The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has selected Dr. Matthew Pressman as the winner of its Book Award honoring the best journalism and mass communication history book published in 2018. The author of On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News (Harvard University Press), Pressman is an assistant professor of journalism in the College of Communication and the Arts at Seton Hall University where he teaches courses in journalism history, journalistic practice, and writing. Prior to earning his Ph.D. in History from Boston University, Pressman worked for eight years as an assistant editor and online columnist at Vanity Fair magazine.

A panel of three distinguished media historians chose On Press from a field of 22 entries. One judge noted, “With so many outstanding entries this year, judging was particularly challenging. Even though journalism is under intense criticism from some quarters, its history is rich with reminders of its importance to society.”

Ana Stevenson has been named winner of the 35th annual Covert Award in Mass Communication History. A postdoctoral research fellow in the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State, South Africa, Stevenson won for “Imagining Women’s Suffrage: Frontier Landscapes and the Transnational Print Culture of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States,” Pacific Historical Review, 87, no. 4 (2018): 638–666.

The History Division will present the $500 award to Stevenson on Aug. 6 during its award gala at the annual AEJMC convention in Toronto.

Laura Purcell has won the inaugural Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award for her thesis, “Getting People to Wish What They Need: How the United States Government Used Public Relations Strategies to Communicate Food Policy during World War II, 1941-1945.” Purcell completed her research at Virginia Tech University under the direction of Cayce Myers.

Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Dicken-Garcia Award recognizes the outstanding thesis in journalism or mass communication history completed during the previous calendar year. Both Purcell and Myers will receive cash prizes during the division’s awards gala Aug. 6 at the AEJMC National Convention in Toronto.

Teri Finneman has won the second annual Michael S. Sweeney Award for her article, “‘The Greatest of Its Kind Ever Witnessed in America’: The Press and the 1913 Women’s March on Washington.” Named for former Journalism History editor Mike Sweeney, the award recognizes the outstanding article published in the previous volume of the journal. Finneman will receive a plaque and cash prize during the History Division’s awards gala Aug. 6 at the AEJMC National Convention in Toronto.

Teri Finneman, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, has won the second annual Michael S. Sweeney Award for her article, “‘The Greatest of Its Kind Ever Witnessed in America’: The Press and the 1913 Women’s March on Washington.”

Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Sweeney Award recognizes the outstanding article published in the previous volume of the scholarly journal Journalism History. Finneman will receive a plaque and cash prize during the division’s awards gala Aug. 6 at the AEJMC National Convention in Toronto.

Lisa Burns (Quinnipiac University) is the winner of the 2019 Quinnipiac University James Marshall Award. The award recognizes outstanding service to the Quinnipiac community. Burns chaired the Faculty Senate for three years and the Media Studies Department for six years as well as serving on numerous university committees. She also founded the Sports Studies Interdisciplinary Minor and started Quinnipiac’s chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the communication student honor society. Burns is a former head of the AEJMC History Division and currently chairs its Book Award committee. 

C-SPAN’s “Lectures in History” series aired in late April and early May the presentation by W. Joseph Campbell (American) about the media myth of William Randolph Hearst’s purported vow to “furnish the war” with Spain at the end of the 19th Century. C-SPAN taped the lecture in Campbell’s “Myths of the Media” class late January and has made it available online at: https://www.c-span.org/video/?457425-1/yellow-journalism-spanish-american-war

Nick Hirshon (William Paterson University) organized and emceed a televised awards ceremony on the William Paterson University campus that featured the inaugural inductions into the New Jersey Journalism Hall of Fame on April 18. The class of inductees included former Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter and former New York Timescolumnist Anna Quindlen. The ceremony can be viewed online at http://bit.ly/SPJAwards. Hirshon also moderated a discussion with ABC News reporter Christina Carrega on April 29 as part of a monthly speaker series sponsored by the student SPJ chapter.

Where you work: Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina. I am head of the Mass Communications Sequence.

Where you got your Ph.D.: School of Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Current favorite class: My master’s and doctoral seminars in mass communications history, and my undergraduate course titled “The African American Freedom Struggle and the Mass Media.”

Current research project: Exciting research that suggests the colonization debate of the 1810s and 1820s – to send African Americans “back” to Africa – played a more significant role in the founding of Freedom’s Journal than previously indicated in historical scholarship. Freedom’s Journal, of course, was the first black newspaper, founded in March of 1827.

Fun fact about yourself: This is my 30th year on the faculty. I never thought I would be in any one place for 10 years, much less 20 or 30.

By Rachel Grant, Membership Co-Chair, rlgrant6@gmail.com

AEJMC History Division Chair recently co-authored a book on Emma Goldman’s No-Conscription League and the First Amendment, and we recently had a chance to chat with her about the process of researching and co-authoring this thought-provoking manuscript.

Q: Can you describe the focus of your book?

A: The book examines the legal atmosphere and rampant xenophobia that contributed to Russian anarchist Emma Goldman’s deportation in 1919. We analyzed the communications for which she was arrested―writings in Mother Earth, a mass-mailed manifesto, and speeches related to compulsory military service during World War I―as well as the ensuing legal proceedings and media coverage. Ultimately, we placed Goldman’s Supreme Court appeal in the context of the more famous Schenck and Abrams trials to demonstrate her place in First Amendment history while providing insight into wartime censorship and the attitude of the mainstream press toward radical speech.

Q: How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?

A: Jared encountered a short version of Emma Goldman’s story when he was reading “Free Speech in the Forgotten Years.” As he started reading more about her, he noticed fascinating overlaps between her legal struggles and the traditional narrative that surrounds the Supreme Court’s “discovery” of the First Amendment in 1919, which is an era he had spent a lot of time looking at for his legal research projects.

The narrative of how the First Amendment has been interpreted is incredibly male, something Jared had noticed in teaching his undergraduate communication law classes. Most of his students are women. So, he saw Goldman’s story as a missing piece in a male-dominated narrative. She was every bit as important as Eugene Debs or other extremists who were hauled into the courts for their speech during that period, but her story had not been told from a legal perspective. Her arguments, which the Supreme Court considered in 1918, seemed to have no place in the story of the First Amendment’s development.

We were both intrigued about bringing Goldman’s story into the narrative.

Although Dr. Earnest Perry has moved from the classroom to administration at the Missouri School of Journalism, his concern for students remains strong. His commitment to research, particularly in civil rights and social justice, is one way he stays connected to students, even as associate dean for graduate studies.

We recently chatted by about the impetus of his work, his most recent research project, and how his research informs his teaching.

Q: What is your most recent historical research project?

A: I am currently working with Kim Mangun of Utah on the history of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade association for the African-American press. We are examining how the organization came about and the significance of bringing those publishers together to act as a unified group to be a voice, for not only the press, but for the communities they served. We are looking at the organization’s struggles and those of member newspapers, particularly the economic struggles coming out of segregation and connecting to government for validation, to be seen as a viable press.

The Journalism History podcast reached a new milestone this week by crossing 2,000 downloads.

As of today, the podcast has 2,027 downloads from 42 states and 32 countries, most recently picking up West Virginia and Saudi Arabia.

Show transcripts available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/ have been accessed 718 times. The podcast team released its 23^rd episode Monday featuring Melita Garza discussing her book, “They Came to Toil: Newspaper Representations of Mexicans and Immigrants in the Great Depression.”

“It’s really been unbelievable to see how the podcast has taken off,” said Teri Finneman, vice chair of the History Division and executive producer of the podcast. “Since joining the leadership team, my goal has been to help increase the communication and community of our journalism historians. It’s been fantastic to get our work out to the general public in a new and accessible way.”