The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication History Division is soliciting entries for its annual award for the best journalism and mass communication history book. The winning author will receive a plaque and a $500 prize at the August 2022 AEJMC conference in Detroit, Michigan. Attendance at the conference is encouraged as the author will be invited to be a guest for a live taping of the Journalism History podcast during the History Division awards event. The competition is open to any author of a media history book regardless of whether they belong to AEJMC or the History Division. Only first editions with a 2021 copyright date will be accepted. Entries must be received by February 1, 2022. Submit four hard copies of each book or an electronic copy (must be an e-Book or pdf manuscript in page-proof format) along with the author’s mailing address, telephone number, and email address to:
Gwyneth Mellinger, AEJMC History Book Award Chair James Madison University 54 Bluestone Drive, MSC 2104 Harrisonburg, VA 22807
mellingx@jmu.edu
If you have any questions, please contact Book Award chair Gwyneth Mellinger at mellingx@jmu.edu.
Associate professor of journalism, University of Minnesota-Duluth
Where you got your Ph.D.: Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Current favorite class: History of American Media
Current research project: I am very excited about my sabbatical leave during the 2021-2022 school year. I have a couple of projects planned, including a book-length manuscript about a largely forgotten but important newspaper editor.
Fun fact about yourself: During the pandemic, I’ve been volunteering with a local music venue in Duluth to help produce live-streaming performances on YouTube.
Each month, Clio will highlight the latest episode of the Journalism History podcast and recommend a set of episodes from the archives. The podcasts — available on the website and through many podcast players — are excellent teaching tools, easy to add to your syllabi. Transcripts of each episode are available online.
If you want to hear more from this month’s featured book author, check out Episode 59: The History of Food Journalism. Food journalism expert Kimberly Wilmot Voss discusses the significance of food history and the story behind New York Times food writer Jane Nickerson and her food section from 1942-1957.
This month’s recommendations from the archive focus on sports journalism, with episodes that span the 19th and 20th centuries:
Episode 71: Black Ballplayers as Foreign Correspondents Historian Brian Campbell describes the experiences of African American athletes who played baseball and achieved social status in Latin America and the Caribbean from the 1930s to 1950s, and he discusses how journalists used their stories of racial equality abroad to critique the color line in the United States.
Episode 61: A True Newspaper Woman Researcher Carolina Velloso explores the career of sports reporter, photojournalist and national magazine writer Sadie Kneller Miller, a trailblazing journalist at the turn of the 20th century whose story had been lost to history.
Episode58: Jackie Robinson After Baseball Historian Ray McCaffrey describes the activism of baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson after he retired from the game that he integrated, including his newspaper columns in support of Muhammad Ali’s right to refuse military service and a boycott of the 1968 Summer Olympics.
And for something extra spooky for Halloween:
BONUS: Finding Ghosts in Newspapers For a special Halloween bonus episode, we trace American newspapers’ fascination with ghosts back to the 1800s with historian Paulette D. Kilmer.
This book documents the careers of newspaper fashion editors and details what the fashion sections included in the post-World War II years. The analysis covers social, political, and economic aspects of fashion. It also addresses journalism ethics, fashion show reporting, and the decline in fashion journalism editor positions. The content of the newspaper fashion sections and the women who oversaw the sections have not been examined enough by historians.
This book explores the complexity of the sections and the reporting the women did. Fashion editors worked in the women’s pages of newspapers. When the women’s pages turned into lifestyle sections, many fashion editor positions were largely eliminated at metropolitan newspapers. But prior to the loss of the women’s pages, the post-World War II years through the early 1970s were considered the Golden Era.
Fashion editors pulled wire copy, interviewed local women about their fashion choices, and visited local stores to see what was available. They also traveled to national and international fashion shows, interviewed designers, and offered their opinions on trends. Many of them also served as beauty editors – writing about new products, weight loss options, and the popular hairstyles. The editors interacted with each other and were able to network at a time when they were usually excluded from journalism organizations. Most fashion editors stayed in their position at their newspapers for many years and became experts on what their readers were interested in.
How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?
Despite the importance of clothing as an industry and in a person’s individual life, scholarship on newspaper fashion reporting is lacking. Even the more recent research on women in journalism has ignored the traditional women’s section reporting, focusing more on women whose work reached the front pages of newspapers. Yet, areas like fashion journalism were where women were making their mark for decades. When it came to fashion journalism beginning in those post-World War II years, fashion editors held dominant positions. They chronicled the fashions worn in professional and personal worlds and in doing so served as social critics. They also promoted the work of American designers at a changing time in the business as designers became household names.
What archives or research materials did you use?
Much of the material for the book came from archives and oral histories. One of the most helpful archives was the National Women and Media Collection (NWMC) in Missouri, especially the Penney-Missouri Award papers. The editors who won the annual fashion award wrote letters back and forth to the director of the awards. These letters revealed how the women covered fashion in their communities and at their newspapers. These papers also included speeches given by several of the fashion editors, which revealed their views on fashion and journalism. Marjorie Paxson, who helped establish the NWMC archive, also donated papers that led to many fashion clips from the Houston Chronicle in the 1950s. Washington Star fashion editor Eleni Epstein also gave her papers to the NWMC. They revealed not only her fashion reporting but correspondence with her editors and her readers. Several other archives provided additional information such as fashion editor Aileen Ryan’s materials at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
My research also led me to the oral histories of Nina Hyde, located at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and Marylin Bender, located at Columbia University. Both histories also focused on their law degrees – although neither women practiced law. Two other oral histories examined were of Nadeane Walker Anderson, at the Associated Press archive, and Virginia Pope, at the New York Public Library.
How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?
Women’s liberation leaders wanted newspapers to eliminate the women’s pages and put news about women on the front pages. It was an interesting theory but it did not work in practice. Instead, much of the news about women was eliminated. Some women’s page editors wanted to save their sections and raise the standards of the sections. Ultimately, these sections became lifestyle or feature sections. It also meant the loss of many fashion editors’ jobs. This project, like my previous books, documents the significant material in the women’s pages. It leads to a better understanding of soft news and the work of women’s page journalists.
What advice do you have for other historians that are working on or starting book projects?
Find your writing process and honor it. I try to write early in the morning before teaching and service commitments come up. I also make a plan for what I will cover next after each writing session. It helps provide a structure for the next writing moment. Writing groups can be helpful for accountability. Overall, simply finding time to write is the most important thing.
