The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) congratulates Dr. Kathryn Montalbano (University of Kentucky) as winner of the annual Covert Award for best mass communication history article, essay, or book chapter published in the previous year.
The award memorializes Dr. Catherine L. Covert (right), professor of journalism at Syracuse University, the first woman professor in Syracuse’s Newhouse School of Journalism and the first woman to head the AEJMC History Division, in 1975. Dr. Covert died in 1983. The award has been presented annually since 1985.
The winning piece is: Kathryn Montalbano (11 Jul 2025): “Reconstruction and the Press: Debating Defamation, 1870–1876,” Communication Law and Policy, DOI: 10.1080/10811680.2025.2496140
The article was a strong contender throughout the competition judging phases and received the top marks and praise by judges.
“Dr. Montalbano’s research is an excellent example of mixed-method work, drawing on both historical and legal methods. Her thoughtful analysis situates NY Times v. Sullivan into a much earlier context than other scholars have done, and she makes a compelling case that the historical press debates over defamation are critically relevant to considering the contemporary legal threats to the Sullivan standard,” wrote one judge. “This research examines the historical development of defamation at a critical juncture in U.S. history and reveals the longstanding defense of defamation law by journalists,” said another judge.
Dr. Kathryn Montalbano is an Assistant Professor of Media Law and Ethics and Program Coordinator of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center at the University of Kentucky’s School of Journalism and Media.
“I am deeply honored to be the 2026 recipient of the Covert Award in Mass Communication History, in particular due to the remarkable legacy of Catherine L. Covert as an outstanding scholar and teacher. I am grateful to the committee for seeing the value of my work, to those who provided feedback on this research from the early stages through its final publication, and to my colleagues at UK and in the field for their ongoing support,” said Montalbano (right).
“Media scholars, journalists, and the public are all well aware of the multiple attacks on the press and speech in the United States that, in large part, derive from changes to—or sheer disregard for—longstanding media policies and laws designed to protect free expression. As a scholar of media history and media law, it is my hope that this article illustrates the significance of the press and early debates over defamation law during the Reconstruction era as a framework for better historicizing and defending the 1964 landmark Sullivan decision,” said Montalbano.
Montalbano earned her Ph.D. in Communications from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2016 and her B.A. in English (with a minor in sociology) from Haverford College in 2009. She specializes in media law, religion and media, and surveillance studies. Her research examines how communication law and policy shapes speech, press, assembly, and religious expression in the United States since the nineteenth century.
Covert Award Committee chair Dr. Elisabeth Fondren (St. John’s University) thanked the four judges for their service and for grappling with a particularly rich field of entries.
The History Division will honor Montalbano as part of the annual AEJMC convention in August 2026 in New Orleans.
An abstract for the winning article follows:
Kathryn Montalbano (11 Jul 2025): “Reconstruction and the Press: Debating Defamation, 1870–1876,” Communication Law and Policy, DOI: 10.1080/10811680.2025.2496140
This article traces how the press in the United States during the second half of Reconstruction, from 1870 to 1876, debated the merits and drawbacks of defamation law. These debates occurred within diverse newspapers across the country, spurred by Southern papers accusing the Northern press of engaging in defamation against the South. By providing a window into the nuances of journalistic debates over defamation in one of the most tumultuous periods in United States political history, this article reveals how diverse newspapers weighed the benefits of defamation law against their concerns for press freedom. Journalists in both the North and the South recognized the significance of defamation law. They differed, however, in that the Northern press also acknowledged how some journalists in the South might use defamation suits to squash criticism, while the Southern press largely prioritized defending its reputation from Northern critiques. This discourse paralleled mid-twentieth-century debates over press freedom in the advent of the New York Times v. Sullivan decision. The article concludes that the parallels between the 1870s and 1960s provide a new framework to help defend Sullivan against recent critiques from the Supreme Court.
For additional references on Dr. Covert, see:
https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=sumagazine