This book examines the history of the Irish American press from the Early National period to the Kennedy presidency. We look at individual journalists who created the Irish American press, the journalists that constituted it, and, most importantly, the transnational nature of that particular press genre.
How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?
Editors Debra Reddin van Tuyll and Mark O’Brien met a decade or more ago at the annual meeting of the Newspapers and Periodicals History Forum of Ireland. During the conference, they began a discussion of how similarly, yet how differently, historians from different parts of the world told the stories of the Irish and the Irish diaspora presses and also how, together, they all seemed to constitute on continuous story. Or maybe a story on a continuum is more accurate. Van Tuyll and O’Brien believed they had an insight into a useful new way to frame journalism history stories, to both deepen and broaden understanding of how a diaspora press is connected to its home and vice versa. They thought this idea might be worth exploring with other historians in a couple of academic gatherings, though they didn’t have a name for it initially.
University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Where did you get your Ph.D.?
Princeton University
What’s your current favorite class?
History of U.S. Media. We analyze a primary source together in every lecture, and I love puzzling through sources with students seeing them for the first time.
Sharon Bramlett-Solomon, an associate professor in the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, is the 2022 recipient of the Lionel C. Barrow Jr. Award for Distinguished Achievement in Diversity Research and Education. The award is presented annually by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and supported by the Minorities and Communication (MAC) Division and the Commission on the Status of Minorities (CSMN). Dr. Bramlett-Solomon will be honored at the MAC Awards and Social on Aug. 4 during the 2022 AEJMC Conference in Detroit.
Janice Hume, the Carolyn McKenzie and Donald E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has been named the college’s associate dean of academic affairs.
Brian Creech has been named Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at Temple University’s Lew Klein College of Media and Communication.
Ross F. Collins, professor of communication at North Dakota State University, Fargo, has published a 420-page book entitled Chocolate: A Cultural Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 2022). As an academic history it is fully referenced, includes a timeline and bibliography. Collins explained that while he has primarily published in journalism history, this book gave him an opportunity to work in his original discipline of cultural history. The book emphasizes economic, colonial, military, social and medical history of chocolate over 500 years. Collins has been a member of AEJMC’s history division since 1990 and is a former president of the American Journalism Historians Association.
Kristin Gustafson was promoted from Associate Teaching Professor to Teaching Professor at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington, Bothell. Gustafson is entering her third year on the AEJMC Teaching Committee.
“Acadian Airwaves: A History of Cajun Radio” by Noah Arceneaux, a professor at San Diego State University, has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Radio Studies and Audio Media. Thanks to some family connections, Arceneaux has also been invited to present this material at the Grand Reveil Acadien, a festival to celebrate Cajun culture that happens every five years. In October 2022, he’ll be traveling to Lafayette, Louisiana to speak at the event, and most likely do more research for future extensions of the project.
Joe Campbell, a professor at American University, participated in a discussion about myths and counter-narratives of the Watergate scandal in the run-up in June to the 50th anniversary of the break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters that set off the scandal. Joe described why the “heroic-journalist” myth has become, and remains, Watergate’s dominant popular narrative. The two-day online conference was organized by Shane O’Sullivan of the Kingston School of Art in London and included presentations and reminiscences by Watergate prosecutors, lawyers, and FBI agents. Joe, a former History Division chair, also discussed Watergate mythology in a pre-anniversary essay for the Conversation.
Amber Roessner has been promoted to full professor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s School of Journalism and Electronic Media.
Patrick File, associate professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno
Where you work: Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno
Where you got your Ph.D.: University of Minnesota
Current favorite class: This is like asking to pick a favorite child! I’m certainly feeling the gravity of teaching our required First Amendment class these days. I also teach a fun class on using FOIA and public records laws in reporting.
Current research project: A book project on the early legal problems encountered in the incorporation of photography into journalism, circa 1880-1920.
Fun fact about yourself: I’m a twin! My twin sister is a high school music teacher.
Fake news has been a feature of American journalism since Publick Occurrences hit the streets of Boston in 1690. Paradoxically, however, the enduring battles to defeat fake news have helped give rise to a phenomenon even more hazardous to truth and democracy. I’m calling it “fake journalism”: the appropriation and exploitation of the outward forms of professionalized journalism in order to lend credibility to falsehood, propaganda, disinformation, and advocacy. As the media have grown ever more massive and ever more deeply entwined in the political system, so has fake journalism, to the point where it has become an essential driver of the political polarization of public life.
