By: Debbie van Tuyll

Historians contend the Irish-American press started with the wave of Irish emigrants brought to the United States by the devastating famines of the 1840s, especially the on in 1848, An Gorta Mór. Cian McMahon, the only historian to date to produce a history of the Irish-American press, dates it to 1842 (McMahon 2009). However, research shows that somewhere around twenty Irish American newspapers were issued in the United States well before 1842. The earliest one found thus far dates to the 1810s. Dozens of Irish-American journalists plied their trade in America much earlier, as far back as 1704, if the American Antiquarian Society’s Printer File is correct, an Irish emigrant, John Campbell, became the second editor of the Boston Newsletter. Others would follow, including well-known eighteenth and nineteenth century editors Mathew Carey, John Daly Burk, and William Duan. It is this project to uncover the history of the earliest Irish-American press and the Irish-American journalists who helped create and build the American press that the McKerns grant to Debbie van Tuyll has supported. 

Specifically, the grant was used to obtain the business journal of Hugh Maxwell, editor of two Lancaster, Pennsylvania newspapers, the Gazette, and the Journal from the American Antiquarian Society. Maxwell was born in 1777 at Portaferry south of Belfast in what is today Northern Ireland. At age 12, he traveled to America where he became the ward and heir of a wealth uncle, Archibald Bingham, then in partnership with Mathew Carey who was editor of a Philadelphia literary magazine, the Port-Folio. Maxwell later published his own literary journal, the Maxwell Intelligencer and served as Port-Folio editor. Maxwell learned not only printing but also how to cast type and how to make wood cuts. He also patented a printer’s roller used to spread ink efficiently on lead type (J. I. Mombert, An authentic history of Lancaster County, in the state of Pennsylvania).

In 1817, he moved to Lancaster, about halfway between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, where he established the Lancaster Gazette and eventually purchased the Democratic Lancaster Journal, which he published until 1839, the same year the business journal is dated. He sold the paper in September 1839 to a young man who had been his apprentice, John W. Forney. One might be tempted to wonder if this business journal was prepared as part of the transfer of the business, but there are enough mark-throughs and marginal notes to indicate the journal predated the transfer by a good margin.

Business records are exceedingly rare, particularly business records that are a) detailed and b) accurate and that is why this the 130-page journal is so important. Some newspapers might print circulation figures but given there was not Audit Bureau of Circulation at the time, those are always suspect. This journal does not list circulation figures, but it lists not just individual subscribers but also the exchange papers Maxwell worked it, the taverns, post offices, and publications offices to which he sent newspapers, and individual subscribers and their locations. The journal also includes which days papers were sent to different locations—most see to have been mailed either on Wednesday or Thursday, accounts that had been sent for collection, and, perhaps most valuable, copies of letters Maxwell wrote regarding the running of his business. One of those letters was to Miss Louisa L. Johnson, who had apparently written to see what Maxwell knew about a Mr. Appleton, who, he reported in his return letter, was a drunkard who had left his family, fallen in love with a woman in York, Pennsylvania, and married her. This first wife discovered what he had done, and her relatives sought out Appleton for revenge. He fled but had since come back. Maxwell summarized what he had learned by writing, “Really it appears to me there is, to use a common phrase, more truth than poetry in the above description.”

Having only recently obtained this document, I am still perusing it and working out how to fit it into my current project. I suspect it will become part of the introduction where I explain how newspapers functioned in the early nineteenth century. This journal gives me evidence to back up distribution methods—the journal lists, for example, which subscribers received their papers by carrier and which by mail. The listing of taverns can be used to help explain how availability in public places extended the reach of newspapers. Lacking any further information about business operations, I do not see this making a chapter in-and-of-itself in this project. That said, this project is very likely going to lead to another that consists of a collection of short biographies of Irish-American journalists from the colonial period forward, and I can definitely see all the letters at the end of the journal being a very important component in Maxwell’s biograph. So, it appears this business journal will be used in two separate projects.

Debbie van Tuyll is a professor in the Department of Communication at Augusta University. She previously served as the president of AJHA.

By: Kimberley Mangun

Jeremy J. Chatelain, a longtime AJHA member who earned his Ph.D. from the University of Utah Department of Communication, died on Sept. 15 in Denver. He was 51. 

Dr. Chatelain was a Seminary Teacher for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an independent historian who studied the power and influence of the 19th-century press in American religious history.

He discovered what he called “an unexpected interest” in First Amendment theory, law, and research during a Free Speech in Society graduate seminar taught by Dave Vergobbi, a past president of AJHA and recipient of AJHA’s National Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Chatelain found his passion for journalism history in a graduate seminar on historical research methods taught by Kimberley Mangun, a past president of AJHA. They subsequently co-authored a paper for the AEJMC History Division about Abner Cole, publisher of the Palmyra, NY, Reflector and a staunch proponent of the Freethought Movement. Their submission garnered a top-paper award at the 2012 convention held in Chicago. A revised manuscript was published in American Journalism in 2015.

