Intelligencer

Intelligencer is a blog featuring thoughtful essays on mass communication history teaching and research as well as highlighting the work of our members.

To suggest an essay, contact us at ajhaconvention@gmail.com.

PDFs of the Intelligencer in its previous newsletter form can be found at the Intelligencer archive. Visit the News page for press releases on the organization's activities.

  • 23 Aug 2019 11:30 AM | Erika Pribanic-Smith (Administrator)

    By Nick Hirshon, William Paterson
    AJHA Nominations & Elections Chair

    It’s almost that time of year again: fall leaves, pumpkin spice lattes, and the AJHA conference! With our hearty crew of media historians about to take on Dallas in a few weeks, our members have nominated three scholars for the office of second vice-president and four to occupy three open seats on the board of directors. Additional nominations can be made from the floor during the election that will take place at the annual member business meeting on Saturday, Oct. 5. After elections are held, current Second Vice-President Aimee Edmondson (Ohio University) will become first vice-president for 2019-2020, and First Vice-President Donna Lampkin Stephens (University of Central Arkansas) will become president.

    Proxy Voting

    Dues-paying AJHA members unable to attend the conference are eligible to vote by proxy. They should send their name, email address and the name of the person who will cast their proxy vote at the conference to AJHA Nominations and Elections Committee Chair Nick Hirshon (nickhirshon@gmail.com) no later than midnight Friday, September 20, 2019. PLEASE CONFIRM IN ADVANCE that the proxy voter will be at the business meeting on Oct. 5 and is willing to cast the proxy vote.

    Nominees

    Second Vice-President

    Mike Conway (Indiana University) is an associate professor of journalism. Before becoming a professor, he spent more than 15 years in local television news, working as a reporter, photographer, anchor, producer, and news director. Conway studies twentieth-century journalism history, especially the rise of radio and television news. His latest book is Contested Ground: “The Tunnel” and the Struggle Over Television News in Cold War America. Conway is a lifetime member of AJHA, first joining in 2003. He has been on the American Journalism Editorial Advisory board for ten years and served as chair of the Awards Committee for nine years. He was also elected to the Board of Directors and has served on the Convention Sites Committee and the Blanchard Dissertation Award Committee. He reviews papers every year and books most years. He has won the American Journalism “Best Article Award” twice.

    Paulette Kilmer (University of Toledo) is a professor of communication. She began her association with AJHA as a graduate student in the late 1980s. Since that time, she has worked in some of AJHA's most important committees, including the education committee and publications committee. As longtime publications chair, she provided feedback from the Publications Committee to assist in the transition from print newsletter to digital format and worked with AJHA leadership to forge a relationship with publisher Taylor & Francis to move American Journalism into its scholarly journal listings. She won a president's award for her work as coordinator of the Donna Allen Luncheon series and a second award for coordinating the successful search for editors of both the newsletter and journal one summer. Kilmer also served a term on the board of directors and has published books and articles in journalism history.

    Pam Parry (Southeast Missouri State University) is chairperson of the Department of Mass Media at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau. She is a lifetime member of American Journalism Historians Association, having served on the AJHA board of directors and the public relations committee. She also has served as chair of the education committee. In addition to her administrative duties at Southeast Missouri State, she teaches media history and communication law. She is the author of Eisenhower: The Public Relations President as well as two trade books. Parry is a co-editor of the Women in American Political History Book series by Lexington Books, which has produced five books to date--most of them authored by members of the American Journalism Historians Association. She is writing another book that should be released in 2020.

    Board of Directors

    Teri Finneman (University of Kansas) is an assistant professor of journalism. She has been a member of AJHA since 2015 and is a past Oral History Committee Chair. Chair of the AEJMC History Division for 2019-2020, she executive produces the podcast Journalism History. Her research focuses on a mix of history, gender, media and politics, with an emphasis on press portrayals of women politicians and first ladies, oral history and women in journalism. Finneman is the author of Press Portrayals of Women Politicians, 1870s-2000s, which was named a 2016 finalist for the Frank Luther Mott -Kappa Tau Alpha book award for best research-based book about journalism or mass communication. Her documentary, “Newspaper Pioneers: The Story of the North Dakota Press,” premiered in 2017. She is a recipient of the American Journalism Historians Association's Wm. David Sloan and Maurine Beasley awards, as well as the AEJMC History Division's Michael S. Sweeney Award, for her research on the press and the suffrage movement.

