Call for Proposals: Media Building: New Perspectives on Journalism, Mass Communication, and the Built Environment

A new collection, Media Building: New Perspectives on Journalism, Mass Communication, and the Built Environment, is soliciting abstract proposals for an upcoming edited volume. The collection will bring together scholars to interrogate the enduring and evolving relationship between journalism, mass communications, and the built environment. From the emergence of the first newspapers, media creators have intuitively understood the importance of connecting place and content. This has centered on the media building – most powerfully rendered through iconic headquarters such as the Tribune tower in Chicago and the Daily Express building in London.

Abstracts of 350-500 words, alongside a short position statement explaining how you envision your chapter contributing to the collection as a whole, to be submitted by January 10, 2023. Editors are Will Mari, LSU; Carole O’Reilly, Salford; E. James West, Northampton.

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Member News: Brooke Kroeger, Yong Volz

Brooke Kroeger, professor emerita at New York University, has a new book coming out in May 2023 from A.A. Knopf. Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism is a representative history of American women who ignored every impediment put in their way to do journalism’s most valued work and of the collective fight for equity in the profession throughout the 180-plus years since mass media began.

Yong Volz, associate professor and Roger Gafke Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the Missouri School of Journalism, is the 2022 recipient of the School’s O.O. McIntyre Professorship in recognition of teaching excellence. Volz is the 35th recipient of the award, which has been given annually since 1987.

Remembering David Sachsman

David Sachsman, the George R. West, Jr. Chair of Excellence in Communication and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, died on October 4, 2022. He was 77.

Beginning in 1993, Sachsman organized the annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression. The Chattanoogan’s obituary discussed Sachsman’s legacy and role in shaping the annual event: “Dr. Sachsman was particularly proud of how the symposium fostered new scholars, with many first attending as graduate students and then continuing to participate in the conference as their career progressed. Since 2000, work from the symposium has been published in eight books edited by Dr. Sachsman, as well as dozens of other publications created by symposium attendees.”

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A Word from the the PF&R Committee: What do we as media historians owe the current moment?

“It’s tricky to point at a lack. But in journalism, what’s left unsaid — whether it was overlooked or ignored — can be as corrosive as a falsehood.”

Melissa Greene-Blye

A searing truth written by Brendan Kiley as part of the The Seattle Times’ A1 Revisited Project which seeks to reexamine the paper’s past coverage of historical events to address harm caused by how some events were covered.

In this case, Kiley is writing about the paper’s coverage of Native American protests at Fort Lawton in March 1970. Kiley informs today’s readers that there was a profound disconnect between the newspaper and the community it was trying to cover, “In missing the context, we missed the story.”

I think about the New York Times’ 1619 Project which sought to “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” This project was criticized by some historians who argued it put ideology before historical understanding and accuracy.

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Author Q&A: Will Mari, Newsrooms and the Disruption of the Internet

Newsrooms and the Disruption of the Internet: A Short History of Disruptive Technologies, 1990 – 2010 (Routledge, 2022).

Describe the focus of your book.

It is a (very brief) history of the impact of the internet on the news industry and on news workers. It is a sequel to my earlier book on the history of newsroom computerization, A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies: 1960-1990, which was published in 2019. 

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

Toward the end of my research for my first book for Routledge, I read a number of reports in trade publications such as Editor & Publisher, some of them breathlessly optimistic, others more circumspect, on the arrival of the civilian internet in the early 1990s. The promise and peril of that moment inspired me to write a follow-on book to my newsroom-computerization history, and Bob Franklin, my generous editor for the “Disruptions” series, encouraged me to do so. 

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Membership Q&A: Robin Sundaramoorthy

Where you are currently getting your Ph.D.?
Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland (UMD)

What brought you into grad school?
I’ve always wanted to get my Ph.D. in journalism. I seriously considered getting it immediately after I completed my master’s degree at Michigan State University, but I was offered a job at a local TV station and decided to pursue a career instead. I spent 20 amazing years working in TV news, and when it was time to move on, I didn’t think twice about applying to UMD. I want to teach and conduct research, and my professional experiences have taught me some valuable lessons that I can share with others. 

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Award Call: Hazel Dicken-Garcia Outstanding Master’s Thesis in Journalism and Mass Communication History

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication will present its award for Outstanding Master’s Thesis in journalism and mass communication history in 2023, recognizing the outstanding mass communication history thesis completed during the 2022 calendar year.

The award will be presented during the member awards gala at the 2023 AEJMC conference in Washington, D.C.

Any master’s thesis on a topic in mass communication history will be considered, regardless of research method. Submissions must be in English. The thesis must have been submitted, defended, and filed in final form to the author’s degree-granting university between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022. Membership in the AEJMC History Division is not required to submit.

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Award Call: Jinx C. Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History

This award is presented to the winners of the AEJMC History Division’s teaching competition. Members may submit an innovative teaching technique to the contest, which is judged by a committee each spring. 

Teaching ideas should be original, tested, and creative techniques used by the author in teaching media history and could be used by other instructors or institutions. The competition welcomes a variety of teaching ideas, including those taught across a quarter/semester or taught as a module within an individual course. Of particular interest are teaching ideas that help instructors address one or more of these pedagogies: diversity, collaboration, community, or justice. The 2023 deadline for submissions is January 15.

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Award Call: Best Journalism and Mass Communication History Book

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s History Division is soliciting entries for its annual award for the best journalism and mass communication history book. The winning author will receive a plaque and a $500 prize at the August 2023 AEJMC conference in Washington, D.C. Attendance at the conference is encouraged as the author will be invited to be a guest for a live taping of the Journalism History podcast during the History Division awards event. 

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