Dr. Chatelain’s 2018 dissertation, chaired by Prof. Mangun, was a deeply researched cultural history of the influence of 19th-century American print on Mormonism in Kirtland, Ohio, between 1831 and 1837. He located and analyzed more than 1,600 articles published in 325 newspapers to demonstrate how “print culture and texts about and by the Mormons created, shaped, changed, and directed the trajectory of Mormonism in its formative years.” Essentially, he tracked the cross-country spread of articles and editorials about Mormons during the 1830s and showed how editors “created and shaped” a consistently negative perception of the uniquely American religion. Dr. Chatelain also studied the early development of the Mormon press and concerted efforts to dispel or correct disparaging commentary on Mormonism.

His dissertation was awarded an honorable mention, Margaret A. Blanchard Dissertation Prize, at AJHA’s conference in Dallas in October 2019. He was delighted to receive the award and discuss his work at the convention, even though quadriplegia made it very difficult for him and his wife, Connie, to travel. 

In 2023, Dr. Chatelain received one of the inaugural AJHA–AEJMC History Division diversity microgrants to study anti-Mormon rhetoric in Thomas C. Sharp’s Warsaw (IL) Signal. He discussed that research-in-progress during a panel session at the Columbus, Ohio, convention. His analysis of Sharp’s incendiary articles and Extras, which motivated mob actions and led to the murder of Mormon leader Joseph Smith in 1844, was published in Journalism History in March 2025.

Dr. Chatelain presented additional research at several Sperry Symposiums at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and published peer-reviewed work in books released by the BYU Religious Studies Center.

His ongoing, diligent research ultimately led to the discovery of nearly 14,000 articles about and by the Mormons published in more than 400 newspapers. Shortly before his death, he was drafting a book proposal based on his voluminous archive that he planned to submit to Oxford University Press.

Scholars interested in newspaper history, religious history, First Amendment theory, and many other topics will soon be able to use his vast collection, thanks to Dr. Chatelain’s generous, forthcoming donation of primary sources to the LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City.

How did you become involved with AJHA?

In beginning research for my University of Missouri Press book [Pulitzer's Gold], and after it came out, I gave a number of presentations around the country, often under the auspices of AJHA, which I joined before the book's first edition came out in 2006. I gave a number of talks for AJHA around the country in connection with early editions of the book. At the same time, I was teaching for Emerson College and was a senior editor at The Economist's monthly magazine, CFO, based at the time in Boston at the time. Before that I’d been a long-time Wall Street Journal reporter, serving in Pittsburgh first, and then, for nearly 20 years, in Los Angeles. During my journalism career, I continued to do research on the Public Service Pulitzer Prize—awarded in the form of its famous Gold Medal. 

How do your decades in journalism inform your research?

I was raised in a “newspaper family” in St. Louis, where my father, Roy J. Harris, was a Pulitzer-winning reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. (He was named in the citation when the Post-Dispatch and Chicago Daily News jointly won the 1950 Public Service Pulitzer.) Because my own career took me from the Post-Dispatch—as a reporter serving as a summer intern—to the Los Angeles Times, after my graduation from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in 1968, I became very familiar with the reporters and editors who had led Pulitzer-winning research. When I joined The Wall Street Journal (with its own Pulitzer-winning tradition) after getting my master's from Medill, and serving in the U.S. Army, I continued pursuing my interest in the Pulitzer Prizes, and the men and women who’d been involved with winning therm.

What surprised you most while researching the history of the Pulitzer Prize?

My earliest surprise was that so little had been written about the history of the Pulitzers, and especially the Public Service Prize. It seemed to cry out for research attention. And I decided to become the person to do it. The University of Missouri Press was most supportive, especially because I had so many “inside sources” from my Post-Dispatch years. The Post-Dispatch was the only paper to have won five Public Service Pulitzers over those early years. 

What topics or questions are you pursuing in your current research?

I continue to use the approach of digging into the “story behind the story” of how editors and reporters decide to pursue a project; to help it grow into a major story; and to perfect the work to the point that it qualifies for Pulitzer Prize contention. I found, in my research, that little had been written about the Pulitzer “award process,” as it had grown over the decades at Columbia University, which administers the Prizes. People who ran the Prizes seemed very excited that I was dedicating myself to digging into the “back stories” of the award system, as well as each winner. And in the end, Columbia University Press took over later editions of my book.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of your research work?

In addition to continuing to write about prizewinning journalism, something I’ve done for more than two decades in my connection with Florida’s wonderful Poynter Institute. I am also very interested in music and musical theater. I have acted in community theater in Massachusetts for decades. But the Poynter Institute has been my main “hobby” with examples of my work for them available on their website.

