AEJMC History Division Names Next Journalism History Editor

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is pleased to announce that Dr. Perry Parks will be the next editor of its journal, Journalism History.

The History Division officers unanimously voted to accept the Publications Committee’s recommendation to select Parks, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University.

“Dr. Parks’ vision for the journal, his professional background, and his service commitment and research focus, make him the ideal person for moving Journalism History forward,” said Maddie Liseblad, chairwoman of the division’s Publications Committee. “He is a perfect fit for the position and a tremendous asset to our division.”

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Member News: Will Mari

Will Mari (LSU) won the Dr. Dimitrije Pivnick Award in Neuro and Psychiatric History, and with it conducted archival research at McGill University’s Osler Library of the History of Medicine, in July 2023. While there, he was also an invited visiting researcher at the Département de communication at the Université de Montréal.

A Word from the Chair: The Necessity of DEI in the Classroom and Beyond

Discussions about the state of mass media and U.S. history are continually contested — socially and politically. This often results in the removal of marginalized and disenfranchised communities from history, continuing the legacy of inequality that those historically oppressed groups know all too well.

As a Black woman in higher education, I am continually reminded of the erasure of my multiple identities, but I also think of my ancestors’ struggle. That public erasure, while difficult, gives me a greater appreciation of how my family’s everyday lives connect to key moments in Black history. Therefore, I truly believe I am Black History.

Understanding the depths of colorism and white supremacy within Alabama, upon his white father’s death, my great-great-grandfather fled for his life to Parkdale, Arkansas to escape from his white relatives.

Later in Little Rock, Arkansas, my great-grandmother worked as a maid in the state Capitol building.

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Member Q&A: Matt Cikovic

What is your current position and favorite class taught: I am a brand new teaching assistant professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. It’s only my first semester here but my favorite class to teach so far has been multimedia storytelling. For some it’s their first experience making any sort of media in the journalistic form and it’s really gratifying to watch them grow in their confidence and capability.

What is your favorite journalism history scholarship that you’ve worked on so far: I got an article published during my Ph.D. that looked at the collective memory around the reporting of Fred Rogers’ famous congressional testimony to John Pastore in 1969. Examining how the current collective memory of the event grew out of the contemporary reporting of the time (and getting my first experience requesting and utilizing archival material) was a ton of fun!

Do you have any interesting projects in the pipeline: I’ve begun the arduous process of trying to prepare my recently defended dissertation for further publishing, hopefully as a book.

Fun fact about yourself: I got my start in media production (which ultimately led me here) making stop-motion LEGO short films as a kid.

Author Q&A: Jon Marshall

Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis (Potomac Books, 2022)

*Jon Marshall is an associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University*

Describe the focus of your book.

Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis examines the history of the shifting relationship between presidents and journalists from the founding of the United States until Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. The book explores the forces – technological, economic, political, and social – and the personalities that have led to the often-tumultuous current relationship between the news media and the White House. Clash focuses specifically on times of crisis during the presidencies of John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. They are the ones who I think shed the most light on how we arrived at this point of heightened tension.

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

Since a young age, I have been interested in how reporters covered the presidency. My first book, Watergate’s Legacy: The Investigative Impulse, focused heavily on the Nixon administration and the fate of investigative journalism afterward. After Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I wanted to understand the historical dynamics that shaped his interactions with reporters. People frequently said his relationship with the news media was unprecedented; and, in some ways, it was, but I also wanted to analyze the ways that precedents had been established during other administrations.

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Call for Editor – Journalism History

The History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication invites applications for editor of Journalism History.

Adopted as the official journal of the History Division in 2018, Journalism History is well respected as the oldest peer-reviewed journal of mass media history in the United States. Continuously published since 1974, this scholarly journal is a quarterly publication that features excellent scholarship on media history.

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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.