundamentally influenced and shaped the development of television in the U.S. The history further unfolds with exploration of numerous American figures who directed the emergences of Univision and Telemundo. Although unknown in media literature, here identified and delved for first time, they are among the U.S. mass media’s foremost pioneers. The account reiterates the endurance, innovation, and popularity of Spanish-language television, and that its story is essential to understanding not merely the Latinx but overall history of modern America.
2. How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?
Spanish-language television always has been out there. Univision has been the No. 1 single source of media many times. I don’t think media scholars ever had heard of it. (Media scholarship is a not a domain that’s good at grasping mass communication beyond white, Anglo, English-language media.) My professional career in television began as a volunteer rookie producer of a weekly Spanish-language TV show on an English-language station. This was in the 1970s, when Spanish-language broadcasting was known only in a dozen cities and virtually all television was three English-language channels, ABC, CBS, and NBC. The Spanish experience was my “break” that got me inside TV first as a news reporter, eventually as an anchor and news director. Although I worked in English-language TV, I never stopped following the Spanish-language counterpart to which I owed my career. Later as a media historian, I think I was the only one who knew that Spanish-language television existed.
3. What archives or research materials did you use?
A pivotal part of the book (on a landmark court case in which the FCC eliminated Univision’s foreign owners) was drawn from research at the National Archives. However, as an internal study of the Univision and Telemundo corporations, key documents either were not kept or subject to proprietary restrictions. Through dealings with the companies and parties, I was able to accumulate (and cite from) materials I located in numerous private collections. Much travel was involved.
4. How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?
I’m not sure it’s really relevant to the present. It’s a story of history. I tend to believe that journalism and mass communication if they exist at all are on their last legs. A hundred years from now, people will look back at a bygone period when something known as journalism that massed a lot of people and was influential existed. I tend to see Spanish-language television as a piece of what those in the future will look back upon toward helping them understand what once was America’s “mass media era.” 5. What advice you have for other historians working/starting on book projects
Spend time researching a marketable topic before you begin. Writing published history seems easy—until you have to write a treatment that sells the topic you’ve plunged into. If you want to publish a book but your topic doesn’t brim with selling points, you will be trapped when you have to approach publishers. In the case of Univision, I had at least 50 rejections, each time with the stock comment “The topic doesn’t fit our market,” code for “we can’t sell it.” If the goal is a book, ask yourself “What will attract an audience?” and “What will get people to pay for what I’ve written?” These are publishers’ first questions. Do the analysis before, not after, you commit.
I hope that your summers are off to a good start, and that we can all catch our collective breath a bit.
It almost goes without saying that summers still mean work for scholars, and even in a pandemic-recovery season, that includes catching up on much-needed research, service, reading, writing and even getting in some extra teaching. Our community continues to impress me in its resilience, resolve and grace with all these endeavors. Recently, I was on a road trip to see my mom in Seattle and got a chance to meet (safely!) with a few of our members. I’ll just say this: you rock.
A couple of quick reminders before I proceed: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you to please renew your membership if you haven’t done so yet, and to please register for the conference. It is online, Aug. 4-7, with our awards gala the night of Aug 3, at 7 p.m.; our general membership meeting is at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 5. Registration remains just $69 for regular members and $39 for student members, before July 23.
Cayce, Maddie, myself and the rest of the leadership team are excited for what we have in store, but we are also aware that we’re all more than a little Zoomed out, and so I can promise a straightforward experience, with an emphasis on breaks and starting/stopping at reasonable hours, as far as possible.
As this is my penultimate column—past chair Erika Pribanic-Smith will have a *final* word from me in our wonderful conference guide, which she is again graciously producing for us and which will be available in July, ahead of the conference—I just wanted to say a brief word of thanks for all the hardworking volunteers who have reviewed, signed on as moderators and discussants, served on committees, helped with initiatives, wrote emails, posted to our social-media channels, answered my often-tiresome queries and generally selflessly gave of themselves. Thank you!
We have continued a number of important efforts from last year, despite the pandemic, including our mentorship program, our teaching competition, our inclusion of grad students, our web site’s revamp, our various new awards, our journal’s healthy relationship with Taylor & Francis, and, of course, our awesome podcast, among other projects and programs. My time as chair has focused on supporting you during the pandemic in as many concrete ways as possible, and I hope I have succeeded in that. I have again realized my (many!) limitations, but you continue to inspire me.
We’ll be honoring a number of you at the conference with specific shoutouts, but I wanted to specifically recognize both Maddie and Cayce, for all their help, in matters large and small, throughout the year. They’ll do wonderful work as your new vice chair and chair, respectively.
I am filled with optimism and gratitude that the division will be in truly capable hands next year and beyond, and I am increasingly confident that we will be able to return in person, as well, to Detroit.
Finally, I’m grateful for our immediate past chair Teri Finneman’s encouragement and advice—she has acted as liaison for our journal, but has also been a critical sounding board for me and your other division leaders—thank you!
Look for more conference-specific highlights from me in my final column in the conference guide, which we’ll post to social media and to our listserv, but see other updates on our site, https://mediahistorydivision.com/, and again on @AEJHistory Twitter and our Facebook page.
Please reach out to me at wmari1@lsu.edu, wtmari@gmail.com, or @willthewordguy, if you need anything, or just want to say “hi” as I wrap up my time as your division head.
It has been my great honor to have been your chair. Keep up the great work—#mediahistorymatters.
