Patrick File, associate professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno
Where you work: Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada, Reno
Where you got your Ph.D.: University of Minnesota
Current favorite class: This is like asking to pick a favorite child! I’m certainly feeling the gravity of teaching our required First Amendment class these days. I also teach a fun class on using FOIA and public records laws in reporting.
Current research project: A book project on the early legal problems encountered in the incorporation of photography into journalism, circa 1880-1920.
Fun fact about yourself: I’m a twin! My twin sister is a high school music teacher.
It’s hard to believe that we are just two weeks away from meeting in Detroit for our annual AEJMC conference. Even more difficult to believe is that the last time we met was in 2019 in Toronto, Canada. Our excellent leadership team, Maddie Liseblad (California State, Long Beach) and Rachel Grant (Florida), are excited to see everyone in person. As I have said before, AEJMC is not designed to be a virtual organization. The friendships and connections made at the annual convention are a big part of what the History Division as an organization does. In many ways, those friendships, collaborations, and mentorship are the heart of what our division does best.
There are many things that have changed in the past two years with AEJMC, and our leadership team has worked hard to facilitate the familiar and the new. One familiar aspect that we are excited about is the annual division Gala, which will be held on August 2nd at 7:30 p.m. CST. The Gala is where we plan to give our annual awards. The cost for attendance is $5.
A new aspect of our annual conference is the virtual business meeting scheduled for July 28th at 1 p.m. EST. The business meeting is being held on Zoom and will be facilitated by AEJMC through a Zoom link sent directly to members. A meeting agenda and annual division report was sent to members on the division’s listserv on June 26th. If you did not receive the information for the business meeting, please email me directly at mcmyers@vt.edu.
The virtual business meeting will serve as our only business meeting for the conference, so there will not be a separate meeting in Detroit. At the meeting we will cover the traditional agenda, and elect the new Second Vice Chair/Research Chair for 2022-2023. On the agenda are also some voting items, so please plan to attend even if you are unable to join us in person in Detroit.
I want to thank the leadership of the History Division for their hard work during unprecedented times. The quality of what our division provides members is the product of many hours of work from many dedicated members. I also want to take this opportunity in my final Clio letter to thank Maddie Liseblad (California State, Long Beach) and Rachel Grant (Florida) for their amazing work this past year. The Division is stronger for their leadership. I also want to note that my role as chair would not be possible without the help and dedication of my immediate predecessors, Will Mari (Louisiana State) and Teri Finneman (Kansas), who were always there for guidance and support.
Finally, I want to thank our members for all that they have done to make this year a tremendous success. I have enjoyed the opportunity to serve as the History Division Chair, and am excited about the division’s future.-
The Journal of 20th Century Media History, a new peer reviewed online academic journal, is soliciting original scholarly article manuscripts for its first issue. The journal is designed to be broadly interdisciplinary and address current scholarship across a wide range of subject areas. As the title suggests, we are looking to publish historical work about topics that, in the main, focus on people, events, ideas, and practices from the 20th century. Article submissions that make use of innovative research techniques and methodologies are highly encouraged, as is research that draws attention to previously marginalized or under-represented groups or forms of media practice. The journal can be found at https://mds.marshall.edu/j20thcenturymediahistory/
Fake news has been a feature of American journalism since Publick Occurrences hit the streets of Boston in 1690. Paradoxically, however, the enduring battles to defeat fake news have helped give rise to a phenomenon even more hazardous to truth and democracy. I’m calling it “fake journalism”: the appropriation and exploitation of the outward forms of professionalized journalism in order to lend credibility to falsehood, propaganda, disinformation, and advocacy. As the media have grown ever more massive and ever more deeply entwined in the political system, so has fake journalism, to the point where it has become an essential driver of the political polarization of public life.
How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?
I’ve been writing about fake news since long before it became a meme. I’ve always been interested in the evolution of the conventions of truth-telling–in journalism but also in history, photography, personal narrative, and other nonfiction forms–and it became very clear to me that you can’t study what’s accepted as true without also understanding what isn’t, what wasn’t, and what shouldn’t be.
Andie Tucher, H. Gordon Garbedian Professor of Journalism and director of the Communication PhD Program, Columbia Journalism School
What archives or research materials did you use?
My main—and favorite—sources were searchable databases of historical newspapers and magazines (ProQuest, Chronicling America, Newspapers.com, Readex Historical Newspapers, American Periodicals, OpinionArchives, lots of individual and proprietary databases), which allowed me to follow particular stories across eras and regions and to watch how they grew, mutated, and clashed. What a welcome change from the hassles, limitations, and discomforts of the microfilm reader!
How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?
It addresses the whole three-century-plus history of U.S. journalism, and concludes by arguing that it’s more important than ever for the true professional journalists to strengthen and maintain the traditional standards and conventions of the craft. They must commit themselves to the rigorous, fact-based, non-partisan, intellectually honest search for truth–wherever the evidence might lead.