I have also taught journalism course over the years—including at Emerson College in Boston—where I became more involved with AJHA, and occasionally writing for Intelligencer. I also enjoy traveling, and writing travel articles when I visit places in Europe and elsewhere. 

Roy J. Harris Jr. has written for The Washington Post, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Los Angeles Times, and The Economist. His website provides additional background on the current edition of Pulitzer's Gold: A Century of Public Service Journalism along with study guides for students.

By: Autumn Lorimer Linford

With the help of funding from the AJHA Hazel Dicken-Garcia Research Grant, I was able to travel to New York City and conduct research for my upcoming book, Extra! A History of America’s Girl Newsies, soon to be published by the University of Nebraska Press. While there, I was able to find archival materials focused on publishers’ rationale for lobbying Congress in the 1930s to exclude boy newspaper carriers—but specifically not girls—from the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. 

In Extra!, I detail the lives and gender-specific experiences of girl newsies and paper carriers. Since before the founding of the United States through the twenty-first century, the newspaper industry was held up by circulation departments that relied almost exclusively on children of all genders for distribution. Despite both girls and boys hawking the news, however, pop culture (and much of scholarly literature) surrounding newsies focuses on the boys. There are several wonderful works on newsies that successfully incorporate a handful of newsgirl stories in with the boys, but without fully exploring newsgirl experiences and contributions to news labor. As historian Jon Bekken lamented in a 2000 article in the journal Media History, “Popular mythology has little room for the women and girls who also worked as ‘newsboys.’”

By focusing the story of newsies on the newsboys, however, it has been too easy for pop culture to paint the history of child news labor as an example of the American dream. "These boys were not child laborers!" the movies and books seem to say. "They were independent young businessmen pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and getting a leg up in life!" Newsboy proponents point to the senators, presidents, sports heroes and movie stars who all started their careers as boys delivering newspapers, as if it were paper routes and selling papers on streetcorners that destined these men for greatness.

A surprising amount of newsgirl artifacts were archived, but as other scholars have often found when researching women and girls, first person documents written by newsgirls themselves were limited. I was able to answer many of my questions about their lives using workarounds any historian would be familiar with using, but I couldn’t answer everything. When and why did newsgirls and papergirls disappear, and when and why did they return? Even more vexing, how involved were newspapermen in that decision? Many of the presses who used child labor for circulation were the same newspapers and magazines that pushed for child labor regulation. Did the adults running newspapers understand their reliance on newsies and papergirls and boys was a reliance on child labor, or did they truly believe (as they often touted) that delivering newspapers was different than the other jobs children held in other industries?

I couldn’t find the answers to these questions in online newspaper archives or the scrapbooks, letters, and ephemera of newsgirls I’d found on other research trips. It was on my research trip to New York, using the generous funding of the Hazel Dicken-Garcia grant, that I finally discovered the truth about the role newspapers played in the lives of newsgirls. The archival materials I found in newspaper business files and correspondence between publishers and editors informed two of the final chapters in my book. Without the grant funding and this trip, Extra! would be incomplete. Instead, I hope to offer an addition to media and gender history that challenges some of the existing notions of newsie labor and helps grow our understanding of the contributions of women and girls to journalism history.

Autumn Lorimer Linford is an assistant professor of journalism at Auburn University.

Editor's Note: Extra! A History of America’s Girl Newsies is scheduled to hit shelved early fall 2026 through the University of Nebraska Press. Other research conducted during the same trip to New York City helped inform "'Is This an Evil Practice?' Newspapers and Newsgirls,” which won top faculty paper at AEJMC History Division 2024.

How did you become involved with AJHA?

My mentor Joseph McKerns was a founding member, and Wally Eberhard one of the professors at The University of Georgia where I earned my doctorate, was an active member. They both inspired me to submit my research to the AJHA conferences eventually leading me to submit it to American Journalism for publication. 

My first conference was in Louisville, Kentucky where I served as a discussant for one of the paper presentations. This turned out to be a family trip in that my husband and then 3-year-old daughter drove there from Columbus, Ohio. Over the years, I’ve participated as either a panelist, moderator or paper presenter.

One of the many things that I like about the AJHA conferences is that they tend to be located in mid-sized cities where, depending on distance, one can comfortably drive to them. I have been able to drive to two other conferences: Cleveland in 2004 and Pittsburgh in 2024. Of course, I must include Columbus as being another convenient location where I had the pleasure and honor of serving as a co-host.

I also like the camaraderie at the conferences. We can share and critique our research ideas and teaching strategies in a friendly, non-judgmental atmosphere.

