The steering committee of the 27th annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression invites all CLIO readers to attend this year’s conference in Chattanooga, November 7-9. The symposium is sponsored by the George R. West, Jr. Chair of Excellence in Communication and Public Affairs, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga communication department, the Walter and Leona Schmitt Family Foundation Research Fund, and the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Fund for the Symposium, and because of this sponsorship, no registration fee will be charged. If you are interested in attending, please contact David Sachsman at david-sachsman@utc.edu. Additional information is available at www.utc.edu/west-chair-communication/symposium/index.php .
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication will present its award for Outstanding Master’s Thesis in Journalism and Mass Communication History in 2020, recognizing the outstanding mass communication history thesis completed during the 2019 calendar year.
The award will be presented during the member awards gala at the 2020 AEJMC Conference, scheduled for Aug. 5-9 in San Francisco, Calif.
Any master’s thesis on a topic in mass communication history will be considered, regardless of research method. Submissions must be in English. The thesis must have been submitted, defended, and filed in final form to the author’s degree-granting university between January 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019. Membership in the AEJMC History Division is not required to submit. Candidates for the award should submit the following materials:
A cover letter with the thesis author’s contact information.
A letter of nomination from the thesis chair/director or the chair of the university department in which the thesis was written. The letter should concisely describe the scope and significance of the thesis, including its contribution to the knowledge base of the discipline.
A blind copy of the full thesis (including abstract) in PDF form. IMPORTANT: Please make sure that all identifying information—including author, school, and thesis advisor/committee names—have been removed from all parts of the document. Be sure to check not only the title page but also the abstract, dedication/acknowledgements, bio page, and other pages that such identifying information often appears in academic theses.
A blind copy of a sample chapter, submitter’s choice, from the thesis, identifying information removed, for first-round competition. This should also be in PDF form.
Nominations, along with all the supporting materials, should be sent to AEJHistoryThesisAward@gmail.com no later than 11:59 p.m. Pacific on Feb. 1, 2020.
Questions should be directed to Dr. Amy Mattson Lauters, chair of the AEJMC History Thesis Award Committee, at AEJHistoryThesisAward@gmail.com
By Will Mari, Louisiana State University, Vice Chair/Program Chair, wtmari@gmail.com
Voting to continue the digital version of “Clio,” creating a more extensive and resilient archive of its back issues, updates to the division’s constitution, podcast funding, and the formation of a finance committee were among the highlights of the 2019 business meeting held at the AEJMC conference in Toronto in early August. More details, including review of the meeting minutes, follow below.
End-of-year status report
After calling the meeting to order at 6:39 p.m., the outgoing chair, Dr. Erika Pribanic-Smith, of UT-Arlington, gave the 2018-19 year-in-review report, with research, Professional Freedom and Responsibility (PF&R) and teaching as the main themes. Dr. Teri Finneman of Kansas, vice-chair/program chair and the incoming division president, also released a list of conferences. The diversity award is new this year, Dr. Pribanic-Smith announced, and the Toronto ArQuives (https://arquives.ca/) visit was discussed. The membership program and the thesis award were also outlined by Dr. Pribanic-Smith.
The new diversity award was given to Michelle Rotuno-Johnson, a student at Ohio University.
All three themes came together in the Journalism History Podcast, “Journalism History” website (https://journalism-history.org/), “Clio” and PF&R panels, along with Diversity in the Digital Archives, along with social-media outlets. Teaching will be a focus next year under Finneman, said Dr. Pribanic-Smith.
Membership last year was 268, but is now up to 289, placing the division at fifth in size at AEJMC, but we’re likely now actually fourth, counting members who joined during or immediately before the conference.
