Tom Reilly Award for Excellence in Journalism History Research
The Tom Reilly Award recognizes excellence in journalism history research. The Publications Committee, in conjunction with Journalism History, voted to initiate the award to honor Reilly, a former California State University, Northridge, professor who served as the journal’s founding editor from 1974-1985.
“This could be considered the People’s Choice Award to recognize a journalism historian whose work struck a chord with Journalism History readers,” said Teri Finneman, chairwoman of the Publication Committee. “We wanted to recognize our founding editor in this way in the lead-up to our 50th anniversary since we would not have this venue for journalism history research without him.”
Reilly’s colleagues knew him as a private person, who likely would be uncomfortable with the idea of an award named in his honor, said Prof. Linda Bowen, Journalism Department chair. Yet, close friends say they know how important that publication was to him and he secretly would have loved how far it has come.
“Inclusion” was a key word in Reilly’s long career, as both practitioner and professor who traveled the world speaking to journalists and journalism students, said Bowen, citing his efforts to study and report on nontraditional subjects, his expertise on the Mexican-American War and his work as an adviser for the New China News Agency in Beijing.
“This inclusiveness was never more consequential than in his role as mentor to many students and professional journalists,” Bowen said. “He saw potential and encouraged their scholarly and creative work, significantly in areas like Latinos and the media when research and publication was woefully lacking.”
More about Reilly can be found at tinyurl.com/journalfounder.
Journalism History is the official academic journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s History Division. The History Division will recognize McCaffrey with the Tom Reilly Award during its Awards Gala at the 2022 AEJMC conference in August.
Journalism History is the oldest peer-reviewed journal of mass media history in the United States and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024.
The first recipient of the Reilly Award is Raymond McCaffrey of the University of Arkansas. His article, “From Baseball Icon to Crusading Columnist: How Jackie Robinson Used His Column in the African-American Press to Continue His Fight for Civil Rights in Sports,” was the most-read Journalism History article in 2021. Read the article at tinyurl.com/ReillyAward
Current recipient
2023 Betto van Waarden, “The Many Faces of Performative Politics: Satires of Statesman Bernhard von Bülow in Wilhelmine Germany,” Journalism History 48:1 (2022), 61-80, DOI: 10.1080/00947679.2022.2027158