You have previously discussed that watching and reading coverage of the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War as a child in the 1960s inspired you to become a journalist and that you aim to transfer the notion that journalism can change society to your students. How do you communicate the powerful role journalism has to students during a time when many in the country distrust the press and believe journalists do not have the public’s best interest in mind?

For the past five years I have taught Crime and the News Media, Stereotypes in the Media and Strategic Communication Writing. In each of these classes, I’ve encouraged my students to tap into and embrace the power of their own, unique voices, and that they can and should use their voice in all areas of their lives. While they are made aware of how traditional, legacy media has changed society, they are also shown how they can use the newer, evolving media to make a difference. I also share with them the challenges that they are likely to face, regardless of profession, in advocating for the public’s best interest.

I stress the importance of seeking the truth even if it is unflattering to one’s viewpoint. While I encourage students to express different viewpoints, I also lovingly correct them if the viewpoints are not based on facts.

What question(s) do you wish fellow researchers or colleagues would ask about your work and/or interests?

What are the connections between my research and personal experiences?

How can we use historical media as tools for searching our family histories?

How can we use the Black press as a tool for either filling in historical gaps or correcting historical inaccuracies?

What tips or advice do you have for others exploring similar topics, archives, or questions that you examine in your research on the Black press?

Don’t limit yourself to digital sources. They only go back so far. Because we are doing historical research, we may have to look at hard copies of print media sources. Use hard copy indexes such as The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature and The Reader's Guide to Business Periodicals

Record interviews with older relatives and friends and ask them details about their lives. This can include such details as their first day of school, games they played when they were children, favorite outfits and of course the media they consumed.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I love consuming media about crime. I’ve practically memorized the plots and lines to episodes of Law & Order and Law & Order SVU. One of my favorite authors is John Grisham. I’m currently reading Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by Grisham and Jim McCloskey. I plan to assign one of the chapters to my students in the Crime in the News Media class.

I also love to travel, especially to places that are driving distance. I enjoy stopping in some small towns and shopping at some of the independently owned boutiques.

In my spare time I also do Jazzercise, an activity that I’ve done for more than 30 years. When time permits, I have gone to classes during my travels.

Felecia Jones Ross is an associate professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University.

By: Ashley Walter

As the spring semester comes to a close, so many of us hang our heavy doctoral regalia in the back of our closets and start packing for research trips. It might be summer “break,” but for most of us, it’s no break at all.

Thanks to the American Journalism Historians Association, Joseph McKerns Research Grant, and the Hazel Dicken-Garcia Research Grant, I was able to visit the Library of Congress this past May. Specifically, I worked with the Washington Post Historical Collection, which spans from 1877 to 2015. 

This research trip helped to support my manuscript tentatively titled Settling: Women Who Sued the News, which is contracted with the University of Massachusetts Press Journalism and Democracy book series. Stemming from my doctoral dissertation, the book examines sex discrimination lawsuits at major U.S. national press organizations during the 1970s.

In response to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which banned sex and race discrimination in the workplace, U.S. women working at print news organizations sued for equal rights throughout the decade. My research traces the history of class-action sex discrimination suits against news organizations at some of the most prestigious news outlets in America. Women sued the news at the Washington Post, Associated Press, New York Times, Register Publishing Co., Detroit News, Reader’s Digest, Time, Life, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and Newsweek.

I’ve spent the last seven years visiting archives and conducting oral history interviews for my book. While I was able to capture the oral histories of several women who worked at and sued the Washington Post for sex discrimination, I was hopeful that the archive would include legal documents and pay wage data.

Unfortunately, I came across many “archival silences” at the Library of Congress. The Washington Post Collection generally focused on men, who for decades ran and operated the newspaper. For example, I was thrilled to find a folder in the archive vaguely titled, “Lawsuits.” But the lawsuits in the box contained information on Watergate, the Pentagon Papers, and defamation suits. Indubitably, these are important historical documents, and I am very glad that they are housed in an archive. But where are the women, I kept asking myself. I was grateful to access a few key lawsuit documents. But the most information I found about a woman’s life was about a Washington Post newswoman who won a beauty contest called the Front Page Girl in 1943. 

To be sure, I left the archive with threads for future media history projects as well. But I am reminded of the importance of oral history interviewing to help overcome stories that are missing from traditional brick and mortar archives.

Logistics and Reading Room Reservations:

If you plan to visit the Library of Congress, you might be disappointed to learn that you won’t be in the picturesque “main library” officially known as the Thomas Jefferson Building. Rather, you will be down the street at the Manuscript Reading Room inside of the James Madison Memorial Building. Be sure to arrive early to file paperwork and request a library card, which you need to access the Reading Room. 

Additionally, if you are interested in accessing the Washington Post Historical Collection, it’s important to note that most of the materials in the collection are stored offsite. This means, a Library of Congress archivist told me, you’ll want to request materials at least two weeks in advance of your visit.