What advice do you have for other historians that are working on or starting book projects?
Know when to stop! Every time I thought I’d come to the end, some fresh incident, provocation, or outrage involving fake journalism or fake news would erupt and tempt me to add just a few more paragraphs… Of course you want your book to be good, but you also want it to be done.
We’re looking for applicants for our Website Administrator position. The administrator is responsible for updating the AEJMC History Division’s website – https://mediahistorydivision.com – on an as-needed basis. The site is built using WordPress so it is user-friendly and easy; knowledge of HTML is not needed. The Website Administrator is a part of the division’s executive committee so the person must be a member. Training will be provided by our current Website Administrator, Keith Greenwood. If interested, please contact current Vice Chair Maddie Liseblad (Madeleine.Liseblad@csulb.edu).
We have great history division sessions planned for Detroit AEJMC conference. The division is involved in seven panels and has four research paper sessions planned, plus an awards gala event.
The gala will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Please note that it requires pre-registration. Our top paper session is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 5 at 6 p.m. You can find the rest of the conference schedule here, https://community.aejmc.org/conference/schedule/program. We hope to see you in Detroit!
Joint New York Conference Needs Your Help! We’re looking for an AEJMC History Division representative to help organize the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference (JJCHC) for spring 2023.
JJCHC is a one-day interdisciplinary conference held in New York. It is co-sponsored by the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA) and the AEJMC History Division.
The AEJMC History Division representative would join AJHA’s A.J. Bauer and Rich Shumate as a conference co-chair. If interested, please contact current Vice Chair Maddie Liseblad (Madeleine.Liseblad@csulb.edu). More information about the joint conference can be found at https://ajha.wildapricot.org/JJCHC
Teri Finneman, an associate professor at the University of Kansas, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the winner of History Division’s Exceptional Service Award.
This important award is given by the division’s chair and vice chair for exceptional service to the History Division. Finneman was the Chair of the History Division in 2020, and is currently is the Publications Chair.
Edgar Simpson of the University of Southern Mississippi is the winner of the 2022 Diversity in Media History Research Award.
The award – presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) – recognizes the outstanding paper in journalism or mass communication history that addresses issues of inclusion and the study of historically marginalized groups or topics. The award winner is selected from research submitted for the annual conference competition.
Simpson won for the paper, “Spinning Hate: Mississippi’s post-Brown PR Offensive and the Secret Campaign Against “Agitators, 1956-1960.”
While all of the papers that were considered offer worthwhile insights into issues of gender, identity, and race representation in media, this particular paper does excellent work examining an important moment in media history that continues to have implications for current moment; as the author(s) state: “These incidents, the study argues, are not just quaint echoes of a dead past, but rather a rare window into what manipulating the public sphere looks like.”
Through an examination of public relations practices in the state of Mississippi following Brown vs. Board of Education, this scholarship advances existing scholarship on the Civil Rights Movement, the press, and public relations, “by examining the extraordinary efforts of the Sovereignty Commission to maintain whiteness as policy by manipulating the public sphere through both accepted public relations practices and the more nefarious art of coercion.”
The study relies on the commission’s archives, opened to the public in 1998 after a 21-year Freedom of Information Act suit, along with other relevant historical resources, to examine the work of this commission and, more importantly, how this commission’s agenda sought nothing less than to manipulate the public sphere (alá Habermas) to gain support for its agenda of ongoing segregationist practices and policies.
This paper raises important and timely questions about the importance of information sourcing and verification and the need for journalists to ask tough questions of public officials and organizations and the information they readily provide.
Simpson will receive a plaque and cash prize for their award-winning research. He will also be recognized during the History Division’s business meeting on July 28th virtually.
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is announcing that Edgar Simpson of the University of Southern Mississippi, has won this year’s Top Faculty Paper Award.
He will receive a plaque and a $100 cash prize for her paper, “Spinning hate: Mississippi’s post-Brown PR offensive and the secret campaign against ‘agitators,’ 1956-1960.”
The second-place faculty paper award goes to Perry Parks of Michigan State University for “Often it is disastrous to take a single note”: Memory and Materiality in a Century of Journalism Textbooks.”
Third place faculty paper goes to Yu-li Chang Zacher of Bethel University for “First Chinese American Newspaperwoman: Mamie Louise Leung at Los Angeles Record, 1926-1929″
In the student paper competition, the top award winner is Anna Lindner of the Wayne State University for her paper “Race and Social Status: A Content Analysis of the Colonial Cuban Newspaper Gaceta de la Habana, 1849.” She will receive a plaque and a $100 cash prize.
The second place student award goes to Diflin Mulupi of the University of Mayland College Park for “Eugenic Sterilization in the New York Times Between 1905-1910 and 1925-1929.”
Third place was won by Grayce Limpert of the Minnesota State University Mankato for “Framing My Lai in Print News: Archival Case Study of The My Lai Massacre Coverage in Newspapers.”