Overall membership for AEJMC is about 3,434, down from last year, with 702 student members (considered high) and 234 international members; paper submissions were down somewhat this year, from 1,584 last year to 1,458 this year, with 713 papers accepted, or 48.9 percent. Border-crossing issues may be a factor, especially for international students and scholars.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith also reviewed non-conference activity; nine people worked on JH, 16 people on division leadership, with 16 additional committee members, inc. PF&R and a new publication committee, 18 people were enrolled in the mentorship program; 82 were featured in various ways in our division publications/projects, and probably up to 100 members were named. There was lots of membership engagement, with a focus on representation and diversity, said Dr. Pribanic-Smith.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then thanked Dr. Nancy Roberts, with the Covert competition, Colin Kearney as grad-student representative, for their service, and Dr. Melita Garza as PF&R committee chair (note that Dr. Garza was a finalist for the AEJMC Tankard Book Award).
Continuing with the e-“Clio,” and other changes/updates
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then reviewed member action items, including “Clio,” constitution/bylaw amendments, podcast funding, future-award presentations, the selection of the 2024 conference site, and second vice-chair (i.e. research chair) election.
With “Clio,” Dr. Pribanic-Smith reviewed the advantages of the digital “Clio,” including more frequent publication and engagement, with better tracking of metrics and the use of e-newsletters as more common (and it can be downloaded offline as needed—more on that below).
Dr. Pribanic-Smith addressed some of the concerns raised at least year’s business meeting; a greater focus has been on Division business, she said,, and also longer articles including in-depth interviews via the podcasts, for examples; Pribanic-Smith showed an example of the new format. An example of the new format includes Q&A’s with the authors on their books versus long excerpts.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then opened the floor to discussion; Dr. Doug Cumming complimented the new “Clio,” Dr. Lillie Fears asked if there was a cost (none), Dr. Paulette Kilmer then commented that it was good to take advantage of the affordances provided by newsletter technology.
Dr. Kristin Gustafson asked about the longevity of links online; Dr. Pribanic-Smith said that screenshots and the WordPress blog could function as an archive (the images can be made into a PDF for later).
Dr. David Mindich also asked about archiving of previous, older paper “Clio’s;” he said he might start the process, with c. mid-1990s, and reaching out to previous “Clio” editors. Dr. Carolyn Kitch asked if there is a way for “Clio” to be in scholarly databases, citing a couple of examples, including other academic newsletters, to help enhance what she referred to as the seriousness of contributions.
Dr. Kilmer then added that the archiving of the newsletters could be important to helping preserving the history of the organization. She then moved that an archive be established, going back to as far as possible. The motion was approved. Dr. Candi Carter Olson moved that the electronic format be continued. And the motion was also approved. No “nays” were noted from the floor. Dr. Kitch said that that the University of Wisconsin-Madison might have a partial archive, and Dr. Finneman noted that Dr. Keith Greenwood might have some records as well. Dr. Mindich affirmed his desire to start working on the project, and that it might take the form of a digital dropbox.
Next, Dr. Pribanic-Smith reviewed the changes to the constitution, with the formation of committees vs. chairs, in some places. Also references to “by mail” and to “by phone,” to be made more agnostic, in terms of the medium, specifically for polling, to account for future tech, and some grammatical and spelling fixes.
The main change would be to article the structure of the membership committee, with five members and two chairs, with two members being graduate students as part of it. This would clarify the previous structure, which had been more undefined in terms of size and length of term.
Dr. Gustafson thanked Dr. Pribanic-Smith and Dr. Finneman for their attention to detail on this issue. Dr. Pribanic-Smith thanked Dr. Lisa Burns, the current chair of the book committee, for her help, specifically. A motion was made by Gustafson to accept changes, with Dr. Therese Lueck seconding, with approval by voice vote from the floor with no “nays.”
Podcast funding
Dr. Finneman then talked about the podcast funding, including a description of finances with AEJMC and the attempt to use ads from the University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri, and other universities to help offset costs.
She asked the division to give $500 toward the podcast, to help circumvent that cumbersome process. The university of our guests would get a free ad instead, she said, with the funds drawn from the journal funding. The division will have up to $10,000 by the end of the calendar year. Dr. Finneman explained that about $5,000 a year will be going into our budget (which is about $70,000 total); the total budget would then be $1,500, with $1,000 from Taylor & Francis, our publisher, for use for transcription and promotion, along with hosting. Dr. Finneman asked for questions; none were asked; a voice vote approved with no noted “nays.”