Image: The front of the Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building, which houses the Manuscript Reading Room.

Ashley Walter is an assistant professor of journalism and media at Saint Louis University.

By: Ryan Busillo

Attending last year's convention in Pittsburgh was invaluable to my professional development. Academic conferences are simply the best way to engage with colleagues and fellow students outside of your typical department bubble. The paper I presented in Pittsburgh blended archival research and theory, demonstrating how the ideology of two social movement organizations influenced their communication strategy. It was my first foray into novel academic writing. The project's supervisor, Dr. Lisa Burns, professor of media studies at Quinnipiac University, recommended the American Journalism Historians Association’s 2024 convention as an excellent place to submit. I couldn't have attended without the support provided through the Michael S. Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Stipend. 

Having the opportunity to present my research to a supportive community of scholars was a big step towards crafting meaningful research. The suggestions and critique I received were helpful in understanding where to take this article next. Notably, I had the opportunity to discuss the paper with Aniko Bodroghkozy, whose book Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion (2016) served as a major source. Beyond my own presentation, attending other panels exposed me areas of history I had never explored in my own work but now want to interrogate.

The AJHA has cultivated a uniquely welcoming atmosphere for emerging scholars. This spirit of generosity, which should not surprise anyone who has attended an AJHA convention, is felt by every graduate student I spoke to in Pittsburgh last year. The best way to keep the AJHA and its convention a welcoming space for graduate students is to support the Sweeney Travel Stipend by participating in the annual auction.

Despite the importance of attending academic conferences during graduate school, financial realities make that a challenge. The rising cost of tuition, coupled with the nil to paltry compensation graduate student labor receives from universities, has deepened the precarity we study in. The travel expenses, hotel costs, and registration fees associated with academic conference travel compound this. Recognizing this is particularly important as the academy becomes more sensitive to the way these structural realities disincentivize career development of rising academics from disadvantaged communities. Financial assistance can be the difference between a graduate student attending a conference or not. Conference participation often requires choosing between professional development and financial stability, especially if you live in a city with high cost of living as I do.

A cash-strapped graduate student myself, the Sweeney Travel Stipend made traveling to the convention a far easier decision. The stipend covered my hotel stay at the conference venue, allowing me to fully participate in both scheduled sessions and valuable informal discussions with peers. The auction that funds the Sweeney Travel Stipend provides a direct way to address these challenges and supports emerging scholars.

The annual AJHA auction is an investment in the future of journalism history scholarship. Every vintage publication, piece of memorabilia, or regional gift basket donated and bid on opens the door for another graduate student to join our scholarly community. Your participation in the auction directly supports the next generation of researchers through the Michael S. Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Stipend, ensuring our field remains vibrant and accessible to all.

Ryan Busillo is a graduate student at the New School for Social Research in New York City. He serves on the AJHA public relations committee.

How did you become involved with AJHA?

I attended my first AJHA meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1987 and my second in Lawrence, Kansas five years later, but I became a regular after Roanoke, Virginia in 1994. When I saw the call for the convention at the Roanoke Airport Marriott, I remember thinking, “Either these folks are clueless, or they care more about their papers than their location.” Wanting to find out, I went. And I wasn’t disappointed. I met Maurine Beasley, Janice Hume, and Steve Knowlton there. It didn’t hurt that the bus returning us from our excursion to Thomas Jefferson’s retreat, Poplar Forest, just happened to break down at a roadside bar with a nice selection of draft beers.

How do your undergraduate and master’s degrees in religion shape your understanding of journalism and/or film history?

Communication and religion are inseparable. Religion is always mediated by communication. Oral storytelling, exhortation, and suggestion helped tribes find cohesion. Print added the dimensions of documentation and permanence, creating the idea of “going by the book.” And electronic media foster a compelling sense of immediacy. In so many ways, my study of media shapes my understanding of religion. Along this line, I have to recommend Dennis Ford’s illuminating 2016 book, A Theology for a Mediated God: How Media Shapes our Notions about Divinity. His subtitle says it all.

But the opposite is also true. Among its many features, religious faith is a way of valuing intensely. As Kierkegaard understood, religion reminds us of the enduring subjectivity of human experience. So my study of religion tells me that all communication, journalism included, is subjective.

How have your experiences holding visiting teaching and research positions outside of the US informed your teaching or research at the University of Louisville?

When I joined the University of Louisville as an assistant professor, I had briefly visited just two other countries: Canada and Mexico. Since then, I have had the good fortune to give papers in Europe, South America, and Asia, to serve on the ecumenical jury at the Montreal World Film Festival, and to participate in a faculty development seminar in Jerusalem and the West Bank offered by the Palestinian American Research Center. I have also taken students overseas, most recently 18 honors students who studied Irish Tourism and Identity here on campus and then accompanied me to Ireland.

