Maurine Beasley, Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, is the 2025 Reilly Award Winner. Beasley was selected for her long, dedicated service to Journalism History, and in particular her many years as an article reviewer.
The Reilly Award is named after Tom Reilly, Journalism History’s founding editor. Previously, the award had been given to the most downloaded article on the journal’s website. With the academic publishing model evolving, Journalism History’s Publications Committee decided to change the award’s focus to the unsung heroes of the publication process: the reviewers. Without reviewers, academic publishing would not work. They receive no payment and put in hours of work for each article.
“Being a reviewer is a thankless job, and we want to change that,” said Committee Chairwoman Maddie Liseblad. “For years, Maurine Beasley has been a steadfast reviewer, someone the editors can count on. She has worked behind the scenes, without any acknowledgements. The committee wants to celebrate Beasley’s exceptional commitment and show that reviewers matter and are valued. We want to highlight the important role of reviewers in academic publishing.”
There are a lot of positive aspects of reviewing, as Beasley explains.
“I have found reviewing for Journalism History quite rewarding through the years,” said Beasley. “First, I have learned so much about areas of media history that I would not have encountered elsewhere. Second, it has helped me as a researcher and writer because in trying to provide others with constructive suggestions for their manuscripts, I have seen similar problems in my own work and ways to remedy them. Reviewing is part of the teaching process in academic circles and, as we all know, the beauty of teaching is learning from others.”
Not only is Beasley a committed reviewer, but she is also the second most published author in Journalism History with her nine journal articles.
Moving forward, the Reilly Award will become a “Reviewer of the Year” award, focusing on a reviewer who has provided this critical service.
“We’re extremely grateful to our expert reviewers for their commitment to serving the journal – and more importantly – our field of media and communication studies,” said journal Editor Perry Parks. “Careful and earnest reviewers are essential both as guardians of rigorous scholarship and as developmental guides for authors, who often receive little expert feedback beyond the constructive comments that accompany a submission decision. Maurine Beasley is a perfect inaugural recipient of the reconceived Reilly Award for her longstanding impact on Journalism History’s scholarship and her nurturing of many highly regarded papers into publication.”
The Reilly Award was established in 2021 to honor the founding editor of Journalism History, Tom Reilly. He was a California State University, Northridge, professor who led the journal from 1974-1985. More about Reilly can be found at tinyurl.com/journalfounder.
Journalism History is the official academic journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s History Division. The Division will recognize Maurine Beasley with the Tom Reilly Award during its Awards Gala at the 2025 AEJMC conference in San Francisco in August. Journalism History, the oldest peer-reviewed journal of mass media history in the United States, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024. Please see https://journalism-history.org for more information about the journal.