Glen Feighery is an associate professor of communication at the University of Utah

How did you become involved with AJHA?

I was a doctoral student at UNC-Chapel Hill when I presented my first paper at the 2002 national conference in Nashville. I immediately felt welcome, and I appreciated the collegial atmosphere of the association.

How has your research on how journalists create and reflect communities in the American West changed as journalism has undergone significant transformations and challenges over the past two decades?

Recent transformations in journalism have prompted me to ask if there are historical antecedents. I’ve seen the phrase “transparency is the new objectivity” in the past couple of decades. My research comprises the century from the 1860s through the 1950s. In the first part of that time frame, most frontier papers were quite personal—you might say they were more transparent than objective. My recent research has focused on Japanese American newspapers, including those published inside the World War II prison camps that held 120,000 people who were forcibly removed from the West Coast. Most of these newspapers published personal opinion columns. Similarly, English-language sections of Japanese American papers in places like Denver and prewar San Francisco also had many columnists with vivid individual voices.

Last year you taught a class, “Documenting Topaz,” in which students in your class and a documentary production course created a film about an internment camp in Topaz, Utah. What drew you to create the course? What lessons did you take away from the course?

During the Japanese American mass incarceration, one of the prison camps was here in Utah. We drove to Topaz, 130 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, to film B-roll at the desolate camp site and nearby museum. For the main focus of the documentary, my students conducted 10 oral history interviews. They prepared by doing careful research about World War II, the camps, and the individuals they interviewed. Among the many things I learned: Few of my students can read cursive, which made it challenging for them to analyze primary sources like correspondence.

You have taught media law and ethics for many years, how are you integrating conversations about artificial intelligence in those classes?

I haven’t taught ethics recently, but AI now runs throughout many aspects of media law. I devote a unit to intellectual property, mostly copyright infringement and fair use. There are always new cases. For example, Taylor Swift recently filed trademark applications to protect her voice and image from being misappropriated by AI. I use such cases in the law class to demonstrate how pervasive (and potentially perilous) AI is so my students will be able to know when and how to use it.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I like to spend time with family and hike in the mountains.