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.
Nick Hirshon (William Paterson University) received the Society of Professional Journalists’ inaugural New Jersey Journalism Educator of the Year Award at a ceremony in June. The judges cited Hirshon for creating and advising an SPJ chapter on his campus, organizing a walking tour of historic journalism sites in Philadelphia with his students during a regional SPJ conference last year, and demonstrating “tireless work” to establish the New Jersey Journalism Hall of Fame at William Patterson.
Kevin M. Lerner’s first book, Provoking the Press: (MORE) Magazine and the Crisis of Confidence in American Journalism, was published in June by The University of Missouri Press. The book tells the story of (MORE), a journalism review from the 1970s that attempted to reform the mainstream press in America and question ideals of objectivity at a time when trust in institutions was low. Founded by Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter J. Anthony Lukas, and featuring almost every prominent byline of the decade, (MORE) also held a series of “Counter-Conventions,” raucous gatherings of journalists that brought together a range of people from Woodward and Bernstein to the staff of the local daily. Provoking the Press tells the intellectual history of the journalism of the formative years of the 1970s, and explores the power of criticism to reform and guide the institutions of the press and, in turn, influence public discourse. See more at http://provokingthepress.com/
Diana Knott Martinelli (West Virginia University) has been promoted to dean of the Reed College of Media. She previously served more than seven years as associate dean of the college. She succeeds Maryanne Reed, who was promoted to provost.
Jennifer Moore (University of Minnesota Duluth) was promoted to associate professor.
David Sachsman (University of Tennessee-Chattanooga) and Gregory Borchard (University of Nevada Las Vegas) published The Antebellum Press: Setting the Stage for Civil War with Routledge. The book reveals the critical role of journalism in the years leading up to America’s deadliest conflict by exploring the events that foreshadowed and, in some ways, contributed directly to the outbreak of war. This collection of scholarly essays traces how the national press influenced and shaped America’s path towards warfare. Major challenges faced by American newspapers prior to secession and war are explored, including: the economic development of the press; technology and its influence on the press; major editors and reporters (North and South) and the role of partisanship; and the central debate over slavery in the future of an expanding nation. A clear narrative of institutional, political, and cultural tensions between 1820 and 1861 is presented through the contributors’ use of primary sources. In this way, the reader is offered contemporary perspectives that provide unique insights into which local or national issues were pivotal to the writers whose words informed and influenced the people of the time.
Shelia Webb (Western Washington University) published her article “The Delphian Society and Its Publications: A Historical and Cultural Analysis of a Primer for Middle-Class Women’s Education” in Journalism History. Webb presented “Teaching Journalism Ethics in A Global Context,” at the World Journalism Education Congress in Paris in July. Also, she received 2nd place in Mass Communication and Society Teaching Ideas Competition.