    Michael Fuhlhage (Wayne State University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication. His research interests include the development of stereotypes about Mexicans in U.S. mass media, the mid-nineteenth-century press, and the history of the book in American culture. He has served as chair of the AJHA Research Committee, member of the AJHA Board of Directors, juror in the AJHA Margaret Blanchard Dissertation Awards competition, juror in the AJHA McKerns Research Grant competition, coordinator of the AJHA panels competition, member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame board of directors, and as faculty adviser for the Auburn University chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has reviewed manuscripts for AJHA, American Journalism, and the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference. Fuhlhage is the author of Yankee Reporters and Southern Secrets: Journalism, Open Source Intelligence, and the Coming of the Civil War (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2019).

    Gwyneth Mellinger (James Madison University) is director of the School of Media Arts & Design. Her research, which has been supported by the collegial fellowship of AJHA, focuses on the southern press of the 1950s, the newsroom diversity movement, and journalism ethics. Mellinger has been a member of AJHA for 15 years. She has reviewed for the AJHA conference, book award, research in progress, and McKerns Research Grant, which she has received twice. She previously served on the AJHA board from 2009 to 2012 and chaired the AJHA Outreach Committee from 2008 to 2010. She is a member of the American Journalism advisory board and a contributing editor for Journalism History. Recent winner of the Farrar Award for research on the historical relationship between the media and civil rights, Mellinger is the author of Chasing Newsroom Diversity: From Jim Crow to Affirmative Action (Illinois, 2013) and co-editor, with John Ferré, of the forthcoming Journalism’s Ethical Progression: A Twentieth-Century Journey.

    Melony Shemberger (Murray State University) is an associate professor of journalism and mass communication and recent winner of the AEJMC History Division's teaching award. Editor of the Intelligencer newsletter, Shemberger has published in several peer-reviewed publications, including Journalism History, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, and the Teaching Journalism and Mass Communication Journal. She also has authored several book chapters and professional articles in guidebooks published by the PR News Press. Her primary research interests include various journalism history topics, with education news dominating her current agenda; the scholarship of teaching and learning, with a focus on andragogy and instructional design; sunshine laws; and crisis communication. Before entering academia, Shemberger had successful, award-winning reporting careers — specializing in the education, court and business beats — and received numerous awards from the Kentucky Press Association.

  • 17 Jul 2019 10:48 AM | Erika Pribanic-Smith (Administrator)

    The AJHA Board of Directors is proposing two amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws related to the planning of the organization’s annual national and regional conferences. The first formalizes the ad-hoc committee charged with planning the student-focused Southeast Symposium, while the second outlines the duties of the Local Hosts who assist with the national conference. [To review the current Constitution and Bylaws, see the Members Only page (login required).]

    One or two representatives have been responsible in the past for planning the Southeast Symposium, held each winter in Florida. At the 2017 Board of Directors meeting, Symposium representative Dianne Bragg outlined a plan for expanding the symposium to draw more participants. Part of the plan was to make a committee consisting of faculty members who regularly attend the symposium. The board voted to create an ad-hoc committee, chaired by Bragg and Debra van Tuyll, and submit a constitutional amendment making it a permanent committee.

    Therefore, the board proposes adding the following to Section 4.06 of the constitution, which lists all AJHA committees and their charges. The formatting of this new entry would be consistent with other committees listed in the section.

    (n) Southeast Symposium. This committee will plan the annual Southeast Symposium, including setting dates, securing a location, and crafting the program.

    At the 2018 Board of Directors meeting, then Long Range Planning Chair David Vergobbi reported on the work the Long Range Planning committee had undertaken for the previous two years to formally outline the duties of the local hosts for the national convention and make those duties publicly available so that future hosts will have access to them well in advance of beginning their planning. The board approved the Long Range Planning Committee’s request to propose an addendum to the Constitution and Bylaws listing the local host duties.

