By Kruthika Kamath, Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

A former deejay, music director, and radio consultant, Dr. Donna Halper switched tracks after three decades in broadcasting to become a professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a strong supporter of the Media Ecology school of thought and guides her students with her extensive knowledge of popular culture, media history, and media effects. Her research interests include how women and minorities are represented in media, early baseball history, and unsung heroes and heroines in the history of broadcasting. Moreover, not only is she the author of six books and numerous articles, Halper is also a blogger and a freelance writer.

This helped guide a conversation about her more recent work, specifically her current inspirations, how she ties her research interests to the evolving field of mass media, and advice for new scholars.

Q: What is the most recent historical research project you have worked on?

A: I just completed an article for the Baseball Research Journal, which was about how some women journalists, in the era from 1900–1930 navigated the culture’s gendered expectations and found ways to report on baseball. While few women back then were expected to cover sports (especially men’s sports), I found some who did and my article tells their stories. It is about the obstacles they encountered, as well as how they dealt with society’s beliefs about what women could and could not do.  

Q: How did you come to your area of scholarship?

A: When I was a kid, I loved radio and wanted to be on the air. Growing up in the 1950s, I was told that women could host a cooking show, dispense advice to homemakers, or be a receptionist at a radio station, but not a deejay or a sports reporter. Today, we take it for granted that women can cover news or sports, play the hits, or be the manager; but back then, opportunities for women in media were few and limited. I was turned away from my college station when I applied to be on the air in 1964, which led to a four-year battle that culminated in my becoming the first female deejay in the university’s history in 1968. From there, I spent more than three decades in broadcasting and was frequently the only woman wherever I worked, which made me wonder if there were other women before me. However, every media history book I read asserted that women did not get into broadcasting until the late 1960s and I wondered if some women were written out of history. In the late 1980s, I became determined to find out and my ongoing research ultimately became a book, “Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting” (First edition: 2001, Second edition: 2014). And as it turns out, many women did play important roles in early broadcasting and they had indeed been written out of history.

Q: How does your research inform your teaching?

A: As a media historian, I use my research to refute myths (“This has never happened before!” “Things have never been this bad!” “No-one has ever done anything like this!”). It helps me put current issues into a historical context and tell a fuller story than just “rounding up the usual suspects.” Media history is more than just the great men who invented X or the great men who implemented Y. Their stories are certainly important, but I am especially interested in how inventions and new technologies have affected people’s lives. I collect memorabilia (old fan magazines, photographs, etc.) that I use in presentations to help students understand how radio and TV were perceived and how they changed society. I want my students, especially my journalism students, to distinguish myth from fact, understand why X happened, and who was affected by it. I use my research to show students what the internet (especially scholarly databases) can and cannot do to help with their research. Also, my research into representations (especially racial and gender stereotypes) shows students what attitudes used to be and how they have (or have not) changed.

Q: How does your research program add to the diversity goals of the AEJMC History Division?

A: I have spent more than four decades researching forgotten women and minorities in media history. I also do ongoing research into the history of broadcasting about forgotten men and women during radio’s first 15 years, as well as women and minorities in non-traditional occupations that I believe adds to AEJMC’s diversity goals.     

Q: What advice do you have for junior faculty/scholars?

A: There are so many stories that need to be told and so many groups, who have contributed to media history, but have not been covered in research. Our role as educators is to let students know that accurate information is essential to our democracy. So, find the stories that haven’t been told and tell them; but be accurate and fair to the facts. It is a great time to be a media scholar—we can learn from the past, apply it to the present, and keep our eye on what the next thing might be. And as someone who got her Ph.D. at age 64, never stop doing research because there’s always something new to learn!