Awards-ceremony timing
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then introduced the vote-able items for the membership present, including the timing of award presentations (versus the general business meeting, which is the default choice), along with city choices for the 2024 conference (the next, in 2020, being in San Francisco, then 2021 in New Orleans, then 2022, in Detroit; more below).
Taylor & Francis provides $1,000 for funding; $250 was used, with $750 leftover. The $5 fee helped to defray the costs, but is not necessarily necessary, she explained.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then opened the floor to discussion; Dr. Lueck commented on the lunches with other divisions being in conflict, and asked if breakfasts were a way to avoid programming conflicts, perhaps. Dr. Kilmer asked about the social, and if that could be used instead, post meeting. Dr. Liz Atwood asked if the podcast could be done over the meal. Dr. Smith said that yes, that would be still possible, with our official one-hour slot.
Dr. Cumming asked if the attendance goes down at the business meeting, and made the point that narrowing the conference would make it less expensive for some members.
Convention-site choice
Dr. Pribanic-Smith next introduced the convention-site options, inc. Nashville ($249 for the conference hotel, Aug. 5-8), Philadelphia ($214 or $234, Aug. 7-10) or NYC ($259 with no grad rate, Aug. 5-8), for 2024, with areas determining where to go next.
Members then discussed the merits of various options. [Secretary’s note: Philadelphia was the provisional choice of the conference, it was announced on Saturday].
Dr. Pribanic-Smith discussed the nomination of the second vice-chair, as the final of the three main action items for the ballot, and reviewed his various qualifications, especially with the Southeast colloquium, and with legal issues during the journal transfer.
No further nominations from the floor for research chair were given, with Dr. Cayce Myers of Virginia Tech nominated previously by the executive committee. The membership then voted him in by acclamation, with no objections.
Incoming chair’s remarks
Dr. Finneman next gave some short remarks in her role as the new division chair, including an overview of her goals. These include the launch of a new senior-scholar award recognizing post-tenure scholars, establishing a virtual conference as an option for those with limited travel funds, beginning with four short webinars over zoom throughout the academic year, with a call for panels, after a sample/example. to take place on Thursday, Oct. 17, featuring the podcast/podcasting. A virtual-conference committee will be formed, with Dr. Jennifer Moore, Dr. Kim Voss, Dr. Will Mari, Dr. Finneman and Dr. Shemberger.
Dr. Finneman then discussed including growing the podcast and making it more shared and useable, and establishing a finance committee with the goal of investing the division’s funds well and using it long-term, with ideas to be voted on by the membership, and with a chance to comment on any proposals to be voted on next year at the business meeting in San Francisco. She also announced that increasing diversity and inclusion for the division is one of her goals, with the PF&R chair to engage on that mission, along with the membership chairs. A student essay contest on why media history matters, will be due in Nov., with gift cards to be given to the top three undergraduate submissions, with an overall focus on teaching.
Miscellaneous items
Before dismissing for the social, a request was made for any announcements from the floor; Dr. Burns had one on the book award, with the October deadline and an encouragement to get publishers involved. She also announced that there were two openings on the book-award committee, and overviewed the the approved changes to the structure of the book-prize committee.
Dr. Finneman then introduced full leadership team.
Dr. Finneman than moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:54 p.m.; with Dr. Cumming seconding, and members approved. Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Will Mari, 2018-18 secretary and research chair, 2019-2020 incoming vice-chair/program chair
Dr. Will Mari and student award winner Bailey Dick.
Dr. Melita Garza discussing history and current events.
The teaching competition winners.
You can find photos from the history division’s AEJMC activities posted in our Facebook group.
We hope to see you in 2020 in San Francisco!
AEJMC 2018 in Photos
Click on each photo to enlarge. Photos courtesy of W. Joseph Campbell, Candi Carter Olson, Melita Garza, Teri Finneman, Will Mari, and Erika Pribanic-Smith.
Andie Tucher receives the Covert Award for best mass communication history article, essay, or book chapter.
John Ferré presents the History Division Book Award to Fred Carroll.
