By Erika Pribanic-Smith, History Division Chair, University of Texas-Arlington, epsmith@uta.edu

The History Division has had a busy year, and the incoming leadership aims to continue the momentum we’ve built. To that end, the membership has a lot to discuss during our annual member business meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 9 at the AEJMC conference in Toronto.

To make sure meeting attendees have enough time for discussion, the meeting format will be different from what we have done in recent years. For one, we will not have a lengthy recap of the previous year’s activities. Although we view the work we’ve done as important and we are proud of what we have accomplished, we have done so much that we simply do not have time to go over everything in detail. Instead, after voting on whether to approve last year’s minutes, I will give a brief summary of the highlights to start the meeting. Those interested in the full review of our activities are encouraged to read the 18-page (single-spaced) annual report that we submitted to AEJMC Headquarters. Clicking this link will download the report as a PDF. We also will have a few copies available in Toronto.

Next on the agenda, the membership will discuss several items up for a vote.

W. Joseph Campbell (American University) presented research in May at the annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in Toronto. Campbell’s presentation, “Myths of Political Polling,” addressed such misperceptions as the notion that pollsters ended their fieldwork weeks before the “Dewey defeats Truman” election of 1948 and that the Literary Digest‘s demise was caused by the magazine’s failed polling about the 1936 election.

Elisabeth Fondren (Louisiana State University) will be joining St. John’s University in New York as an assistant professor of journalism in September 2019. 

By Rachel Grant, Membership Co-Chair, rlgrant6@gmail.com

AEJMC History Division member Carrie Teresa, an assistant professor and chair in Communication and Media Studies at Niagara University, recently authored Looking at the Stars: Black Celebrity Journalism in Jim Crow America, and we recently had a chance to chat with her about the process of researching and co-authoring this thought-provoking manuscript.

Q: Describe the focus of your book. 

A: Looking at the Stars focuses on an analysis of the entertainment pages of Black press weeklies from 1900 to 1940. It charts the development of celebrity reporting in those pages, and it analyzes the discourse journalists used to discuss famous black performers in theatre, radio, film, and sports. The book argues that early Black celebrities fulfilled three important social functions. First, they constituted what ordinary black citizens deemed “positive representations” of the race, though that definition changed by decade and, I think, continues to evolve today. Second, they worked tirelessly to give back to the communities from which they emerged. And finally, they proudly defined black identity on its own terms, confronting and dismantling racist ideologies along the way. Ultimately, the book argues that early coverage of the popular culture celebrities of the Black press set the stage for the work of modern “entertainer-activists” such as Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, and Colin Kaepernick.

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

A: This work began as my dissertation project for Temple’s Media and Communication program. My interest in the Black press was first sparked in Carolyn Kitch’s Journalism History course, and my interest in celebrity culture and representation developed after I watched Ken Burns’s documentary on the first Black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson, called Unforgiveable Blackness. Johnson’s position as a polarizing celebrity in the early 1900s prompted me to think about how other Black celebrities might have been framed as representations (or not) of the race, especially against the backdrop of rapidly changing technological, political, and social conditions during the early twentieth century.

Where you work: I’m an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Whitworth University, where I’ve been since 2015. From 2009 to 2015, I taught in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

Where you got your Ph.D.: Indiana University (2009). I received my M.A. from the University of Utah in 1993. In between those two degrees, I was working in journalism before being drawn back to academia.

Current favorite class: Definitely my Media History course. I also enjoy teaching International Media Systems, a class that allows me to tap into my passion for talking to students about journalism across borders.

Current research project: I have recently wrapped up a research project on the German-American press during World War I (article forthcoming). I am now exploring my next direction in my research areas of history of foreign-language journalism and Cold War-era journalism.

AEJMC in Toronto is just two months away! Plan your schedule of History Division events now with our conference guide. It also includes suggestions for historic sites to visit if you have spare time.

The division has a jam-packed slate of events, starting with our pre-conference awards gala Tuesday evening, Aug. 6, and ending with our teaching award panel Saturday morning, Aug. 10.

Please note that pre-registration is required for two of our activities.

• If you’re planning to attend the awards gala Aug. 6, make sure to register for it when you register for the convention. Cost is $5. If you’ve already registered and want to add it, you can do so at this form: https://aejmc2.wufoo.com/forms/2019-conference-workshops-and-luncheons-form/
• We have limited spots available for our tour of the ArQuives with the LGBTQ Interest Group. Make sure to email Robby Byrd at rdbyrd@memphis.edu by June 28 to secure your spot. Cost is $10, to be paid on arrival at the ArQuives.

We can’t wait to see you in Toronto! If you have any questions before then, let us know at aejmchistory@gmail.com

Michelle Rotuno-Johnson has won the inaugural Diversity in Journalism History Research Award for her paper, “Cultural Hegemony in New York Press Coverage of the 1969 Stonewall Riots.”

Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the new Diversity Award recognizes the outstanding paper in journalism or mass communication history submitted to the annual paper competition that addresses issues of inclusion and the study of marginalized groups and topics. Rotuno-Johnson will receive a cash prize during the division’s business meeting on Friday, Aug. 9 at the AEJMC National Convention in Toronto. Rotuno-Johnson is also the recipient of the third-place graduate-student research paper award.

The judges for the History Division’s Diversity Award competition were impressed by the paper’s unique combination of primary-source analysis and theory.

“The paper … sheds much needed light on the way journalists, as products of their time, enforced and reinforced negative stereotypes about members of the LGBTQ community through media coverage of this pivotal act in gay civil rights history,” said Dr. Melita Garza, one of the contest’s judges.

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) has selected Dr. Matthew Pressman as the winner of its Book Award honoring the best journalism and mass communication history book published in 2018. The author of On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News (Harvard University Press), Pressman is an assistant professor of journalism in the College of Communication and the Arts at Seton Hall University where he teaches courses in journalism history, journalistic practice, and writing. Prior to earning his Ph.D. in History from Boston University, Pressman worked for eight years as an assistant editor and online columnist at Vanity Fair magazine.

A panel of three distinguished media historians chose On Press from a field of 22 entries. One judge noted, “With so many outstanding entries this year, judging was particularly challenging. Even though journalism is under intense criticism from some quarters, its history is rich with reminders of its importance to society.”

Ana Stevenson has been named winner of the 35th annual Covert Award in Mass Communication History. A postdoctoral research fellow in the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State, South Africa, Stevenson won for “Imagining Women’s Suffrage: Frontier Landscapes and the Transnational Print Culture of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States,” Pacific Historical Review, 87, no. 4 (2018): 638–666.

The History Division will present the $500 award to Stevenson on Aug. 6 during its award gala at the annual AEJMC convention in Toronto.

Laura Purcell has won the inaugural Hazel Dicken-Garcia Award for her thesis, “Getting People to Wish What They Need: How the United States Government Used Public Relations Strategies to Communicate Food Policy during World War II, 1941-1945.” Purcell completed her research at Virginia Tech University under the direction of Cayce Myers.

Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Dicken-Garcia Award recognizes the outstanding thesis in journalism or mass communication history completed during the previous calendar year. Both Purcell and Myers will receive cash prizes during the division’s awards gala Aug. 6 at the AEJMC National Convention in Toronto.