The virtual AEJMC history division meeting in late July included a summary of the division’s activities during 2021-22, membership, leadership voting, transitions and information, and a presentation of the success of Journalism History and its affiliated activities. More details, including a review of the meeting minutes, follows below.

2021-2022 Year In Review

Cayce Myers (Virginia Tech), discussed the History Division’s year. The History Division continued a number of successful initiatives. Research initiatives: Journalism History increased reviewer pool, including more international reviewers. We also ran two research paper competitions. JJCHC was held virtually while Southeast Colloquium was in-person.

Committees Report

Website: Keith Greenwood (Missouri) will be stepping down from website admin after ten year. He will be replaced by grad student, Dana Dabek (Temple).

PF&R: Melissa Greene- Blye (Kansas), discussed our four PF&R panels. She suggested that moving forward that we take the information from the panels and post on our social media/website as well as suggested more collaboration with other divisions.

Teaching: Ken Ward (Pittsburg State University), discussed the slow start of getting submissions. He stated he was very proud of the four winners, but will start promoting earlier in the fall in order to increase submissions. He mentioned more ways to share teaching lessons with membership, specifically in Clio. 

Membership: Kathryn McGarr (Wisconsin) asked Brian Creech (Temple) to share membership information. He discussed how he reached out to members because of the inaccurate information in the new system. Membership has dropped post-Covid. In 2016, 294 members. There was a drop in 2018. In 2021, we were the only division to gain members. He said the drop in membership was due to retirement and the pandemic. He suggested moving forward that the division reach out to members before acceptance to the conference and remind them to renew their memberships. Donna Halpar (Lesley) asked a question about emeritus status for retired members. Tom Mascaro (Bowling Green)  stated that you must show proof of retirement. He encouraged people to stay involved after retirement.

 Clio: Kathryn McGarr (Wisconsin) thanked members for submitting their news for the newsletter. She encouraged graduate students to submit news. She mention one new feature in Clio about the podcasts, which helped drive traffic to the episodes. Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen (Idaho), will take over as editor.

JJCHC Conference: Matthew Pressman (Seton Hall) will be stepping down from Joint Journalism Conference Coordinator/Co-Chair.

AEJMC Southeast Colloquium: Scott Morton (Catawba) discussed the conference being very impressive. George Daniels (Alabama) announced that next year’s conference would be in at Middle Tennessee University in Murfreesboro in March 2023.

Book Award: Gwyneth Mellinger (James Madison) stated 15 submissions which was up from last year’s 12 submissions. The History Division awarded Kathy Roberts Forde (Massachusetts, Amherst) and Sid Bedingfield (Minnesota) its 2022 Book Award, honoring the best journalism and mass communication history book published in 2021: Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America (University of Illinois Press).

Covert Award: Tom Mascaro (Bowling Green) stated 18 entries to select the article or chapter in an edited collection that represents the year’s best essay in mass communication history. Elizabeth Fondren won the award for her article, “Fighting an Armed Doctrine: The Struggle to Modernize German Propaganda During World War I (1914-1918),” Journalism and Communication Monographs 23(4), 2021.

Senior Scholar: Amber Roessner (Tennessee) wasn’t present at the meeting. Myers presented her report. The winner is Carolyn Kitch (Temple University). 

Hazel Dicken-Garcia: Amy Lauters (Minnesota State, Mankato) wasn’t present at the meeting. Myers presented her report. This year the award was not given due to the low amount of submission. He said the committee will continue to promote the thesis award and determine at a later date if the award will continue.

Finances: Myers stated the division’s finances are extremely healthy.  In June 2022, we ended with $38,929.70. Plaques and Certificate Expenses: $450 Plaques; $420 Certificates Award Money: $2,500. The Shaw Award was Increased to $1,000, which was distributed to students. As a result, all students in 2022 got a minimum  $217 for AEJMC cost from History Division.

Journalism History Journal Report

Teri Finneman (Kansas) presented an overview of the journal this year.  The journal has a very competitive acceptance rate of 31 percent.

• As a result of the pandemic, academic journals have seen a decline or slower turnaround in submissions and reviews. Right now our journal’s submission to first decision happens within 50 days.
• We saw an increase in extra royalties: $5,545 this year, $4,639 last year There was also an Increase in downloads (10,200 vs. 6,800).
• With the journal sitting at a nice cushion of $25,000 on hand, the committee agreed to spend nearly all of the new revenue and invest it back in our people.
• We increased the journal editor’s pay from $2,000 per year to $4,000 per year effective immediately and backtracked to the first journal issue of the year. We also agreed to save $2,000 to help contribute to the costs of the 2023 gala, which includes honoring journal award winners. We allocated $500 for summer podcast intern help. We added a $100 cash prize to the Reilly winner. We added $500 to the journal editor’s discretionary funding since she decided to give all of her prior $2,000 discretionary funding to pay her staff: $500 each to two assistant editors, $500 to the book review editor and $500 to the online content editor. The remaining $400 may be used for creating marketing materials ahead of AEJMC to hand out there.
• Finneman reported a few challenges with the journal including low citations. The number of total submissions has been down since the pandemic. In 2021 we had 37 submissions. In 2020 we had 54 submissions. As of June this year we are up with 18 versus 15 submissions.
• Editor Pam Parry (Southeast Missouri State) and Teri Finneman discussed increased awareness and plans to pass out flyers at the conference.
• Top downloads by institution include HCMC University of Social Sciences and Humanities with 367, followed by Liberty University and then Michigan State University.
• These provide the article’s latest metrics, and encourage the author to share via their own networks.
• Parry discussed editors notes and mentioned an meet the editor Zoom session with grad students. She explained the process of adding more reviewers from seven countries to increase the internationalization of the journal. So far the journal has 90 reviewers from eight different countries. She is already special content for the journal’s 50^th anniversary in 2024.

