Each month, Clio highlights the latest episode of the Journalism History podcast and recommend a set of episodes from the archives. The podcasts — available on the website and through many podcast players — are excellent teaching tools, easy to add to your syllabi. Transcripts of each episode are available online.
This month we highlight political radicalism and the fight for the First Amendment.
Episode 101: Anna Popkova – The Immigrant Press and the Red Scare Researcher Anna Popkova describes the importance of the immigrant press in the early 1900s to help build and inform communities new to America and how critical they were during times of sweeping discrimination.
Episode 35: Bailey Dick – Dorothy Day and The Catholic Worker Host Nick Hirshon spoke with Bailey Dick about the radical journalism of Dorothy Day during her five decades at the helm of The Catholic Worker.
Carolyn Kitch, winner of the Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar Award
The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication will honor Dr. Carolyn Kitch as the Donald L. Shaw Senior Scholar during the Division’s Awards Gala on Aug. 2. Dr. Kitch is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Journalism in the Department of Journalism and the Media and Communication Doctoral Program of Temple University’s Klein College of Media and Communication.
Established in 2020, the award honors a scholar who has a record of excellence in media history that has spanned a minimum of 15 years, including division membership. It is named in honor of the pioneering journalism theoretician, distinguished journalism historian and former head of the History Division, who taught for almost half of a century at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
“We were gratified by the quality of the nominees for this prestigious award, which is only in its third year,” the judges said. “Dr. Carolyn Kitch’s work is astounding in its depth, breadth, quantity, and quality. Where most scholars might aspire to produce field-defining work in one area, Dr. Kitch has done so in two: memory studies and the history of magazines. In addition to her remarkable publication record, she has made an immeasurable contribution to the field of journalism history by mentoring numerous younger scholars. Although there were other worthy nominees for this award, Dr. Kitch’s career accomplishments in research and mentorship are unparalleled.”
Dr. Kitch has authored, co-authored, or co-edited five books: Front Pages, Front Lines: Media and the Fight for Women’s Suffrage (University of Illinois Press, 2020), co-edited with Linda Steiner and Brooke Kroeger; Pennsylvania in Public Memory: Reclaiming the Industrial Past (Penn State University Press, 2012); Journalism in a Culture of Grief (Routledge, 2008), co-authored with Janice Hume; Pages from the Past: History and Memory in American Magazines (University of North Carolina Press, 2005); and The Girl on the Magazine Cover: The Origins of Visual Stereotypes in American Mass Media (University of North Carolina Press, 2001). Additionally, she has published more than 70 journal articles, book chapters, and reviews and is a member of the editorial boards of 11 scholarly journals.
Based in her record of research, Dr. Kitch was presented the prestigious Guido H. Stempel III Award for Journalism and Mass Communication Research in 2018 from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, given for a body of work that has made an impact in our discipline. In 2006, she won the James W. Carey Media Research Award from the Carl Couch Center for her second book, Pages from the Past (University of North Carolina Press). Moreover, she is a prior winner of AEJMC’s Under-40 Award for excellence in research, teaching and service.
Despite her record of tremendous accomplishments and honors, news of the award surprised the always humble and ever gracious Dr. Kitch.
“This is a humbling honor, and a somewhat bittersweet one in light of Dr. Shaw’s passing last fall,” she noted. “The wide range of his scholarship was an inspiration to me, and he himself was very kind and encouraging when I first attended AEJMC as a graduate student. Similarly, it was the History Division in which I found my first research community, with so many wonderful academic role models. My own scholarly confidence grew within and because of that culture, which has inspired my work for 25 years. Especially for these reasons, I am deeply grateful for this recognition, and for the support of my colleagues, nationally and at Temple, who made it possible.”
During her 21 years at Temple, Dr. Kitch has taught undergraduate and graduate classes on media history, media and social memory, gender and media, visual communication, journalism theory, magazine journalism, and cultural studies. She also has been a Faculty Fellow in the Center for the Humanities at Temple. Previously, she taught at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and worked as a magazine editor and writer for McCall’s, Good Housekeeping, and Reader’s Digest.
Within those classrooms, Dr. Kitch mentored countless undergraduate and graduate students, who have gone on to illustrious careers of their own, including Sue Robinson, Rick Popp, and Carrie Teresa, just to name a few at the graduate level only, and they regularly cite the influence of her contributions on their lives.