The effect, I hope, is to make me less provincial. I like the title of the PBS documentary series, "The American Experience." My teaching and research focus on American experiences, appreciating that we live in an interconnected world. My Faith and Film course, which examines the history of the most significant films about religion from the silent era to today, includes movies from Italy, Sweden, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Poland. I hope my teaching helps to mitigate xenophobia in my corner of the globe.

How have you seen your field change since you started?

I contribute to two subfields of media studies—media ethics and religion and media—and they have developed in parallel ways since I joined the faculty of the University of Louisville in 1985. First, each professionalized. The Journal of Mass Media Ethics (now the Journal of Media Ethics) started publication in 1985, and Media Ethics became a division of AEJMC in 1999. Similarly, Religion and Media became an interest group of AEJMC in 1996, and the Journal of Media and Religion began in 2002. Both journals are now Taylor & Francis publications. Both subfields increasingly focus on digital media and embrace publications from scholars across the globe.

The gender composition of the journals’ editorial advisory boards differs, though. Volume 1:1 of the Journal of Mass Media Ethics listed an editorial advisory board that was 84% male and 16% female. Today’s board is nearly equal: 51% male and 49% female. By contrast, volume 1:1 of the Journal of Media and Religion listed an editorial advisory board that was 78% male and 22% female. Today’s board shows a similar imbalance at 76% male and 24% female. The Journal of Media and Religion is currently in the process of “repopulating” its board, presumably to correct this imbalance.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I’ve loved music at least since I watched the Beatles play on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964. My taste ranges from rock to symphonic. These days I sing bass in a church choir directed by a Ph.D. in musicology who treats us like session musicians.

I also enjoy cooking, especially when I have fresh vegetables from my garden. And then there’s travel—mostly to see my children and grandchildren, but sometimes to international destinations. In another life, I’d be Phil Rosenthal, creating season after Netflix season of "Somebody Feed Phil."

John Ferré is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Louisville where he teaches courses on media history, media ethics, and religious media.

Our election this year will be a little unusual.  Pamela Walck, who has two years remaining on her board term, is the lone nominee for second vice president. If she is elected, we will have four open board seats.

Four members were nominated for the board of directors: Karlin Andersen Tuttle, George Daniels, Melissa Greene-Blye, and Susan Swanberg. Members will vote for three board members as usual; the one that receives the least votes will take over Walck's partial term if she is elected second vice president.

Additionally, the membership will vote on whether to confirm the appointment of Erin Coyle, whom the board of directors appointed to second vice president upon the passing of Pam Parry. Coyle has been serving in that role since February. Per the AJHA Constitution and Bylaws, the Board is tasked with appointing officers to vacated positions, subject to confirmation by the AJHA membership at the next election. If confirmed, Coyle will ascend to first vice president. 

The 2nd VP, under normal circumstances, rises to the presidency in two years, then serves on the board as ex-officio for an additional two years. Board members serve for three years and are expected to attend board meetings at the annual convention.  

The election will be conducted via online survey, distributed in early September. A write-in option will be available for each position.  

Below are brief bios for each nominee. 

Second Vice President

Pamela Walck, an associate professor at Duquesne University, has been nominated for the position of second vice president. Walck has been a member of AJHA since she was in grad school at Ohio University (2013) and has attended every year—including the online days of COVID. 

Walck wrote that she joined AJHA because Mike Sweeney told her she should. “But in all seriousness, it only took one conference for me to see the immense benefit of being a part of AJHA,” she wrote. “From the beginning, I found a group of scholars who were incredibly passionate about media history AND building up new scholars. That forward focus is what keeps me coming back each year – and bringing grad students along from time to time.” 

Thanks to her membership in AJHA, Walck has been able to become friends with scholars across the globe in research areas that run the gamut. They have challenged her to look at her own research in new ways and have inspired her with their work.

“I have also found a community that is passionate about preserving the past – in an era where many wish to rewrite history to reflect what they wished it to be, rather than the reality of what it was,” she wrote. “That unblinking gaze into the past is critical to understanding tomorrow – and the AJHA membership understands that and stands up for that.” 

Walck started out as a member of the Oral History Committee and eventually became the chairperson of the group. In 2020, she became editor of American Journalism, AJHA’s flagship publication. She served in that position until 2024, when she joined the AJHA board of directors. 

Walck wrote that she feels like she is a strong collaborator – probably a result of her time in the newsroom. “I am also a good communicator and enjoy working with others to accomplish common goals,” she wrote. “I am getting better at understanding that conflict is not a bad thing – and trying to tackle disagreement with clarity and precision. I am fairly organized and definitely understand the importance of a deadline. I am open-minded and willing to hear multiple sides of an argument in a way that feels increasingly rare these days. And I value the importance of bringing and engaging journalism students (undergrad and grad) into our community of scholars.” 

