Category Archives: News

Division news items

AEJMC History Division Announces 2023 Sweeney Award Winner

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.

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AEJMC History Division Announces Winners of the 2023 Jinx C. Broussard Award for Excellence in Teaching of Media History

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has selected Ira Chinoy, Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen, Bailey Dick, and Autumn Lorimer Linford as winners of the 2023 Jinx C. Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History.

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 fifth year.

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Microgrant winners selected for American Journalism/Journalism History initiative

2023 Microgrant Winners

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.”

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Journalism History Announces Reilly Award Winner

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.

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Journalism History Podcast Announces Best Guest

Jon Marshall of Northwestern University is the winner of 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.

Jon Marshall of Northwestern University, winner of Best Podcast Guest Award

“I am deeply grateful to AEJMC’s History Division for this award,” Marshall said. “It is especially meaningful for me because the Journalism History podcast series provides a valuable service to teachers, students, and anyone else who is interested in learning more about media history’s fascinating past, and I often use some of its episodes in my own courses. I was honored to be interviewed by Ken Ward about Watergate and the history of presidents and the press for the podcast.”

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Comprehensive List of Journalism History Articles Organized by Subject Available to Membership

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).

Taylor & Francis Launch New Submission Site for Journalism History

Update your bookmarks — Journalism History has a new submission site. This submission system will serve various Taylor & Francis journals, meaning users will only use one log-in when submitting manuscripts to Taylor & Francis publications. This means that there are fewer steps involved to submit and authors can see updates on the status of their submissions more clearly.

Author Q&A: Will Mari, Newsrooms and the Disruption of the Internet

Newsrooms and the Disruption of the Internet: A Short History of Disruptive Technologies, 1990 – 2010 (Routledge, 2022).

Describe the focus of your book.

It is a (very brief) history of the impact of the internet on the news industry and on news workers. It is a sequel to my earlier book on the history of newsroom computerization, A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies: 1960-1990, which was published in 2019. 

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

Toward the end of my research for my first book for Routledge, I read a number of reports in trade publications such as Editor & Publisher, some of them breathlessly optimistic, others more circumspect, on the arrival of the civilian internet in the early 1990s. The promise and peril of that moment inspired me to write a follow-on book to my newsroom-computerization history, and Bob Franklin, my generous editor for the “Disruptions” series, encouraged me to do so. 

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Lisa Burns Is New Mentorship Coordinator, Sign-Up Deadline Approaching 

Dr. Lisa Burns (Quinnipiac) is in charge of the 2022-23 History Division mentorship program.

Dr. Lisa Burns (Quinnipiac) is taking over the History Division’s mentorship program. This marks the fourth year of this highly successful program that was started by Dr. Erika Pribanic-Smith.

If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time. The division is looking for both mentors and mentees. Prior participants have found their relationship highly beneficial, and many have chosen to continue informally after their year has ended. The sign-up deadline is Sept. 18 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time. Apply now at https://forms.gle/CczeAi1cpWZ3Y37m9.

Pairings will be notified via email by early October. The partnerships officially last through August 2023. For questions about the program, please email Lisa Burns at Lisa.Burns@quinnipiac.edu.

A Word From the Chair: People, Goals, and Other Important News

Dr. Maddie Liseblad, History Division Chair

While I write this, I am still reflecting on how great the Detroit conference was. Most of all, I enjoyed seeing people in person again. There’s a certain positive energy that happens when we get together. Our gala event was terrific and so were the research paper and panel sessions. That feeling of “too many great sessions and not enough time to be at them all” was back. There were COVID concerns, but we were masked and together again. That was the best part – being together.

As I begin my year as chair of the History Division, I have been thinking about my personal experiences with this division. And the one thing I keep coming back to is its people. The past chairs have been terrific, and I have big shoes to fill. The executive team puts in countless hours behind the scenes, working for everyone’s benefit. The general membership steps up to help when needed. That is especially evident when we do the call for reviewers each year. 

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