“It’s tricky to point at a lack. But in journalism, what’s left unsaid — whether it was overlooked or ignored — can be as corrosive as a falsehood.”
Melissa Greene-Blye
A searing truth written by Brendan Kiley as part of the The Seattle Times’ A1 Revisited Project which seeks to reexamine the paper’s past coverage of historical events to address harm caused by how some events were covered.
In this case, Kiley is writing about the paper’s coverage of Native American protests at Fort Lawton in March 1970. Kiley informs today’s readers that there was a profound disconnect between the newspaper and the community it was trying to cover, “In missing the context, we missed the story.”
I think about the New York Times’ 1619 Project which sought to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” This project was criticized by some historians who argued it put ideology before historical understanding and accuracy.
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.
Teri Finneman, an associate professor at the University of Kansas, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the winner of History Division’s Exceptional Service Award.
This important award is given by the division’s chair and vice chair for exceptional service to the History Division. Finneman was the Chair of the History Division in 2020, and is currently is the Publications Chair.
In the History Division we have been hard at work putting together programming for the 2022 convention in Detroit. A big thank you to all of our members who submitted panel proposals for the upcoming national convention. Our Vice Chair Dr. Madeleine Liseblad (California State-Long Beach) is currently working on finalizing that programming with AEJMC, and those who submitted panels should hear back from the division in early 2022.
Members are what make the History Division such a strong unit within AEJMC. However, some of our members may not have received their membership renewal notifications this year. If you have not received your renewal notification, or are unsure of your membership status, please reach out to AEJMC membership directly.
There is a lot going on in History Division. Of particular note is Dr. Terri Finneman’s (Kansas) update on the new submission guidelines for Journalism History, which we believe will provide a greater opportunity for more submissions. As always, there’s exciting podcast recommendations, member news, and profiles.
Finally, many of our members mourn the loss of the legendary scholar-mentor-teacher Dr. Donald Shaw (North Carolina) who passed away on October 19, 2021. Dr. Bradley Hamm (Northwestern) has written a remembrance of Dr. Shaw and the significant role he played in the field of communication and, more importantly, his impact on his many students.
Once again, thank you to all of our members for your continued support of the division. If there is anything that the division leadership can assist with, please do not hesitate to contact us.
I hope that your summers are off to a good start, and that we can all catch our collective breath a bit.
It almost goes without saying that summers still mean work for scholars, and even in a pandemic-recovery season, that includes catching up on much-needed research, service, reading, writing and even getting in some extra teaching. Our community continues to impress me in its resilience, resolve and grace with all these endeavors. Recently, I was on a road trip to see my mom in Seattle and got a chance to meet (safely!) with a few of our members. I’ll just say this: you rock.
A couple of quick reminders before I proceed: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you to please renew your membership if you haven’t done so yet, and to please register for the conference. It is online, Aug. 4-7, with our awards gala the night of Aug 3, at 7 p.m.; our general membership meeting is at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 5. Registration remains just $69 for regular members and $39 for student members, before July 23.
Cayce, Maddie, myself and the rest of the leadership team are excited for what we have in store, but we are also aware that we’re all more than a little Zoomed out, and so I can promise a straightforward experience, with an emphasis on breaks and starting/stopping at reasonable hours, as far as possible.
As this is my penultimate column—past chair Erika Pribanic-Smith will have a *final* word from me in our wonderful conference guide, which she is again graciously producing for us and which will be available in July, ahead of the conference—I just wanted to say a brief word of thanks for all the hardworking volunteers who have reviewed, signed on as moderators and discussants, served on committees, helped with initiatives, wrote emails, posted to our social-media channels, answered my often-tiresome queries and generally selflessly gave of themselves. Thank you!
We have continued a number of important efforts from last year, despite the pandemic, including our mentorship program, our teaching competition, our inclusion of grad students, our web site’s revamp, our various new awards, our journal’s healthy relationship with Taylor & Francis, and, of course, our awesome podcast, among other projects and programs. My time as chair has focused on supporting you during the pandemic in as many concrete ways as possible, and I hope I have succeeded in that. I have again realized my (many!) limitations, but you continue to inspire me.
We’ll be honoring a number of you at the conference with specific shoutouts, but I wanted to specifically recognize both Maddie and Cayce, for all their help, in matters large and small, throughout the year. They’ll do wonderful work as your new vice chair and chair, respectively.
I am filled with optimism and gratitude that the division will be in truly capable hands next year and beyond, and I am increasingly confident that we will be able to return in person, as well, to Detroit.