Board of Directors

The nominees for the board of directors are Karlin Andersen Tuttle, George Daniels, Melissa Greene-Blye, and Susan Swanberg.

Karlin Andersen Tuttle, an adjunct instructor at Penn State University and journals production editor at the American Academy of Pediatrics, has been a member of AJHA since 2020.  

She joined because she was excited to join a community of support, mentorship, and shared enthusiasm for journalism and media history. “My research is interdisciplinary, but AJHA members welcomed my interests and helped me create a growing network of religious media historians,” Andersen Tuttle wrote. 

She stated that benefits of AJHA include meeting faculty and graduate students from around the country who are also passionate about journalism history and the vital role it plays in a well-rounded undergraduate education in mass communications. She also benefited from the travel support AJHA offered while she was a graduate student to attend the annual convention and the encouragement she received as she found her research focus. 

Andersen Tuttle currently serves as editor of the Intelligencer and co-chair of the AJHA Auction supporting the Michael S. Sweeney Graduate Student Travel Fund. She was a member of the Auction Committee for the 2024 conference. 

"Serving on the Auction Committee over the last year gives me insights into some of the Board’s functions and processes,” she wrote. “Additionally, editing the Intelligencer has increased and strengthened my connections to many AJHA members from graduate students to retired faculty. Those two existing roles will help me more easily take on this position and understand how to best serve fellow members.”

George L. Daniels, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at The University of Alabama, has been a member of AJHA since the 2009 convention in Birmingham, Alabama.  

Daniels said he joined AJHA because "I was amazed at how one could write and do study on a topic that is of great interest—the way media were produced in the past and how that understanding informs the present. I’m working on several research projects that involve media history. I need AJHA to help ensure I’m on the right track with the way I’m contextualizing, analyzing and interpreting lots of historical data.”    

Daniels described the benefits AJHA membership as being associated with like-minded, supportive colleagues who can mentor and challenge you as you strengthen your skills as a researcher. He also enjoys receiving American Journalism several times a year. 

Daniels’ service to AJHA has included reviewing AJHA research papers for the past three years. He has been actively involved in other journalism organizations, so he is familiar with how to liaison. He wrote that he gets things done when it involves collaborating with others. 

Daniels stated, “I would like to learn more about the inner workings of the organization, especially as it relates to getting more journalism/media history into one’s general media course requirements.” 

Melissa Greene-Blye, Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, is an assistant professor in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas, where she is also affiliated faculty in the Indigenous Studies Program.  

Greene-Blye has been a member of AJHA since 2016, encouraged to join by Amber Roessner, who assured the then-graduate student that she would find a supportive space to present research on Indigenous issues and representation in media as well as a welcoming community of like-minded scholars. Greene-Blye certainly has found AJHA to be exactly that—a very warm, welcoming space where she has been able to connect with other scholars for research and presentation collaborations as well as mentorship during those challenging pre-tenure years. She points to the networking and social connections and opportunities as some of the "gravy on top" benefits to being part of the association.  

Greene-Blye has served on the graduate student and membership committees during her time with AJHA, stepping in to chair the membership committee when there was a need for an interim leader in that position.  

Greene-Blye brings a unique perspective to the purpose and mission of the association. Her ability to build bridges and create collaboration opportunities with other organizations such as the Indigenous Journalists Association and IndiJ Public Media ensure she would continue to make a strong contribution to helping build a strong future for AJHA, supporting the work already being done and helping to raise up a new generation of scholars who are committed to continuing the important work of our discipline, connecting the past with the present to reinforce the critical role media and journalism have played and continue to play in the stories we tell. 

Susan Elizabeth Swanberg, associate professor at the University of Arizona School of Journalism, has been a member of AJHA since 2016. 

She was recruited by Ross Collins at an AEJMC meeting. “AEJMC seemed large and impersonal, and all the AJHA people I'd met seemed friendly and helpful,” Swanberg wrote. “Since I am a science journalism historian, joining AJHA seemed to be a good fit. I have enjoyed immensely my affiliation with AJHA.” 

Swanberg is in her third year as research panels chair. She also has judged Blanchard award and book award entries.   

Swanberg stated that she has been a member of AJHA long enough to have an appreciation of the organization, its goals and processes. She has a legal background, which helps her understand the workings of bylaws, policies, and guidelines. She also is a multidisciplinary researcher (science journalism history, law, and the natural sciences). 

Swanberg wrote that she enjoys giving back to the organization that has provided her with a lot of support, including the 2018 Rising Scholar Award that helped fund a research trip to the Smithsonian Archives. She is interested in recruiting more AJHA members, including students. 

How did you become involved with AJHA?