“Carolyn Kitch is most deserving of the Shaw Senior Scholar award not only because of her exceptional record of research, but also because of her reputation as a productive, caring, and supportive mentor,” Teresa said. “I have had the pleasure of knowing Carolyn for over ten years; during that time, she not only selflessly shared her expertise and experience with me, but she also gave me the confidence to pursue my research. She was the first scholar to introduce me to the study of journalism history, and her enthusiasm for the subject was infectious. She is not only brilliant, but she is passionate about her work. I am lucky to call Carolyn my mentor and friend. Composer Duke Ellington used the phrase ‘beyond category’ to describe people in whom he held the highest esteem; Carolyn is, without a doubt, ‘beyond category.’”
Division members Janice Hume and Brian Creech were among the scholars who nominated Dr. Kitch, noting that she shared many traits of Donald Shaw and highlighting her priceless contributions as a scholar, mentor, collaborator, and friend.
“Carolyn [Kitch] is one of those scholars who changes the way we think about journalism/mass communication history,” said Dr. Hume, who co-authored Journalism in a Culture of Grief with Dr. Kitch in 2008. “She is more than just highly productive, she is influential. She is also a generous mentor who brings along other scholars in our field.”
Added Dr. Creech, “Carolyn Kitch’s scholarship is foundational in the field. She has helped cement memory studies as a central means for understanding journalism and has written some of the most rigorous, lucid, and engaging scholarly prose in the field. Her insights remain urgent, and can be traced in the strains of research her works continue to inspire.
But her impact has also been uniquely personal. So many junior and mid-career scholars have moments of inspiration we can draw back to Professor Kitch. Whether it’s a reading that caused a change in perspective, a presentation that stimulated a new line of inquiry, a motivating comment or incisive review, or—for the luckiest among us—regular guidance and mentorship, Carolyn embodies the discipline at its most generative and generous.”
Dr. Kitch will receive a plaque and check for $200 during the division’s Awards Gala in conjunction with the AEJMC annual meeting.
Kimberley Mangun, Associate Professor at the University of Utah
Where do you work? I joined the Department of Communication at the University of Utah in 2006.
Where did you receive your Ph.D. from? I earned a Ph.D. in Communication and Society from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.
What is your current favorite class? I developed a beat-reporting project during a weeklong workshop on “Teaching Diversity Across the Curriculum” at the prestigious Poynter Institute in May 2007. Initially, it was incorporated into the semester-long intermediate reporting class I taught. Student-journalists covered a specific diverse beat for the entire term and wrote as many as four multisource stories for publication on a website called Voices of Utah (voices-of-utah.com). Over the years, that class has shifted from a mid-level course to a community-engaged learning capstone, and the name has changed; it is now called “Voices of Utah” to reflect the importance of the published reporting that students do about diverse populations in the Salt Lake Valley. To date, student-journalists have covered 15 different communities, some more than once, and the website I created has been viewed by almost 200,000 people from more than 160 countries.
What is a current research project? I’m taking a break from research after spending a decade working on my recent book about Birmingham World editor Emory O. Jackson and his fight for civil rights in Alabama between 1940 and 1975. But, I have long dreamed about creating a children’s book about another editor I’ve studied—Beatrice Morrow Cannady, leader of the Portland, Oregon, Advocate in the 1920s and 1930s. My dissertation and subsequent book have brought a lot of attention to the activist-editor—including a new elementary school named for her—and I would enjoy creating a book so youth can learn more about her passions for education and equality.
What is a fun fact about yourself? I love to eat grits, which is an unusual food choice for someone raised in Southern California. Whenever I travel in the South, I look for local mills where I can purchase cloth bags of yellow or white or blue grits. But once, TSA agents at Reagan National Airport were puzzled by a dense bag of grits I had purchased at nearby Mount Vernon. I tried to explain that the contents were similar to oatmeal or porridge but they still were dubious. I finally realized that one agent had a New York accent and asked about his familiarity with Italian cuisine. “Polenta!” I exclaimed, after the agent said he missed the city’s Italian food. “Grits are like polenta!” And with that, the two-pound bag was returned to my carry-on.
Elisabeth Fondren, an assistant professor of journalism in the Division of Mass Communication at St. John’s University, has won the 2022 Michael S. Sweeney Award for her article, “The Mirror with a Memory”: The Great War through the Lens of Percy Brown, British Correspondent and Photojournalist (1914-1920).”
Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Sweeney Award recognizes the outstanding article published in the previous volume of the scholarly journal Journalism History. In addition to receiving a plaque and cash prize, Fondren will be honored during the History Division’s awards gala at this year’s AEJMC conference in Detroit.