How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?
I’ve been writing about fake news since long before it became a meme. I’ve always been interested in the evolution of the conventions of truth-telling–in journalism but also in history, photography, personal narrative, and other nonfiction forms–and it became very clear to me that you can’t study what’s accepted as true without also understanding what isn’t, what wasn’t, and what shouldn’t be.
Andie Tucher, H. Gordon Garbedian Professor of Journalism and director of the Communication PhD Program, Columbia Journalism School
What archives or research materials did you use?
My main—and favorite—sources were searchable databases of historical newspapers and magazines (ProQuest, Chronicling America, Newspapers.com, Readex Historical Newspapers, American Periodicals, OpinionArchives, lots of individual and proprietary databases), which allowed me to follow particular stories across eras and regions and to watch how they grew, mutated, and clashed. What a welcome change from the hassles, limitations, and discomforts of the microfilm reader!
How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?
It addresses the whole three-century-plus history of U.S. journalism, and concludes by arguing that it’s more important than ever for the true professional journalists to strengthen and maintain the traditional standards and conventions of the craft. They must commit themselves to the rigorous, fact-based, non-partisan, intellectually honest search for truth–wherever the evidence might lead.
What advice do you have for other historians that are working on or starting book projects?
Know when to stop! Every time I thought I’d come to the end, some fresh incident, provocation, or outrage involving fake journalism or fake news would erupt and tempt me to add just a few more paragraphs… Of course you want your book to be good, but you also want it to be done.
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has selected Kathy Roberts Forde, Katherine A. Foss, Melita M. Garza, and Will Mari as winners of the 2022 Jinx C. Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History.
Kathy Roberts FordeKatherine A. FossMelita M. GarzaWill Mari
The award acknowledges original, creative practices that journalism educators and media historians use in their classrooms to teach media history and seeks to share those techniques with other instructors. Ideas and practices focused on diversity, collaboration, community, and justice receive special attention in the selection process. The award is in its fourth year.
Kathryn Olmsted, professor of history at the University of California, Davis, published in March 2022 her new book, The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler, with Yale University Press. The book examines the six most powerful press lords in the United States and Great Britain in the 1930s and argues that they prevented their tens of millions of readers from understanding the fascist threat. Some ignored or appeased Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler; others were overtly pro-fascist in their coverage. The book shows that the right-wing media’s embrace of authoritarian dictators has deep roots in the past.
Joe Campbell, a professor in the School of Communication at American University, published his latest polling-related op-ed recently in TheHill. Campbell advised caution about way-too-early predictions about this year’s mid-terms, noting that “expectations about national elections, confidently asserted months in advance, are prone to error — a historical reality tends to be overlooked as a dominant narrative takes hold about an unfolding national campaign.” Drawing on his latest book, Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections (University of California, 2020), Campbell noted that the historical record “encourages caution and humility about expectations developed six or seven months ahead of national elections.”
Maddie Liseblad,an assistant professor of journalism at California State University Long Beach, has been awarded a Fulbright Specialist Award to teach at Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca in Romania in May. She will be lecturing in journalism and public relations classes at the undergraduate and graduate levels. With its about 45,000 students and 365 different programs, the public research university is the largest university in Romania. Liseblad is one of 400 U.S. citizens who will spend time overseas as a part of the Fulbright Specialist program.
Jon Marshall’s new book, Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis, was released May 1 by Potomac Books. Clash explores the political, economic, social, and technological forces that have shaped the relationship between U.S. presidents and the press during times of crisis. Jon is an associate professor in the Medill School of Northwestern University. He also had an op-ed, “Calling Democratslike Biden fascists has always been false,” published on April 25 in the Washington Post’s “Made by History” section.
Anthony R. Fellow, Ph.D., who has taught at California State Fullerton, California State Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California, is author of the fourth edition ofAmerican Media History: The Story of Journalism and Mass Media. It is the story of a nation and of the events in the long battle to disseminate information, entertainment, and opinion in a democratic society. It is the story of the men and women whose inventions, ideas, and struggles shaped the nation and its media system and fought to keep both free. New chapters cover women’s rights, civil rights movements, significant moments in media history (such as 9/11 and the 2020 pandemic), fake news, bias news, and the social media presences of Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump.
Kimberly Voss, professor of journalism at the University of Central Florida, has been named a board member of the Florida Council for History Education. She has also been named the book series editor for Mediating American History with Peter Lang.