The 2007 Joint Journalism Historians Conference in New York City (held that year at NYU’s refurbished Kimball Hall on Greene Street) was one of the first conferences I attended after starting my faculty position at Slippery Rock University (SRU). I was still completing my dissertation and trying to balance a four-course teaching load with three young children, so a one-day conference within driving distance seemed to be just the ticket.

Little did I know that the conference would be a turning point. While I had been an “outlier” in my graduate program by studying historical media as narrative, at AJHA and the Joint AJHA-AEJMC History Division conferences, I found researchers who shared similar interests and research. They provided meaningful feedback and encouragement just when I needed it.

Presentations at the joint conference also led to other opportunities. For example, a number of AJHA attendees encouraged me to also present at the Symposium on the 19th Century Press, the Civil War and Free Expression in Chattanooga—another supportive forum for collaboration, generating ideas, and finding inspiration.

Finally, in 2024, Dr. Pamela Walck of Duquesne University invited me to join her on the local planning committee for the AJHA convention in Pittsburgh. It was great to see many newer faculty in attendance and to feel like my participation had come full circle.

How does your industry experience in public affairs with the USDA Food & Nutrition Service inform your teaching?

I had a fantastic eight years working with the USDA Food & Nutrition Service, the agency that administers the nation’s domestic food assistance programs like food stamps and school meals. The agency is a heavy-hitter, serving one in four Americans each year with an annual budget of more than $160 billion—the largest single agency within the USDA.

Little of that money was at the disposal of the public affairs staff, however, and we “did it all.” Like the table of contents in a PR textbook, my role included media relations; collaborative programming with corporate, nonprofit, congressional and governmental entities; advertising and publications; communication around policy and programming initiatives; advance work for political appointees; issues management; and a focus on diverse populations. It taught me that one must be nimble, creative, and collaborative, and that textbook scenarios of PR campaigns with “a year to plan” and a “million-dollar budget” are not always what you find in the “real world.”

Although that experience has helped me immensely in preparing students, it was sobering to realize that my career with USDA came to a close before they were even born. We worked in a now-unfamiliar pre-website, pre-social-media, pre-digital-cameras world.

To update my skills, I completed two projects during a sabbatical this past year. The first project took me into the newsroom of the Butler Eagle in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I worked several days a week on reporting, editing, design and photo management for print and digital editions.

A second sabbatical project included collaboration with my former colleagues at the USDA and PR work with an environmental action group, Groundwork USA. I also connected with policy and programming figures at the state and federal level to learn more about the state of legislative affairs and policy action.

You advise a student organization, College Dress Relief (CDR), at Slippery Rock that helps students prepare for careers in social media communication and marketing. What are some tips or resources you can share with others who help students enter an industry that continually shifts and adapts to digital trends and technology?

My suggestion is to find topics that motivate students and let them “run with it.” I’m not particularly knowledgeable about fashion, for example, but, like sports and entertainment, it’s one of the topics that generates excitement and productivity. There’s also room in this type of organization for many types of students, from PR and integrated marketing to digital media and journalism—and even dance, English, and art majors.

CDR members put their classroom skills into action by writing fashion-oriented blogs, taking photos and videos, writing a monthly column for the campus newspaper, learning about social media management and analytics, branding, updating the website, and managing social media campaigns and in-person events. They also engage with broader issues like sustainability, diversity, and wellness. Their work with CDR builds up-to-date skills that translate into any field.

What makes you excited about your current research?

My newest projects have a bit of sentimental value for me as I’m taking a look at 19th and early 20th century reporting on industrial America—coal mines, steel mills, railroads, and so on. How did the local press represent these industries, with their promise and their dangers, within the community? The project taps into my previous research into 19th century reporting on American national identity, disaster and breaking news reporting, and journalism in the Gilded Age. Plus it’s a new opportunity to work with local historical societies and to remember the experience of my coal-mining, steel-working, railroading Pennsylvania ancestors.

What hobbies or activities do you enjoy outside of academia?

I am a piano player, former church organist, and lover of old stuff. I also love to travel. My three boys—who came to SRU with me in kindergarten and first grade—were subject to years of vacations to Civil War battlefields, museums, ghost towns, historic newspapers, etc., where mom was on the lookout for the precise location of the Frank Leslie’s illustrator or Mark Twain’s Virginia City, Nevada, writing desk. Now that they are on their own, I’ve spent quite a bit of time helping them move in and back out of dorm rooms, apartments, new jobs, a house, etc. Lucky for me, those trips have taken me down Historic Route 66, to historic cemeteries and churches, to incredible national parks and monuments, and to coffee houses on many adorable—and historic—Main Streets across the country.

Katrina Jesick Quinn is a professor and former chair of the Department of Strategic Communication and Media at Slippery Rock University. She teaches courses in public relations, news and media writing, advanced reporting, and publication design.