Michelle Rotuno-Johnson has won the inaugural Diversity in Journalism History Research Award for her paper, “Cultural Hegemony in New York Press Coverage of the 1969 Stonewall Riots.”

Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the new Diversity Award recognizes the outstanding paper in journalism or mass communication history submitted to the annual paper competition that addresses issues of inclusion and the study of marginalized groups and topics. Rotuno-Johnson will receive a cash prize during the division’s business meeting on Friday, Aug. 9 at the AEJMC National Convention in Toronto. Rotuno-Johnson is also the recipient of the third-place graduate-student research paper award.

The judges for the History Division’s Diversity Award competition were impressed by the paper’s unique combination of primary-source analysis and theory.

“The paper … sheds much needed light on the way journalists, as products of their time, enforced and reinforced negative stereotypes about members of the LGBTQ community through media coverage of this pivotal act in gay civil rights history,” said Dr. Melita Garza, one of the contest’s judges.

“Since it is the 50th anniversary this year of Stonewall, I thought it was the perfect time to research media coverage of this crucial event in America’s gay rights movement and see how the rioters were portrayed as they clashed with police in late June of 1969,” Rotuno-Johnson said. “I was disappointed, but not surprised, to see the language several of the writers used to describe the people at Stonewall.”

Rotuno-Johnson is a graduate student at the Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, pursuing an MS in journalism and a second MA in global mass communication. The veteran reporter is also the author of a book about the history of Marion, Ohio’s annual Popcorn Festival.

“This research was fascinating and I learned a lot about the history of media coverage of queer people in America; this is something important to me as a gay American, and I continue to understand how important it is for me and anyone in the LGBTQ community to learn our history and the people instrumental in creating it,” Rotuno-Johnson said. “No one hands you a history manual when you come out of the closet!”