Finally, I’m grateful for our immediate past chair Teri Finneman’s encouragement and advice—she has acted as liaison for our journal, but has also been a critical sounding board for me and your other division leaders—thank you!
Look for more conference-specific highlights from me in my final column in the conference guide, which we’ll post to social media and to our listserv, but see other updates on our site, https://mediahistorydivision.com/, and again on @AEJHistory Twitter and our Facebook page.
Please reach out to me at wmari1@lsu.edu, wtmari@gmail.com, or @willthewordguy, if you need anything, or just want to say “hi” as I wrap up my time as your division head.
It has been my great honor to have been your chair. Keep up the great work—#mediahistorymatters.
I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely still in recovery mode, post-semester (though I am rooting for our friends still wrapping things up on the quarter system!).
I have been humbled by my limitations over the past year, but especially over the past month or so. Please know I deeply appreciate of you all and your resiliency and community.
I just wanted to check in to encourage you to please renew your membership and register for the conference, if you have not done so—our draft schedule is also out, thanks to the hard work of Maddie and Cayce. We will be following up closer the conference with more details. Thank you to all those who submitted, reviewed or have otherwise volunteered to help.
As a reminder, the conference is online, from Aug. 4-7—though don’t forget that our awards gala will be on the night of Aug 3, at 7 p.m. We’d love to see you at the general membership meeting at 8:45 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 5. Registration is till only $69 for regular members and $39 for student members, as long as you sign up before July 23. I’m looking forward to a great conference, and hopefully to next year back in person in Detroit.
ICA’s Communication History division is a great sibling organization to join; they just had their conference (it’s happening right now as I write this note).
Our colleagues at the ECREA’s Communication History section are having a post-conference in September, with one focused on “Old Media Persistence;” you can read their call for papers here: https://oldnewspersistence.com/cps/.
Finally, the Media Building conference, focused on the physical manifestations of news, is happening in July, for free, and is sponsored by some of our media-history friends in the UK and around the world.
We’ll continue to update you via the listserv, @AEJHistory Twitter and the History Division Facebook page, as well as our new site: https://mediahistorydivision.com/; please know your leadership team is working hard behind the scenes, for you all.
Feel free to drop me a line at wmari1@lsu.edu, wtmari@gmail.com, or @willthewordguy, if you have any questions or just wanted to say “hi.” Take care—#mediahistorymatters.
This is just a brief check-in note as we finish up spring semester (and soon, spring quarter, for those on that system!)—good luck to everyone. It’s been an exceptionally trying, tiring year, but the continuing vaccine news is helping make things brighter, and we’re looking forward to our summer conference. It is online, and will last from Aug. 4-7 (with our awards gala on the night before, on Aug. 3!).
If you haven’t had a chance to, check out the conference site and make sure to register: http://aejmc.org/events/virtual21/. Registration is very affordable this year, at $69 for regular members and $39 for student members, before July 23. If you haven’t renewed your membership, please do so soon—Cayce, Maddie and I are working hard to make sure the conference provides a great mix of scholarship and support for our community. The division’s annual business meeting will take place during the conference, as well—standby for more info on our programming this summer as we finish the paper competition and set the rest of our schedule.
Speaking of which, thank you to all those who have served on a committee, who have worked as a judge or reviewer, or have otherwise supported the division over this past academic year. We literally could not have done this work without you. As we finish the paper-selection process, I should spotlight once more the great work that Maddie Liseblad has done for us, with organizing that part of the conference in her role as research chair.
As I look to pass the baton to Cayce, and finishing my time as chair in August, I’ll be working on my remaining chair goals. Those include outreach to our international partners, including at ICA’s Communication History division. I’ll hope to see some of you at their conference later in May.
Please be thinking ahead to our sibling organization, the American Journalism Historians’ Association, and their call for papers, panels, and research-in-progress abstracts, due on June 15: https://ajha.wildapricot.org/2021_Paper_Call. Especially if you could not submit something to our conference, they are a really fine group of friends and colleagues, so please check them out.
Finally, a huge shout-out is due to Keith Greenwood, for his work on getting our new site up and running: http://mediahistorydivision.com/. We’ll be working on transferring more content over, and the old site should still work for a while, but the new one, as approved by the division last year, is much more secure (definitely something that’s been an issue lately with other nonprofit pages), easier to update and will allow for more continuity, between leadership teams.
Please keep an eye out for more award announcements on our @AEJHistory Twitter and History Division Facebook page, as well as to that revamped site.
#Mediahistorymatters and so does your work. Please check in with me at wmari1@lsu.edu, wtmari@gmail.com, or @willthewordguy, if you need anything or have any questions or suggestions.
