Notes for AEJMC History Division Business Meeting

The 2023 AEJMC Journalism History Division business meeting was held on Thursday, July 27, 2023, at 1 p.m. EST. At its peak, 38 members were in attendance.

Division chair Madeleine Liseblad (California State University-Long Beach) began the meeting by sharing a link to the call for the 19th Century Press, the Civil War, and Free Expression symposium to be held at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia, November 3-4, 2023.

The meeting then started in earnest with the approval of the business meeting minutes from 2022. Teri Finneman (Kansas) motioned to approve the minutes, which were then seconded, and then approved unanimously.

“We will try to keep this to an hour, but that may be a failed attempt,” Liseblad began before offering an overview of the range of activities that run through the division in any given year, from publishing seven issues of Clio, to running multiple award competitions, to organizing research competitions for three conferences (the AEJMC annual convention, the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, and the Southeast Colloquium), as well as supporting the range of activities around the division’s journal, Journalism History, which in the past year included continuing to run the podcast, manage the website, support a popular essay series competition, and administer diversity micro-grants.

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Member Q&A: Nate Floyd

What is your current position, and what is your favorite aspect of your job?

I am a part-time journalism instructor in the Department of Media, Journalism, and Film at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where I teach journalism students the fundamentals of news reporting and writing. I also teach, mentor, and support first-year students as a full-time librarian at Miami University Libraries. I really enjoy doing research and supporting students and I get to do a lot of that in my role.

*Nathan Floyd is a journalism instructor at Miami (Ohio) University*

What inspired you to write “Boundary Work, Specialized Accreditation for Journalism, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,” which won the second-place faculty paper award at AEJMC 2023?

My dissertation advisor Mike Conway at Indiana University introduced me to the boundary work framework. I thought it would be interesting to apply that framework to the history of journalism education, and the development of specialized accreditation. But then I just sort of stumbled upon this legal dispute between a newspaper in Jackson, Tennessee, and the federal government over the application of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Then I started seeing this court case get referenced in primary documents. So, it just sort of came together. Boundary work, specialized accreditation for journalism, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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History Division Mentorship Program Call for Participants – Deadline Sept. 22

The AEJMC History Division is seeking participants for this year’s mentorship program. Prior mentors and mentees have found the program highly beneficial, with many choosing to continue their relationships informally after their year has ended.

If you’re looking for help with your career, research, or teaching, sign up as a mentee. Whether you’re a grad student, assistant professor, associate professor, or other, our division’s mentorship program is open to you.

The program also needs willing mentors at all levels to provide guidance and support to the mentees.

To participate, you must be a current member of the History Division or be willing to join the division when you renew your AEJMC membership.

To apply, please email your CV to program coordinator Lisa Burns at Lisa.Burns@quinnipiac.edu and complete this brief application by Friday, September 22 at 11:59 pm PT: https://forms.gle/4sXvFdqEyXHs5P4f9

Pairings will be notified via email by early October. The partnerships officially last through August 2024. If you have any questions, email Lisa.Burns@quinnipiac.edu.

Member News: Erin Coyle, Carolyn Kitch, Henrik Ornebring, Kathryn McGarr, Jon Marshall

Henrik Ornebring (Karlstad University) and co-author Michael Karlsson won the James A. Tankard Jr. Book Award for Journalistic Autonomy: The Genealogy of a Concept (University of Missouri Press). The book is a history of the notion of journalistic “independence” and its meaning. Two History Division members were finalists for the award: Kathryn McGarr (Wisconsin) for City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington (University of Chicago Press), and Jon Marshall (Northwestern) for Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis (University of Nebraska Press).

The James A. Tankard award recognizes the most outstanding book in the field of journalism and communication. It also honors authors whose work embodies excellence in research, writing and creativity.

Erin K. Coyle and Carolyn Kitch (Temple University) were selected for 2023-2024 Center for Humanities at Temple University faculty fellowships. The fellowships provide provide teaching relief and research support for tenured and tenure-track faculty pursuing research in the humanities or humanistic social sciences.

Author Q&A: Teri Finneman and Erika Pribanic-Smith

Social Justice, Activism and Diversity in U.S. Media History (Routledge, 2023)

Describe the focus of your book.

*Teri Finneman is an associate professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas*

Finneman: The goal was to create a book of fascinating journalism history short stories that would appeal to Generation Z and also to general readers while still having a solid grounding in historical research. We wanted to go beyond “Great Man” history and tell the stories of a diverse range of individuals, events, and mass communication strategies with a diverse group of authors. We very much aimed to follow the theme of the Journalism History podcast to “rip out the pages of your history books to reexamine the stories you thought you knew and the ones you were never told.” I’ve taught both diversity and journalism history classes, and this book really merges those two fields.