The History Division’s officers are proposing a series of amendments to the division’s Constitution and Bylaws. Members will discuss and vote on these changes during the division’s annual business meeting, scheduled for 6:45 p.m. on Aug. 7 at the AEJMC conference in Washington, D.C.
Restructuring of the History Division’s leadership drove a majority of the proposed amendments. In the division’s annual report last year, Chair Doug Cumming stated that his goals for this year included the following:
The division will develop a strategic plan for a deeper and more diverse “bench” of leaders in years to come. This might also include adding a “Program Chair” and “Research Chair” to our roster of officers, to relieve most of that work (though not oversight) from the division chair and vice chair.
The current leadership ladder starts with the Secretary/Clio Editor position, followed by Vice-Chair/Research Chair and then Chair/Program Chair.
Over the past several months, the History Division officers have reviewed the structure of other divisions within AEJMC and found that the Program Chair almost universally is the division’s Vice-Chair. That the History Division is not structured the same way caused some difficulty and confusion with the computerized “chipping” system divisions use to propose panels and make deals for co-sponsorship. Therefore, it has become imperative that the History Division shift its Program Chair duties from the Chair to the Vice-Chair.
In many other divisions, the Research Chair is a separate position that may or may not be part of the ladder toward division Chair. The History Division’s officers recommend that the Research Chair position remain part of the leadership ladder, but they propose shifting it from the First Vice-Chair to the Second Vice-Chair (formerly Secretary).
Rather than creating a new position to take over the task of editing Clio, that job would shift from the Second Vice-Chair to the two Membership Chairs, who largely are responsible for gathering member news for the publication anyway. Though the Membership Chairs long have been part of the division’s executive committee, their position was not codified. Therefore, proposed amendments spell out the term and responsibilities for that important position.
Finally, the History Division’s successful adoption of the academic quarterly journal Journalism History required adding the journal editor’s term, duties, and appointment mechanism (a publications committee) to the Constitution and Bylaws.
The deadline for submitting papers for AEJMC’s 2016 annual convention is approaching, and that means the History Division needs reviewers for the paper submissions.
If you are willing to review papers for the History Division research competition, please contact Division Vice Head and Research Chair Michael S. Sweeney (Ohio University) at sweenem3@ohio.edu and indicate your areas of expertise and/or interest. We will need approximately 75 reviewers for the competition. Graduate students are not eligible to serve as reviewers and,n in general, reviewers should not have submitted their own research into the competition.
AEJMC’s History Division invites submissions of original research papers and historiographical essays on all aspects of media history for the 2016 annual convention in Minneapolis. All research methodologies are welcome.
Papers will be evaluated on the originality and importance of topic; literature review; clarity of research purpose; focus; use of evidence to support the paper’s purpose and conclusions; and the degree to which the paper contributes to the field of journalism and mass communication history. The top three faculty papers receive awards from the division.
Papers should be no more than 25 double-spaced pages, not including notes, references or appendices. Papers should have a one-inch margin and use 12 point Times New Roman font. Authors should also submit a 75-word abstract. Multiple submissions to the History Division are not allowed, and only one paper per author will be accepted for presentation in the History Division’s research sessions. Authors of accepted papers are required to forward papers to discussants and moderators prior to the conference.
It’s time to submit panel proposals for the 2016 AEJMC national conference in Minneapolis.
The History Division is looking for panels that help the division offer a diverse, engaging and creative program that represents the depth and breadth of our members’ research, teaching, and professional interests.
Along with a description of the panel, proposals should include at the top of the page the group proposing the panel (History Division) and the contact person for the panel. As part of the proposal indicate whether the panel is aimed at Teaching, Research or Professional Freedom and Responsibility. Also suggest divisions or interest groups that might co-sponsor the panel.
A panel typically has four speakers, preferably with an ethnic, gender and institutional balance. Please try to get commitment from panel members before submitting the proposal when possible.
Deadline for panel proposals is September 30, 2015.
The History Division has several sessions scheduled for the 2015 annual convention in San Francisco. The sessions run the gamut from research paper presentations, scholar-to-scholar presentations and teaching/PF&R panels.
The History Division annual meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 8. All History Division members are encouraged to attend.
