Name: Stephen Banning, Ph.D.

University Affiliation: Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois

Position: Associate Professor

Book Title:

Journalism Standards of Work Today: Using History to Create New Code of Journalism Ethics

1. Describe the focus of your book.

This book traces the roots of journalism ethics back to the mid-nineteenth century

and examines the 1923 Canons of Journalism, using a historical lens to access the value of journalism ethics today. The origins of journalism’s standards of work in the mid-nineteenth century are scrutinized as the foundation of the 1923 Canons and evaluated to see if these pillars of journalistic mores are still valid despite vast changes in journalism and society.

2. How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?

I came across the first sources for this study accidentally while working on my master’s degree at the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Professor Betty Winfield’s historical research class. I then presented my findings at the 1992 American Journalism Historians Conference in Lawrence, Kansas. As a result, I ended up doing my thesis on journalism professionalization and was fortunate to have professors Betty Winfield, Sandra Scott and Lee Joliffe on my committee. In the 1990s Hazel Dicken-Garcia was very supportive of my research as was John Merrill, Wally Eberhard and Alf Pratt. Subsequently, I’ve published quite a few articles on journalism professionalization and ethics including two in the last year.

3. What archives or research materials did you use?

I found the organizational minutes from early press associations invaluable as they are hard to refute and clearly state what some early journalists believed about standards of work. They were difficult to find and often not recorded in library systems. I had to locate one source by calling a historian, William Howard Taft, who had cited a source in a footnote. He explained that the only copy of the source was in his basement. I have had less luck finding in depth information in archival newspapers, but I’ve found some. I did find several diaries in the Newbury Library in Chicago from a nineteenth century journalist that were enlightening, and the recent digitizing of special collections has been extremely valuable in shining a light on early editors’ discussions.

4. How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?

This book shows that the principles which undergirded the elements of journalism ethics in the nineteenth century and particularly in the first national code of ethics in 1923, are the same ideologies that can be applied in new ways to the much-changed twenty-first century communication environment.

This research examined journalism ethics in regard to whether we still need journalism ethics in the twenty-first century, if it is possible to exercise journalistic standards of work and if so, on what values should these ethics be based in a world much different from that which existed when the first journalism codes of ethics were formulated in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In order to distil the motivations and essence of the early journalistic standards of work, the function of media in a democracy and the formation of mass media during the first industrial revolution was discussed, and its consequential change in journalists’ locus of control and how journalists self-identified. The sudden creation of mass media pushed some journalists to create ethical principles which would guide the newly empowered press, an effort culminating in the creation of the first national code of journalistic ethics in 1923.

The journey of journalism ethics after the first industrial revolution was found to compare similarly to the condition in which we find ourselves in today, with journalism’s changing roles and boundaries that have created questions as to the application of previous codes of ethics in modern communication.

The elements of the 1923 “Canons of Journalism” are examined closely over several chapters and found to contain timeless values, despite their original application to now dated technology. The final chapter strips away the Canons’ basic elements and applies them to media today, in a way that interfaces with new technology while providing for an informed electorate.

5. What advice you have for other historians working/starting on book projects

Research what interests you and it won’t seem like work. I took that advice three decades ago and still love researching. One other thing is to try to find institutions willing to pay you to research what you love.

Vincent DiGirolamo

Associate Professor

Department of History

Baruch College, CUNY

Crying the News: A History of America’s Newsboys (Oxford University Press, 2019)

Q: Describe the focus of your book. 

A: Crying the News tells the story of some of the most familiar and fabled figures in American history: newsboys. It interrogates the myths surrounding these children and reconnects them to the industry in which they worked, the communities in which they lived, and the events in which they participated. It’s an epic story that spans from the Market Revolution of the 1830s to the Great Depression of the 1930s. It encompasses all regions of the country and highlights the role and representation of girls, blacks, immigrants, the homeless, the elderly, and the disabled in the trade. In the largest sense, Crying the News is a subaltern history of print capitalism.

