By Will Mari, Louisiana State University, Vice Chair/Program Chair, wmari1@lsu.edu

Teri and I are excited to announce the results of the panel competition for AEJMC 2020. We received a number of very worthy and interesting panel pitches (nearly 20!), but had to pick just six to bring forward to our sibling divisions for negotiation as cosponsors, with AEJMC’s chipping system. After a lot of back and forth, we’re proud to continue partnerships and add new and important ones, for the division:

The Future of Our History
Cosponsored with the Council of Affiliates
This open round-table discussion will address concerns over the future of journalism history research and declining university support for journalism history in the classroom. This session aims for audience members to help brainstorm ideas for overcoming these issues and coming up with solid proposals for moving forward.

Moderator: Will Mari, Louisiana State
Panelists:
Cayce Myers, Virginia Tech
Greg Borchard, Nevada, Las Vegas
Donna Stephens, Central Arkansas
Aimee Edmondson, Ohio
Ford Risley, Penn State

Media, War and Memory: Researching Remembrance of the Past
Cosponsored with Cultural and Critical Studies Division
As we move away from the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I (in 2018) and toward the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II (in 2020), we occupy a key moment for research on media and remembrance of all types of war and conflict. This research panel brings together scholars examining media remembrance around World War I, World War II, the 1973 October War and digital media manifestations of war.

Moderator: Susan Keith, Rutgers
Panelists:
Carolyn Kitch, Temple
Jonathan M. Bullinger , State University of New York at Geneseo
Jill A. Edy , University of Oklahoma
Nour Halabi , University of Leeds
Muira McCammon , University of Pennsylvania

Virtual Reality: Reaching New Audiences Via Virtual Conferences & Podcasting
Cosponsored with Public Relations Division
With university travel money a constant limitation, it’s time for some outside-the-box thinking on how to promote our research to broader audiences while remaining inclusive of faculty and graduate students who do not have the financial means to attend conferences. In this session, the Public Relations Division will discuss the success of its virtual conference and the benefits of providing a sense of community and research support throughout the year. The History Division will discuss the success of its podcast and sharing journalism history research on a global scale, including as a teaching tool in university classrooms.

Moderator: Karen Russell, Georgia
Panelists:
Richard Waters, University of San Francisco
Geah Pressgrove, West Virginia
Teri Finneman, Kansas
Nick Hirshon, William Paterson

Connecting today’s students with Jim Crow-era media history
Cosponsored with Minorities and Communication Division
This teaching panel addresses best pedagogies for teaching students about media production, representation, and/or political economy in the Jim Crow era. The current moment is one during which reverberations of state-sponsored segregation are particularly loud. Two sitting U.S. governors have recently been accused of wearing blackface as youths, 2020 is the 100th anniversary of a lynching of three African-American men in Duluth, Minnesota; domestic terrorism is gaining national attention and recognition; and several U.S. presidential candidates are candidly discussing reparations and criminal justice reform. In addition, it is relevant that the root cause of these horrors—the 400th anniversary of slavery in the United States—has just passed and getting media attention through such avenues as The 1619 Project. We plan to convene a panel with scholars who can address how we teach these issues – in the classroom and through public scholarship – in a diverse set of ways. We anticipate a panel of people who teach in the U.S. north and U.S. south, people who come with different expertise and positionalities, and people with insights useful to our audience.

Moderator: Nathaniel Frederick, Winthrop
Panelists:
Juan González, Rutgers
Kristin Gustafson, Washington Bothell
Gheni Platenburg, Auburn
Kathy Roberts Forde, Massachusetts
Rachel Grant, U of Florida

Historic Media Coverage of LGBTQ Issues: San Francisco and Other Key ‘Places’
Cosponsored with LGBT — Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer Interest Group
Broad consideration of issues related to LGBTQ history and media coverage, and more narrowly focused specifically on the “place” of San Francisco, New Orleans and Seattle in the history of gay people and the gay liberation movement. Review of mainstream or heterocentric media coverage of gay issues considered, as well as the role of the emerging place for gay journalists (such as Randy Shilts and others) in “telling the story.” Analysis of issues of objectivity and advocacy are included, as well as review of media coverage of LGBTQ issues from a “problem perspective” in earliest days. The LGBTQ historians on this panel each bring different perspectives the distinct “places” where the lived experience of LGBTQ people played out.

Moderator: Chelsea Reynolds, California State University Fullerton
Panelists:
Andrew E. Stoner, California State University Sacramento
William J. Mann, Central Connecticut State University
Robby Byrd, University of Memphis
Industry rep — TBD

US News Media and Democratic Backsliding: How Did We Get Here? Is Journalism Complicit?
Cosponsored with Political Communication
The backsliding literature originated in political science but must now consider media-led weakening of democratic norms. Political institutions participate in backsliding through a rhetoric of popular sovereignty and in maneuvers such as executive aggrandizement and harassment of the electorate. This panel would explicate and debate the premise that journalism undermines its democratic commitments through appeals to its own values. Scores of journalists in the elite press and elsewhere were undoubtedly repulsed by Donald Trump in the 2016 campaign. The “earned media” he benefited from nevertheless suggests that reporters and editors were fascinated by the emotive mainsprings of populist support. This indulgence implies more than intellectual laziness or an elitist voyeurism of agitated, downscale Americans. Election coverage appeared to validate the Katz and Liebes characterization of news media and anti-establishment agents operating as co-producers in a crisis of democracy. Political scientists refer to backsliding as decline in support for norms that foster responsive governance and consent of the governed. This panel considers whether news media contribute to democratic decline at the expense of other institutions.

Moderator: Aaron Veenstra, Florida Atlantic University
Panelists:
Michael McDevitt, University of Colorado Boulder
Perry Parks, Michigan State University
Kevin Lerner, Marist College
Betsi Grabe, Indiana University

In addition to the above, we will continue our Transformative Teaching of Media and Journalism History panel, with the winners of our teaching-ideas contest (more info on that will be out later in the academic year), and to be moderated by Kristin Gustafson and Amber Roessner, University of Washington Bothell and the University of Tennessee Knoxville, respectively. Please stay tuned for more information about our research-paper competition, with papers due April 1.

Will Mari, vice chair, and Teri Finneman, chair