By Will Mari, Louisiana State University, Vice Chair/Program Chair, wtmari@gmail.com
Voting to continue the digital version of “Clio,” creating a more extensive and resilient archive of its back issues, updates to the division’s constitution, podcast funding, and the formation of a finance committee were among the highlights of the 2019 business meeting held at the AEJMC conference in Toronto in early August. More details, including review of the meeting minutes, follow below.
End-of-year status report
After calling the meeting to order at 6:39 p.m., the outgoing chair, Dr. Erika Pribanic-Smith, of UT-Arlington, gave the 2018-19 year-in-review report, with research, Professional Freedom and Responsibility (PF&R) and teaching as the main themes. Dr. Teri Finneman of Kansas, vice-chair/program chair and the incoming division president, also released a list of conferences. The diversity award is new this year, Dr. Pribanic-Smith announced, and the Toronto ArQuives (https://arquives.ca/) visit was discussed. The membership program and the thesis award were also outlined by Dr. Pribanic-Smith.
All three themes came together in the Journalism History Podcast, “Journalism History” website (https://journalism-history.org/), “Clio” and PF&R panels, along with Diversity in the Digital Archives, along with social-media outlets. Teaching will be a focus next year under Finneman, said Dr. Pribanic-Smith.
Membership last year was 268, but is now up to 289, placing the division at fifth in size at AEJMC, but we’re likely now actually fourth, counting members who joined during or immediately before the conference.
Overall membership for AEJMC is about 3,434, down from last year, with 702 student members (considered high) and 234 international members; paper submissions were down somewhat this year, from 1,584 last year to 1,458 this year, with 713 papers accepted, or 48.9 percent. Border-crossing issues may be a factor, especially for international students and scholars.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith also reviewed non-conference activity; nine people worked on JH, 16 people on division leadership, with 16 additional committee members, inc. PF&R and a new publication committee, 18 people were enrolled in the mentorship program; 82 were featured in various ways in our division publications/projects, and probably up to 100 members were named. There was lots of membership engagement, with a focus on representation and diversity, said Dr. Pribanic-Smith.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then thanked Dr. Nancy Roberts, with the Covert competition, Colin Kearney as grad-student representative, for their service, and Dr. Melita Garza as PF&R committee chair (note that Dr. Garza was a finalist for the AEJMC Tankard Book Award).
Continuing with the e-“Clio,” and other changes/updates
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then reviewed member action items, including “Clio,” constitution/bylaw amendments, podcast funding, future-award presentations, the selection of the 2024 conference site, and second vice-chair (i.e. research chair) election.
With “Clio,” Dr. Pribanic-Smith reviewed the advantages of the digital “Clio,” including more frequent publication and engagement, with better tracking of metrics and the use of e-newsletters as more common (and it can be downloaded offline as needed—more on that below).
Dr. Pribanic-Smith addressed some of the concerns raised at least year’s business meeting; a greater focus has been on Division business, she said,, and also longer articles including in-depth interviews via the podcasts, for examples; Pribanic-Smith showed an example of the new format. An example of the new format includes Q&A’s with the authors on their books versus long excerpts.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then opened the floor to discussion; Dr. Doug Cumming complimented the new “Clio,” Dr. Lillie Fears asked if there was a cost (none), Dr. Paulette Kilmer then commented that it was good to take advantage of the affordances provided by newsletter technology.
Dr. Kristin Gustafson asked about the longevity of links online; Dr. Pribanic-Smith said that screenshots and the WordPress blog could function as an archive (the images can be made into a PDF for later).
Dr. David Mindich also asked about archiving of previous, older paper “Clio’s;” he said he might start the process, with c. mid-1990s, and reaching out to previous “Clio” editors. Dr. Carolyn Kitch asked if there is a way for “Clio” to be in scholarly databases, citing a couple of examples, including other academic newsletters, to help enhance what she referred to as the seriousness of contributions.
Dr. Kilmer then added that the archiving of the newsletters could be important to helping preserving the history of the organization. She then moved that an archive be established, going back to as far as possible. The motion was approved. Dr. Candi Carter Olson moved that the electronic format be continued. And the motion was also approved. No “nays” were noted from the floor. Dr. Kitch said that that the University of Wisconsin-Madison might have a partial archive, and Dr. Finneman noted that Dr. Keith Greenwood might have some records as well. Dr. Mindich affirmed his desire to start working on the project, and that it might take the form of a digital dropbox.
Next, Dr. Pribanic-Smith reviewed the changes to the constitution, with the formation of committees vs. chairs, in some places. Also references to “by mail” and to “by phone,” to be made more agnostic, in terms of the medium, specifically for polling, to account for future tech, and some grammatical and spelling fixes.