“I am very honored to receive this year’s Michael S. Sweeney Award and to be recognized for my research on Percy Brown, a British working class freelance photojournalist during World War I. Brown’s eyewitness perspective, his gripping pictures from the Western Front and his three years in enemy war prison illustrate the sacrifices journalists make during war. His story also sheds new light on how military and propaganda units blocked access to information, censored truths, and jailed reporters,” Fondren said.
It’s that time of year again! AEJMC paper deadline is April 1st at 11:59 p.m. CDT. I want to go ahead and thank all of you who are submitting this year, and also want to thank those of you who are serving as reviewers for the History Division. If you are a reviewer and have questions about setting up your All Academic account please visit the following website: http://www.aejmc.org/home/2013/01/login-video/.
If you have any questions about the submission please do not hesitate to reach out to me or any member our executive team. Reviewers should also contact Dr. Rachel Grant (Florida), rgrant@jou.ufl.edu, with any issues regarding the review process.
While our executive team is still finalizing the plans for the August conference, members should note that our business meeting will occur prior to the conference. This year’s business meeting will be held virtually on July 28th at 1 p.m. EDT via Zoom. Look for an email from AEJMC with that information later in summer.
This month’s CLIO is filled with the amazing work of our members. Take a few minutes to review our member news and podcast recommendations. There is also a call for papers for the 30th Annual Symposium on the 19th Century, the Civil War and Free Expression.
Good luck to everyone with their AEJMC submissions!
Chris Lamb, chair of the journalism and public relations department at Indiana University-Indianapolis, will have his book, Stolen Dreams: The 1955 Cannon Street All-Stars and Little League Baseball’s Civil War, published on April 1 by the University of Nebraska Press. The book examines racial discrimination, the press, and youth baseball in South Carolina in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Contact Chris with any inquiries.
Joe Saltzman, professor of journalism and communications at the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism, University of Southern California, published “A 21st-Century Method of Teaching Media Ethics” in Media Ethics, The Magazine Serving Mass Communication Ethics, Fall 2021, Vol. 33, No. 1. In the article, he argues that our practices of teaching media ethics must change with the times. He explains how he uses film in new ways to teach journalism ethics. Saltzman also just published “The 20th-Century Image of the Journalist in Hallmark Films, 2000-2020,” in the IJPC Journal, a study of 360 films showing that there are more positive Black, Asian-American and female journalists in Hallmark films contradicting many of the stereotypes its conservative audience has of the news media.
UNC Press, partnered with Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, has published O.N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South by Berkley Hudson, associate professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism. With explanatory essays, the book contains more than 190 photographs. Pruitt, a white photographer in the Jim Crow era of Mississippi, photographed a stunning range of Black and white community life, documenting the sublime and horrific. The book serves as a companion for a NEH-sponsored traveling exhibit. The New York Times Sunday Book Review has featured a full-page on the book. Smithsonian.com, and Garden and Gun likewise have run stories.
Will Mari, associate professor at Louisiana State University, has a new article out in Digital Journalism, “(Electronic) Mailing the Editor: Emails, Message Boards and Early Interactive Web Design in the 1990s.” The article explores how design practices, including integrated forums, tabs, indexes and other early site design conventions—sometimes intentional, sometimes not— led to the first generation of online interactions between readers and news workers in the United States, and, to some degree, in the United Kingdom and Canada. Contact Will if you’d like him to send you the PDF.
Kathryn McGarr, assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has a new article in Journalism: “‘The Right to Voice Your Opinions’: A Historical Case Study in Audience Members’ Emotional Hostility to Radio Journalists.” The article uses listener hate mail to radio reporters during a divisive moment—President Harry Truman’s removal of General Douglas MacArthur from his command in the Korean War in April 1951—to identify a politically rancorous discourse, aimed at the press. This period of high emotion for Americans provides a case study in audience members’ sometimes hostile relationship with journalists and does so at an early moment in the creation of a truly mass national news audience.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism, to which so many of our AEJMC History Division Members have contributed, has now been published! The volumes were edited by Gregory A. Borchard, professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Each month, Clio will highlight the latest episode of the Journalism History podcast and recommend a set of episodes from the archives. The podcasts — available on the website and through many podcast players — are excellent teaching tools, easy to add to your syllabi. Transcripts of each episode are available online.
This month’s focus is on wartime reporting, with episodes discussing conflicts both hot and cold, domestic and international.
