Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism & Creative Media, University of Alabama

Where you got your PhD: New York University, Department of Social & Cultural Analysis (American Studies)

Current favorite class: History of Mass Communication

Current research project: I’m working on a book called Making the Liberal Media, which tells the history of conservative press criticism in the United States from the 1940s through the 1980s. It’s basically a history of the idea of “liberal media bias.” The book sidesteps the tired and (I believe) unresolvable debates over whether or not bias exists. Instead, my archival research shows how a conservative critical disposition toward the press emerged in response to theories of public opinion and media influence developed by progressive scholars and journalists during the Interwar period. These theories were codified in federal broadcast regulations and professional press standards in the wake of World War II and were used to dismiss right anti-communists and opponents of the New Deal as inherently susceptible to propaganda and beyond the pale of “responsible” political deliberation. As a result, modern conservatism became preoccupied with challenging the veracity of mainstream sources of information while developing conservative standards of news judgment. The book chronicles the role of media activists in building the post-war conservative movement in the U.S., foregrounding the efforts of American Business Consultants, Facts Forum, and Accuracy in Media. I’ve published preliminary findings from this project in American Journalism and Radical History Review.

Fun fact about yourself: I have a masked alter-ego who occasionally performs as a hype man with the Boston-based horror surf rock band Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!