Web data

• By July 28, we will have published the following in the last year:
• 23 podcast transcripts
• 13 book reviews
• 4 research essays
• 4 teaching essays
• The last six Sept. 11 essays
• The first eight diversity essays (will continue through Dec. 2022)
• 31,457 total page views in 129 countries
• Top 5: US (26,282), UK (641), India (593), Canada (539), Australia (314)
• Reached 200 post milestone (all time, since Aug. 2018) in Nov. 2021
• 87,214 total page views to date (June 30, 2022)

Podcast Report for the past year:

• 13,500 transcript reads
• 14,719 audio downloads
• 28,219 total interactions 

Diversity Analysis of Journalism History

Headed by Gerry Lanosga (Indiana), a diversity analysis  was conducted of all research articles. Lexie Little (Vanderbilt) did the majority of the coding. 727 articles were examined.  Over 75% focused on print versus 8.1% broadcast and 6.2% advertising or public relations. Colonial period was featured in 1.7% of articles. 26.3% of articles focus on international, trans-national, non-U.S. topics. Of the analysis, 1/3 had explicit focus on race/ethnicity, but increase over time: 22.4% from 1974-1997 to 40.4% from 1998-2021. 

New Leadership

Brian Creech was voted as the incoming second vice-chair of the division.

History Division Leadership (2022-2023)

Maddie Liseblad, (California State University, Long Beach), Chair

Rachel Grant (Florida), Vice-Chair/Program Chair

Brian Creech (Temple), Second Vice-Chair/Research Chair

Ken Ward (Pittsburg State University), Teaching Standards Chair

Melissa Greene-Blye (Kansas), PF&R Chair

Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen (Idaho), Flora Khoo (Regent), and Ashley Walter (Utah), Membership Chairs/Clio Staff

Tara Mesyn (Michigan State), Carolina Velloso (Maryland), Ava Francesca Battocchio (Michigan State), Graduate Student Co-Liaisons

TBD, Joint Journalism Conference Coordinator/Co-Chair

Scott Morton (Catawba), Southeast Colloquium Research Chair(s)

Dana Dabek(Temple), Website Administrator

Cayce Myers (Virginia Tech), Past Chair (ex-officio)

Committees (slated 2022-2023)

Publications: Teri Finneman (Kansas; chair) Candi Carter Olson (Utah State), Shery Kennedy Haydel (Loyola of Louisiana), Lisa Burns (Quinnipiac) and Sid Bedingfield (Minnesota)

Book Award: Gwyneth Mellinger (James Madison; chair), Michael Fuhlhage (Wayne State), Marilyn Greenwald (Ohio), Tracy Lucht (Iowa State)

Covert Award: Tom Mascaro (Bowling Green; chair), Maddie Liseblad (CSU Long Beach), Cayce Myers (Virginia Tech), Amber Roessner (Tennessee), Elisabeth Fondren (St. John’s)

Teaching Award: Ken Ward (Pittsburg State University), John Ferré (Louisville), Pamela Walck, (Duquesne University), Yong Volz (Missouri), Kim Mangun (Utah)

Thesis Award: Amy Mattson Lauters (Minnesota State, Mankato; chair), Julie Lane (Boise State), Brian Gabrial (Northwestern State) Pete Smith (Mississippi State)

Senior Scholar Award: Amber Roessner (Tennessee; chair), Kathy Roberts Forde

(UMass Amherst), Matt Pressman (Seton Hall)

Journalism History staff

Pam Parry (Southeast Missouri State), Editor

Dianne Bragg (Alabama), Associate Editor

Kim Mangun (Utah), Associate Editor

Sonya DiPalma (North Carolina at Asheville), Book Review Editor

Erika Pribanic-Smith (Texas-Arlington), Web Content Coordinator

Claire Rounkles (Missouri), Social Media Co-Coordinator

Teri Finneman (Kansas), Podcast Executive Producer/Co-Host

Nick Hirshon (William Paterson), Podcast Co-Host

Ken Ward (Pittsburg State University), Podcast Co-Host

Incoming Chair Goals 2022-2023

Maddie Liseblad’s (California State University, Long Beach), goals as incoming division chair are as follows:

1. As we continue the transition toward post-COVID normalcy, actively support our members in their teaching, scholarship, and service activities
2. Continue the division’s efforts with recruiting and nurturing new scholars
3. Continue work to reinforce the division’s membership base, with active outreach and an emphasis on scholars who may have let memberships lapse during the pandemic
4. Explore possible virtual membership sessions, with an emphasis on new scholars
5. Continue the division’s support and presence at regional AEJMC conferences
6. Continue outreach and engagement efforts beyond our own division

Changes after the meeting: The pub committee, Robin Sundaramoorthy (Maryland) has replaced Sheryl Haydel (Loyola of Louisiana).

 JJCHC reps will be Ray Begovich (U of Indianapolis) and Manuel Flores (Texas A&M Kingsville).