Episode 92: Truth And Ideology Among Cold War Correspondents Historian Dina Fainberg explores the experiences of U.S. and Soviet foreign correspondents during the Cold War and the competing notions of truth they pursued in their reporting. She discusses some of the findings of her recent book, Cold War Correspondents: Soviet and American Reporters on the Ideological Front Lines, 1945-1991 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021).
Episode 74: The Great War Through the Lens Journalism professor Elisabeth Fondren joins the podcast to discuss the little known World War I photographer Percy Brown, who captured significant photojournalism history during his time in captivity in a prison camp after he was accused of being a spy. You can read more about Fondren’s work in her recent Journalism History article, “The Mirror with a Memory’: The Great War through the Lens of Percy Brown, British Correspondent and Photojournalist (1914-1920).”
Episode 60: Ernie Pyle, WWII, and Telling It Like It Is This episode covers the career of one of the most prominent war correspondents, Ernie Pyle. Owen Johnson discusses Pyle’s journey in journalism, from growing up in rural Indiana to his must-read journalism during World War II.
And check out the podcast’s episode on the unknown stories of the Titanic – the unsinkable ship slipped beneath the waters of the North Atlantic 110 years ago this month.
The steering committee of the thirtieth annual Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression solicits papers dealing with US mass media of the 19th century, the Civil War in fiction and history, freedom of expression in the 19th century, presidents and the 19th century press, images of race and gender, sensationalism and crime in 19th century newspapers, and the antebellum press and the causes of the Civil War. Selected papers will be presented during the conference Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, November 3–5, 2022. The top three papers and the top three student papers will be honored accordingly.
The Symposium will be conducted via ZOOM (for both speakers and participants). If possible, it will also be conducted in person.
The purpose of the November conference is to share current research and to develop a series of monographs. This year the steering committee will pay special attention to papers and panel presentations on the Civil War and the press, presidents and the 19th century press, news reports of 19th century epidemics, coverage of immigrants, African Americans, and Native Americans, and 19th century spiritualism and ghost stories. Since 2000, the Symposium has produced eight distinctly different books of readings: The Civil War and the Press (2000); Memory and Myth: The Civil War in Fiction and Film from Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Cold Mountain (2007); Words at War: The Civil War and American Journalism (2008); Seeking a Voice: Images of Race and Gender in the 19th Century Press (2009); Sensationalism: Murder, Mayhem, Mudslinging, Scandals, and Disasters in 19th-Century Reporting (2013); A Press Divided: Newspaper Coverage of the Civil War (2014); After the War: The Press in a Changing America, 1865–1900 (2017); and The Antebellum Press: Setting the Stage for Civil War (2019). The panel presentations from the 2020 Symposium were recorded and aired on C-SPAN.
The symposium is sponsored by the George R. West, Jr. Chair of Excellence in Communication and Public Affairs, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Communication Department, the Walter and Leona Schmitt Family Foundation Research Fund, and the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Fund for the Symposium, and because of this sponsorship, no registration fee will be charged. Papers should be able to be presented within 20 minutes, at least 10–15 pages long. Please send your paper (including a 200–300 word abstract) as a Word attachment to west-chair-office@utc.edu by August 26, 2022. We hope you will join us this year, and we hope you will invite your friends. We would appreciate it if you would duplicate and circulate our Call for Papers and poster to anyone who might be interested.
The History Division is holding a members’ business meeting via Zoom on Thursday, July 28 at 1 p.m. EDT. Look for an email invitation from AEJMC closer to the date.
Rob Wells joined the faculty at the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism this spring as a visiting associate professor. He will be teaching a variety of reporting classes and is continuing work on data journalism and the history of business journalism. His second book, The Insider: How the Kiplinger Newsletter Bridged Washington and Wall Street, is due out in the Fall and will be published by the University of Massachusetts Press.
Owen V. Johnson has published an essay in The Hill proposing that Fort Benning be renamed Fort Ernie Pyle to honor all the war correspondents who have covered US troops.
Teri Finneman, Pam Walck and Meg Heckman are hosting a News Desert University conference in October. The conference will have both in-person and Zoom components the evening of Friday, Oct. 21, and during the day Saturday, Oct. 22. Topics will include a deans panel, creating a syllabus for a news desert classroom, raising funds to start these ventures, building trust in communities, lessons from students, the logistics of running a news desert operation and a brainstorming hour. The University of Kansas J-School is sponsoring and hosting the event in Lawrence. Registration will be free. Anyone interested should join our Facebook group for further announcements as we continue planning the conference and getting our registration site up.