My social-media feeds are filled with hope, for once, as friends and family not only start to get their vaccines, but finish their second doses, and more folks become eligible every day. Even though our 2021 conference is virtual, I am also feeling increasingly confident that we’ll be in Detroit next year and back to a new kind of normal by the end of this fall.
But there have been some really ugly events over the past couple of months that we as media historians need to meditate on and respond to. The first is the racist attack in Atlanta that killed eight people, include six Asian Americans. Your division leadership denounces this senseless violence and we affirm the life and dignity of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), many of whom we count as valued colleagues and friends. For more on how to help proactively, check out groups like Stop AAPI Hate and AAPI Women Lead.
The past year has been full of violence, from the murder of George Floyd last summer to the Jan. 6 attach on the U.S. Capitol and the shooting (last week as I write this) in Boulder, Colorado. It can be hard to know what to do, as scholars. We can and should roundly condemn these acts of violence and repression, but we should then use our classrooms and our scholarship to confront the endemic issues that cause them.
I had an opportunity to talk briefly about this with Dr. Rachel Grant, an assistant professor at the University of Florida, and our Clio newsletter editor, who does vital research on race, social movements, social justice, and Black feminism, often through a media-historian’s lens. She encouraged me to call on the allies of Black and Indigenous people, along with other historically underrepresented groups, to stand with and support them.
Having courageous conversations with students in the classroom, whether it be via Zoom, a hybrid format, or in person, is a lot easier to write about than to do. While I try to foster a dynamic, healthy space for hard topics, like the baked-in history of racism in American institutions like journalism or the military, I of course fall short. I don’t always know what to say, how to create a safe space for conversation, or how to help students discuss these topics when confronting institutional racism makes me uncomfortable as well.
Finally, I would also urge you to read, cite and teach the work of our own members – especially members from historically underrepresented groups – who study these issues.
With our conference, I am hoping for a good showing of research on issues and representation, and want to thank our reviewers for their help, in advance. This column may not appear before the deadline, but I also want to thank those who submitted their work this year amidst really trying circumstances. I also wanted to encourage you, too, that if you just did not have the bandwidth to do so, to please continue your membership and to submit next year.
Please reach out to our research chair, Dr. Maddie Liseblad, at maddie madeleine.liseblad@mtsu.edu, if you have a question about the paper competition (or just to thank her for all she does!).
We will have more information on our conference programming once we get through the judging process, but Cayce and I are excited about we already have in store. We’ll be in touch with further details as we get them.
Don’t forget to join our more secure, revamped Facebook group, “History Division,” if you haven’t had the chance to do so.
Please reach out to me at wmari1@lsu.edu, wtmari@gmail.com, or @willthewordguy, on Twitter, if you need anything or have any questions or suggestions.
#mediahistorymatters and so do you—please continue to stay safe, and we’ll be in touch again soon.
Now that we know our conference format—online—for the summer, I wanted to check in briefly.
Please look at our paper call (which also has info on abstracts), and let Maddie know if you have questions—please also consider being a reviewer. You can learn more and sign up via our site, here. We need a good group of folks this year, especially with those abstracts.
We’ll be getting more updates from big AEJMC about the platform used to host the presentations, as well as on pricing, soon. Cayce, Maddie and I have continued planning for a variety of aspects of the conference, and we’re getting excited about the range of panels, papers and activities that we have in store. We’ll be reaching out to some of you in the next few weeks and months as we head into the spring soon, too.
Speaking of the conference, we had to make the hard decision to not have a preconference this year—I want us to conserve our resources and to focus on making the primary conference great. As I told our executive committee, Dr. Shearon Roberts was incredibly generous to have organized permission to use the physical space at Xavier for free. Thank you! But with things now virtual, and since we did not get much interest, but also in the interest of reducing burdens on our members, we’ll save that idea for another time, perhaps under Cayce and Maddie.
I wanted to share some good news about our site: thanks to the hard work of Keith Greenwood, our webmaster, we’ve secured mediahistorydivision.com and .org. He’s hard at work at starting the transfer of material from our old site, and that should be done sometime later next month, before our next issue of ‘Clio.’ We’ll not lose our archives or content from the old page, but the new one will be a lot easier to update, navigate and use—stay tuned for more update there. This is something we voted on last year, but have been working on behind the scenes since.
Please let me know if you have any questions, and don’t hesitate to contact me at wmari1@lsu.edu, wtmari@gmail.com, or @willthewordguy, on Twitter. Take care!
