The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is celebrating fifty years of continuous publishing of its journal, Journalism History. Published since 1974, Journalism History is well respected as the oldest peer-reviewed journal of mass media history in the United States.
“Journalism History has served as an excellent research journal for media historians to document the impact of mass media from various time periods, perspectives, and cultures,” said Rachel Grant (University of Florida), chairwoman of the History Division. “In a time where the importance of history is being questioned, the History Division is proud to promote quality research.”
Journalism History, the journal of the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), is offering microgrant funding to encourage research relating to the intersection of diversity and media history. Proposed topics should incorporate any of the following or an intersection of the following with media history: race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, class, religion, disability, mental health, and/or rural populations. Submissions related to public relations and advertising diversity history are also welcome.
To apply, write a one-page description of your research project proposal that includes a brief description of your budget. The maximum grant request is $1,250.
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is pleased to announce that Dr. Perry Parks will be the next editor of its journal, Journalism History.
The History Division officers unanimously voted to accept the Publications Committee’s recommendation to select Parks, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University.
“Dr. Parks’ vision for the journal, his professional background, and his service commitment and research focus, make him the ideal person for moving Journalism History forward,” said Maddie Liseblad, chairwoman of the division’s Publications Committee. “He is a perfect fit for the position and a tremendous asset to our division.”
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication invites applications for editor of Journalism History.
Adopted as the official journal of the History Division in 2018, Journalism History is well respected as the oldest peer-reviewed journal of mass media history in the United States. Continuously published since 1974, this scholarly journal is a quarterly publication that features excellent scholarship on media history.
Paul Myers and Lisa Parcell of Wichita State University won the 2023 Michael S. Sweeney Award for their article, “Beauty and the Bran: Kellogg’s Campaign to ‘Correct Faulty Elimination’ and Conquer the Cereal Industry.”
Paul Myers and Lisa Parcell of Wichita State University
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. In addition to receiving a plaque and cash prize, Myers and Parcell will be honored during the History Division’s awards gala at this year’s AEJMC conference in Washington, D.C.
“What started as an interest in a random line of text on the Kellogg’s website led to a historical journey through the bowels of one of Kellogg’s long-forgotten advertising campaigns,” Myers said. “This paper, unique in subject matter as it is, has served as an interesting conversation piece amongst colleagues and was realistically my first foray into historical research, in turn, leading to the discovery of a research area for me to call home.”
Parcell said Kellogg’s did exactly what students today are taught to do – clearly identify a target audience, understand their concerns, and create messaging that shows how the product solves their problems.
“One of my favorite things about this article is that I can use it in both my graduate historical methods class and my senior capstone Integrated Marketing Communication Campaigns class,” she said. “A sincere thank you to the Journalism History reviewers and editors who made this paper stronger and to the History Division’s Publications Committee for the recognition.”
Their article, published in Volume 48 Issue 4 of Journalism History, examines how the Kellogg’s Corn Flake Company’s investment into home economics became integral to the brand itself and helped establish Kellogg’s as a leader in addressing the growing dietary health concerns of the early twentieth century and in the breakfast food industry. The company’s success today can clearly be traced back to its original efforts to address health concerns through advertisements that taught women how to use bran cereal as both a curative and preventative food for constipation and related symptoms.
Jason Lee Guthrie, an assistant professor at Clayton State University, won the Leibner Cooper Grant for Creative Productions on the History of Media from the Broadcast Education Association (BEA). Guthrie was honored for his podcast Recollecting Carter, which explores the life of President Jimmy Carter. The full series will consist of several episodes and will feature oral history interviews with journalists, archivists, and academic experts, as well as archival media from the 1960s to the present day. The podcast is available through Apple podcasts and Spotify.
Jon Marshall
Jon Marshall of Northwestern University won the Best Podcast Guest Award from Journalism History. He is a guest in “Episode 105: Watergate and the Press,” a top-rated episode of the podcast with over 400 downloads. Marshall was also selected for his support of the show in the past year. Journalism History chooses its top guest from the prior calendar year.
Six historians will receive funding this spring to advance diverse perspectives in media history.
The microgrant initiative was a joint collaboration between American Journalism/American Journalism Historians Association and Journalism History/AEJMC History Division. Journalism History Publications Chairwoman Teri Finneman said the goal was to provide direct support to increase diversity research in the journals.
“The number of applications that we received exceeded expectations, prompting us to award more projects than initially planned,” Finneman said. “It’s truly wonderful to see how many great ideas there are and the direction of journalism history research.”
Betto van Waarden is the winner of the 2023 Tom Reilly Award.
His article, “The Many Faces of Performative Politics: Satires of Statesman Bernhard von Bülow in Wilhelmine Germany,” was the most popular on the Journalism History website in 2022.
He is a senior postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders at the KU Leuven in Belgium. He researches transnationalism, democratization, parliaments, celebrity politics, and the attention economy.
Betto van Waarden, senior postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders at the KU Leuven, is the winner of the 2023 Tom Reilly Award.
“I am honored to receive the Reilly Award and grateful for its recognition of my efforts to communicate my research to the public, which is an important ambition of mine,” van Waarden said. “The award helps to highlight journalism research on satire and its role in modern politics.”
While historical and contemporary thinkers have described politics as theater, van Waarden’s winning article moves beyond this representation of politics to understand how performance was central to politics around the turn of the twentieth century. It does so through an analysis of a large volume of hitherto unstudied caricatures of the German statesman Bernhard von Bülow.
In an effort to raise awareness about the depth of the Journalism History archives, Pam Parry and Teri Finneman have organized 600 Journalism History articles by topic. The hope is that this document will aid in the compilation of readings lists, literature reviews and syllabus development. The list includes more than 30 topics.
The list was distributed to History Division members in January. If you would like to receive a copy, please reach out to Teri Finneman (finnemte@gmail.com) or Pam Parry (pparry@semo.edu).
Each issue, Clio highlights the latest episode of the Journalism History podcast and recommend a set of episodes from the archives. The podcasts — available on the website and through many podcast players — are excellent teaching tools, easy to add to your syllabi. Transcripts of each episode are available online.
This issue we highlight the origins of the paparazzi, celebrity journalism, and the college cover girls on Life magazine.