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

A: Like a lot of books, it grew out of desire to read a book that didn’t exist. I got the idea for it thirty years ago while running the trails behind UC Santa Cruz. I envisioned writing not just a sweeping social history of America’s newsboys but a newsboys’ history of the United States, one that reexamined major eras and events from their perspective, from the pavement up, so to speak. I was inspired by labor historian Herbert Gutman and the new cultural historians of the 1990s, who used seemingly marginal figures, texts, or events to illuminate entire societies or epochs.

Q: What archives or research materials did you use?

A: Some advisers warned that I wouldn’t be able to find enough source material, but I persisted. I began by following the footnotes of urban, journalism, and social welfare historians such as Robert Bremner, Alfred McClung Lee, and Walter Trattner, which led me to the vast reform literature: the published and unpublished papers of the Children’s Aid Society, then crudely stored at its New York headquarters; the Juvenile Protective Association records at Hull House in Chicago, and the New York Child Labor Committee records at the state library in Albany. I also consulted obscure trade journals such as the Proof-Sheet and the Newsdealer, and the archive of the International Circulation Managers Association in Reston, Virginia. These I supplemented with memoirs, traveler’s accounts, city guides, and of course newspapers and periodicals. This was before much was digitized. I relied on microfilm and the hand-written newspaper indexes I found in libraries and historical societies. A year-long fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society helped me piece together the early part of the story, but I also traveled to archives in Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, Hartford, Boston, Buffalo, Rochester, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Toledo, St. Louis, and Kansas City. Every trip, for business or pleasure, became a research trip.

I also focused on waif fiction and urchin art—novels, paintings, and illustrations of street children—to trace popular attitudes toward them. I discovered that Horatio Alger’s 1868 novel Ragged Dick was a relative latecomer to this genre. I received access to a treasure trove of visual material, including advertisements and sheet music, collected by Peter J. Eckel, who was a devotee of Father John Drumgoole, the superintendent of St. Vincent’s Newsboys Home in New York.  One of Peter’s prized possessions was a scrapbook kept by the superintendent of the Newsboys’ Lodging House on New Chambers Street between 1875 and 1910. The Eckel Collection is now part of Princeton University’s Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. Although I cast a wide net, there were still gaps in my understanding of news peddling in the Civil War, on railroads, and in the Far West until newspapers and other collections became word-searchable. Then the problem became too much material.

Q: How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?

A: The book’s main service to journalism history, I think, is to illuminate the underside of the newspaper industry. I approached the topic from the perspective of a labor historian whose subjects just happened to be children and just happened to work in the newspaper industry. This approach ultimately led me to put the fields into conversation with each other and, hopefully, contribute to all three. Many historians note how widely newspapers circulated in American cities or across the hinterland, but they rarely elaborate on this all too human process as if it were incidental to the papers’ social or political influence. I see distribution as central to the journalistic enterprise and a compelling story in its own right. As British folklorist John Brand said in 1795, “nothing can be foreign to our enquiry, much less beneath our notice, that concern the smallest of the Vulgar; of those little Ones who occupy the lowest place, though by no means of the least importance in the political arrangement of human Beings.” I took this as my motto.

One of my findings is that newspapers were among the most important institutions of American childhood, providing not just income for millions of young people, but also a host of social welfare programs, such as newsboy clubs, bands, teams, trips, meals, schools, scholarships, and reading rooms. You won’t find more innovative or extensive offerings from the YMCA, Boy Scouts, or any other youth group. Far from being grateful and compliant, newsboys engaged in scores of strikes and boycotts, and they supported those of printers and other workers, all of which confirms newspapers’ reputation as a “conflict industry.” Newsboys also took part in political campaigns, working for or against their publishers. They hawked campaign biographies, put up and tore down candidates’ posters, and toured the country as stump speakers.