The main change would be to article the structure of the membership committee, with five members and two chairs, with two members being graduate students as part of it. This would clarify the previous structure, which had been more undefined in terms of size and length of term.
Dr. Gustafson thanked Dr. Pribanic-Smith and Dr. Finneman for their attention to detail on this issue. Dr. Pribanic-Smith thanked Dr. Lisa Burns, the current chair of the book committee, for her help, specifically. A motion was made by Gustafson to accept changes, with Dr. Therese Lueck seconding, with approval by voice vote from the floor with no “nays.”
Podcast funding
Dr. Finneman then talked about the podcast funding, including a description of finances with AEJMC and the attempt to use ads from the University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri, and other universities to help offset costs.
She asked the division to give $500 toward the podcast, to help circumvent that cumbersome process. The university of our guests would get a free ad instead, she said, with the funds drawn from the journal funding. The division will have up to $10,000 by the end of the calendar year. Dr. Finneman explained that about $5,000 a year will be going into our budget (which is about $70,000 total); the total budget would then be $1,500, with $1,000 from Taylor & Francis, our publisher, for use for transcription and promotion, along with hosting. Dr. Finneman asked for questions; none were asked; a voice vote approved with no noted “nays.”
Awards-ceremony timing
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then introduced the vote-able items for the membership present, including the timing of award presentations (versus the general business meeting, which is the default choice), along with city choices for the 2024 conference (the next, in 2020, being in San Francisco, then 2021 in New Orleans, then 2022, in Detroit; more below).
Taylor & Francis provides $1,000 for funding; $250 was used, with $750 leftover. The $5 fee helped to defray the costs, but is not necessarily necessary, she explained.
Dr. Pribanic-Smith then opened the floor to discussion; Dr. Lueck commented on the lunches with other divisions being in conflict, and asked if breakfasts were a way to avoid programming conflicts, perhaps. Dr. Kilmer asked about the social, and if that could be used instead, post meeting. Dr. Liz Atwood asked if the podcast could be done over the meal. Dr. Smith said that yes, that would be still possible, with our official one-hour slot.
Dr. Cumming asked if the attendance goes down at the business meeting, and made the point that narrowing the conference would make it less expensive for some members.
Convention-site choice
Dr. Pribanic-Smith next introduced the convention-site options, inc. Nashville ($249 for the conference hotel, Aug. 5-8), Philadelphia ($214 or $234, Aug. 7-10) or NYC ($259 with no grad rate, Aug. 5-8), for 2024, with areas determining where to go next.
Members then discussed the merits of various options. [Secretary’s note: Philadelphia was the provisional choice of the conference, it was announced on Saturday].
Dr. Pribanic-Smith discussed the nomination of the second vice-chair, as the final of the three main action items for the ballot, and reviewed his various qualifications, especially with the Southeast colloquium, and with legal issues during the journal transfer.
No further nominations from the floor for research chair were given, with Dr. Cayce Myers of Virginia Tech nominated previously by the executive committee. The membership then voted him in by acclamation, with no objections.
Incoming chair’s remarks
Dr. Finneman next gave some short remarks in her role as the new division chair, including an overview of her goals. These include the launch of a new senior-scholar award recognizing post-tenure scholars, establishing a virtual conference as an option for those with limited travel funds, beginning with four short webinars over zoom throughout the academic year, with a call for panels, after a sample/example. to take place on Thursday, Oct. 17, featuring the podcast/podcasting. A virtual-conference committee will be formed, with Dr. Jennifer Moore, Dr. Kim Voss, Dr. Will Mari, Dr. Finneman and Dr. Shemberger.
Dr. Finneman then discussed including growing the podcast and making it more shared and useable, and establishing a finance committee with the goal of investing the division’s funds well and using it long-term, with ideas to be voted on by the membership, and with a chance to comment on any proposals to be voted on next year at the business meeting in San Francisco. She also announced that increasing diversity and inclusion for the division is one of her goals, with the PF&R chair to engage on that mission, along with the membership chairs. A student essay contest on why media history matters, will be due in Nov., with gift cards to be given to the top three undergraduate submissions, with an overall focus on teaching.
Miscellaneous items
Before dismissing for the social, a request was made for any announcements from the floor; Dr. Burns had one on the book award, with the October deadline and an encouragement to get publishers involved. She also announced that there were two openings on the book-award committee, and overviewed the the approved changes to the structure of the book-prize committee.
Dr. Finneman then introduced full leadership team.
Dr. Finneman than moved to adjourn the meeting at 7:54 p.m.; with Dr. Cumming seconding, and members approved. Meeting adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Will Mari, 2018-18 secretary and research chair, 2019-2020 incoming vice-chair/program chair