*Erika Pribanic-Smith is an associate professor at the University of Texas-Arlington*

Pribanic-Smith: Beyond diversity and inclusion, we have strived to include chapters that focus on social justice and activism. That includes how movements have harnessed existing media to advocate for social justice as well as how activists have created their own media to recruit members, inform and educate, build and maintain collective identity, engage and counter mainstream media, and mobilize collective action. We’ve also demonstrated how mainstream media have harmed marginalized groups by ignoring them or advancing damaging stereotypes.

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Member Q&A: Nick Matthews

*Nick Matthews is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri*

Where do you work: The School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. I start in the fall.

Where did you get your Ph.D.: The Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota.

What’s your current favorite class: My favorite class I’ve taught so far as been Podcasting and Audio Storytelling. I taught that during my time at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. I’m sure that will change as I get into my new role at Mizzou.

What’s your current research project: I have two primary projects now. One is a book project with colleagues Teri Finneman and Pat Ferrucci, titled Reviving Rural News: Transforming the Business Model of Community Journalism in the U.S. and Beyond. We are under contract with Routledge. The other is a solo book project, titled Cries from the desert: Living with the loss of local news. I am finalizing the proposal now, and I hope to get it to possible presses very soon.

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A Word From the Chair

The AEJMC conference countdown is on! We’re only a couple of weeks away from meeting in Washington, D.C. For me, I always get a personal and professional energy kick from attending the annual conference. I love listening to quality research and learning new approaches to things, but most of all, I love meeting and catching up with people.

*Dr. Maddie Liseblad, History Division Chair*

We have a great History Division conference program. Vice Chair Rachel Grant (Florida) and Research Chair Brian Creech (Lehigh) have worked hard on organizing our schedule of panels and research presentations. We start the conference with our annual Awards Gala on Sunday, Aug. 6 at 7:30 p.m. EST. The gala is a terrific opportunity to celebrate our award winners. You must pre-register for the event, but it only costs $5 to attend. There will be food, desserts, and drinks.

While we have something going on every day of the conference, I do want to point out two Wednesday (Aug. 9) events. We have the Jinx C. Broussard Award for Excellence in Teaching of Media History panel at 4 p.m. and our top papers presentation at 6 p.m.

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AEJMC History Division Announces 2023 Diversity Award Winner

Miglena Sternadori (Texas Tech) won the 2023 Diversity in Journalism History Research Award.

Texas Tech University associate professor Miglena Sternadori has won the 2023 Diversity in Journalism History Research Award for her conference submission, “The Last Invisible Minority: Tropes and Stigma in News Coverage of Intersex People Since 1752.”

Presented by the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the Diversity Award recognizes the outstanding paper in journalism or mass communication history submitted to the annual paper competition that addresses issues of inclusion and the study of marginalized groups and topics. Sternadori will receive a cash prize during the division’s awards gala on Aug. 6 at the AEJMC National Convention in Washington, D.C.

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Member Q&A: Theresa Russell-Loretz

Where do you work: I’m currently on sabbatical during the 2022-23 academic year from Millersville University, where I’ve served as Department Chair (since 2014) and as an associate professor teaching primarily courses in communication/public relations, ranging from intro to the capstone, and including social media campaigns; crisis, emergency and risk communication; health comm and communication for school district leaders, as well as public speaking.

Where did you get your Ph.D.: My Ph.D. from Purdue University focused on Public Affairs and Issue Management. My M.S. from Kansas State University was in Journalism and Mass Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations.

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A Word from the PF&R Committee: Addressing Gaps in Journalism History Scholarship

“What connection should one feel to acts committed or omitted before one was born?” It is a question lacking a clear-cut answer, but one that informed the most recent Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities given last October by Dr. Andrew Delbanco who chose to take on the divisive topic of reparations.

*Melissa Greene-Blye, assistant professor at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas*

In my last column, I discussed some of the ways in which legacy media outlets were acknowledging gaps in their past coverage, oversights that perpetuated misrepresentation or omission of minority populations in the communities they serve. At that time, I stated, “We, as media historians are uniquely positioned to sound a clarion call to ensure that past oversights and misrepresentations do not continue to manifest in the journalism of the present, and we should ask ourselves what we owe to improving the modern journalistic discourse around underrepresented peoples and communities who have for too long been overlooked in our history and our journalism.”

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