The issues examined in the book are still relevant today. Newspaper hawkers and carriers were the original gig workers, and they remain so. But they’ve now been joined by some sixty million unwaged independent contractors in all sectors of the economy. Newsboys also help us understand the perennial problem of fake news, the insidious influence of media monopolies, the use and abuse of press philanthropy, the longstanding prominence of socialists in reform circles, and the resurgence of youth activism.

Q: What advice do you have for other historians working/starting on book projects?

A: Learn to work well with others. It takes a lot of individual effort and commitment to write a book, but I couldn’t have written this one outside academia; it gave me the role models, the confidence, and the credibility I needed to undertake the project, and the necessary financial and intellectual base to complete it. This base included greater access to research grants and fellowships, an international community of scholars who read and critiqued my work, and conferences and seminars that enabled me to sharpen my arguments and attract the attention of agents and editors. Colleagues in the profession invested in my work literally and figuratively, and they are now helping to bring it to the attention of readers it might not otherwise reach. History is hard enough; we don’t need to do it alone.

Name: Elizabeth Atwood

University Affiliation and Position: Hood College, Associate Professor

Book Title: The Liberation of Marguerite Harrison, America’s First Female Foreign Intelligence Agent

1. Describe the focus of your book. 

This biography is the story of a middle-aged Baltimore socialite and newspaper reporter who in 1918 became America’s first female foreign intelligence agent. Although nearly forgotten now, Harrison was one of the most interesting American women of the early twentieth century. She became an intelligence agent at a time when many thought it was unseemly for women to even vote. Nevertheless, she traveled to some of the most dangerous parts of the world from 1918-1925, including war-torn Germany, Poland, Russia, Asia, and the Middle East, collecting information that helped guide U.S. foreign policy in the aftermath of World War I. She helped identify suspected Red agents, located Americans held in Bolshevik prisons, and scouted economic investment opportunities in Siberia and Iran.

The Russian Bolsheviks arrested her three times and imprisoned her twice for espionage, but she managed to escape the firing squad thanks to her charm and family connections. She also founded a Baltimore children’s hospital, created a woman geographers’ society, and saved the life of King Kong creator Merian Cooper.

• How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?

I first learned about her when I was a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. She was part of the folklore of the newspaper and her photograph was mounted outside a conference room. I thought it was shocking, even scandalous, for a reporter to work as an intelligence agent. A few years ago, when I had the chance to go on sabbatical, I decided to find out more about this fascinating and controversial figure.

• What archives or research materials did you use?

I began with Harrison’s own autobiographies and then compared her account with those of records in the National Archives and the Archives of the Russian Federal Security Bureau. Although she left very few letters, her files in the National Archives are fairly extensive and include some of her spy reports. In Moscow I was able to see her prison records, which included copies of her interrogations. I also read the articles she wrote for the Baltimore Sun and Evening Sun, accounts by contemporaries who knew her and interviewed her granddaughter, who lives in the Baltimore area.

• How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?

Marguerite Harrison considered herself above all a newspaper woman and her espionage was carried out with the full knowledge and cooperation of her editors at the Baltimore Sun and the Associated Press. Some historians believe the scandal that erupted when her spy activities were revealed played a role in the American Society of Newspaper Editor’s adoption of a code of ethics in 1922.

I argue that her most important contribution was that she set the precedent for the American female intelligence officer. Prior to the Military Intelligence Division hiring Harrison, American officials were reluctant to hire women, believing they could not be trusted with overseas military assignments. The Europeans had no such reservations and frequently employed women to pry information from unsuspecting targets. Most famous of these was Mata Hari. Harrison was different. She persuaded the director of the Military Intelligence Division to hire her based on her knowledge of European culture and languages. She employed her keen observation skills in  writing insightful intelligence reports.

• What advice you have for other historians working/starting on book projects.

My best advice is to look for a good story that holds your interest because you’ll be living with it for quite a while. In my case, I spent years trying to figure out Marguerite Harrison. She was not very likeable in many ways. She had an affair with her sister’s husband, abandoned her son, worked as a double agent, and betrayed other journalists. But I found her fascinating and tried to understand what motivated her to do what she did.