Elisabeth Fondren, an assistant professor of journalism in the Division of Mass Communication at St. John’s University, has won the 2022 Michael S. Sweeney Award for her article, “The Mirror with a Memory”: The Great War through the Lens of Percy Brown, British Correspondent and Photojournalist (1914-1920).”
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, Fondren will be honored during the History Division’s awards gala at this year’s AEJMC conference in Detroit.
“I am very honored to receive this year’s Michael S. Sweeney Award and to be recognized for my research on Percy Brown, a British working class freelance photojournalist during World War I. Brown’s eyewitness perspective, his gripping pictures from the Western Front and his three years in enemy war prison illustrate the sacrifices journalists make during war. His story also sheds new light on how military and propaganda units blocked access to information, censored truths, and jailed reporters,” Fondren said.
Chris Lamb, chair of the journalism and public relations department at Indiana University-Indianapolis, will have his book, Stolen Dreams: The 1955 Cannon Street All-Stars and Little League Baseball’s Civil War, published on April 1 by the University of Nebraska Press. The book examines racial discrimination, the press, and youth baseball in South Carolina in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Contact Chris with any inquiries.
Joe Saltzman, professor of journalism and communications at the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, University of Southern California, published “A 21st-Century Method of Teaching Media Ethics” in Media Ethics, The Magazine Serving Mass Communication Ethics, Fall 2021, Vol. 33, No. 1. In the article, he argues that our practices of teaching media ethics must change with the times. He explains how he uses film in new ways to teach journalism ethics. Saltzman also just published “The 20th-Century Image of the Journalist in Hallmark Films, 2000-2020,” in the IJPC Journal, a study of 360 films showing that there are more positive Black, Asian-American and female journalists in Hallmark films contradicting many of the stereotypes its conservative audience has of the news media.
UNC Press, partnered with Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, has published O.N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South by Berkley Hudson, associate professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism. With explanatory essays, the book contains more than 190 photographs. Pruitt, a white photographer in the Jim Crow era of Mississippi, photographed a stunning range of Black and white community life, documenting the sublime and horrific. The book serves as a companion for a NEH-sponsored traveling exhibit. The New York Times Sunday Book Review has featured a full-page on the book. Smithsonian.com, and Garden and Gun likewise have run stories.
Will Mari, associate professor at Louisiana State University, has a new article out in Digital Journalism, “(Electronic) Mailing the Editor: Emails, Message Boards and Early Interactive Web Design in the 1990s.” The article explores how design practices, including integrated forums, tabs, indexes and other early site design conventions—sometimes intentional, sometimes not— led to the first generation of online interactions between readers and news workers in the United States, and, to some degree, in the United Kingdom and Canada. Contact Will if you’d like him to send you the PDF.
Kathryn McGarr, assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has a new article in Journalism: “‘The Right to Voice Your Opinions’: A Historical Case Study in Audience Members’ Emotional Hostility to Radio Journalists.” The article uses listener hate mail to radio reporters during a divisive moment—President Harry Truman’s removal of General Douglas MacArthur from his command in the Korean War in April 1951—to identify a politically rancorous discourse, aimed at the press. This period of high emotion for Americans provides a case study in audience members’ sometimes hostile relationship with journalists and does so at an early moment in the creation of a truly mass national news audience.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism, to which so many of our AEJMC History Division Members have contributed, has now been published! The volumes were edited by Gregory A. Borchard, professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Rob Wells joined the faculty at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism this spring as a visiting associate professor. He will be teaching a variety of reporting classes and is continuing work on data journalism and the history of business journalism. His second book, The Insider: How the Kiplinger Newsletter Bridged Washington and Wall Street, is due out in the Fall and will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press.
Owen V. Johnson has published an essay in The Hill proposing that Fort Benning be renamed Fort Ernie Pyle to honor all the war correspondents who have covered US troops.
Teri Finneman, Pam Walck and Meg Heckman are hosting a News Desert University conference in October. The conference will have both in-person and Zoom components the evening of Friday, Oct. 21, and during the day Saturday, Oct. 22. Topics will include a deans panel, creating a syllabus for a news desert classroom, raising funds to start these ventures, building trust in communities, lessons from students, the logistics of running a news desert operation and a brainstorming hour. The University of Kansas J-School is sponsoring and hosting the event in Lawrence. Registration will be free. Anyone interested should join our Facebook group for further announcements as we continue planning the conference and getting our registration site up.