    The board voted to add the following sentence to Bylaws Article 8, Section (a), which outlines the duties of the Convention Chair: See Addendum A for a full explanation of local host duties and responsibilities.

    The following then would be added to the end of the Constitution and Bylaws as Addendum A:

    AJHA Convention Host(s) Duties & Responsibilities

    This is to serve as a guide when deciding to be the host for the annual AJHA convention. The actual legwork of getting hotel bids is the responsibility of the convention committee chair and the convention administrator. They will submit request for proposals (RFP) to the area hotels and be the contact persons for the hotels and Helms Briscoe (meeting and conference consultant). The convention chair will also arrange a trip to the host city for an overnight stay (usually one or two nights). This trip will be to visit hotels identified as suitable based on the RFP responses, meet and discuss the meeting with the local Convention and Visitors Bureau, and visit possible sites for the historic tour and gala dinner. Usually quite a bit of work is done in the short visit and the local host(s) is encouraged to participate in the meetings and site visits if possible.

    The main responsibility of the local host(s) is to be the local host to the convention, serve as a point of contact for the convention committee chair and local vendors, to assist the committee chair and to provide:

    1.       Obtaining Sponsors and contributors:  The local host is responsible for obtaining additional funding for the convention events and is encouraged to find sponsors in the area to help offset the costs incurred with the convention.  The sponsor/contributor is given credit for the hosting in the program, website and throughout the event. The following suggested levels are meant to be a guide in your fundraising efforts:

    a.       Underwriting Welcome Reception--$5,000

    b.       Underwriting History Tour--$3,000

    c.       Underwriting Awards Lunch--$2,000

    d.       Underwriting Allen Lunch--$1,000

    e.       Saturday Gala Dinner--$5,000

    f.        General Support--$500-$1,000

    2.       Hotel services—It is extremely helpful to have a local host offer input in regards to hotels that may serve as suitable host hotels and areas of town that are most suited to the convention (restaurants/shops within walking distance). Assisting in this area will help the convention chair and administrator identify suitable hotels so RFPs can be submitted to the hotels. The first preference is for a historic hotel if possible. The committee chair will negotiate the contract, and follow up with meal and catering needs.

    3.       Local History Tour:  The committee chair/convention administrator will negotiate the contracts, arrange for transportation and all other work associated with the Historic Tour. The main duty of the local host is to help facilitate the identification of a suitable tour site.(Friday afternoon, departure time from the hotel should be 30 minutes after the end of the Donna Allen Roundtable lunch). Tour should conclude by 5:30-6:00. These times are just guidelines for choosing the locales; the convention administrator will make all of the necessary arrangements once a venue has been selected. As a note, per feedback at previous conventions, Friday night is left open so members can have dinner on their own.

    a.       Location Requirements:  A total of two to three historical sites within a short bus ride of each other make an ideal itinerary. The number of historical sites is usually determined by distance between the venues and the time required for travel to and from.  Following the tour members are free to have dinner on their own.

    b.       Transportation Requirements:  Will this be a walking tour or will buses be needed, also what assistance will be needed for those with physical limitations?

    4.       Saturday Night Gala Dinner (to be held offsite)

    a.       Location requirements:  A nice restaurant within walking distance of the hotel with a private room that will accommodate approximately 80 people.

    b.       Transportation requirements:  The restaurant should be no more than a 10-minute walk from the hotel.  Also transportation for members requiring assistance needs to be made available. We don’t want to have to use a bus for this meal unless there is sponsorship. Two buses for a group our size is between $1,500 to $2,000 EACH per round trip (even a short trip).

    c.       Catering requirements:  The restaurant needs to be able to provide a plated full course dinner with salad, main course and sides, dessert, coffee, iced tea, plus a cash bar.  The restaurant needs to be able to meet special diet needs as well as gluten free, vegetarian and vegan menu selections. If more than 60 attend there will be a need for a second bartender.  Meal cost should total $50.00 per plate not include tax and gratuity. Usually the bartending charge is in addition to the meal charge. Again the actual meal selection will be done by the committee chair/administrator the prices are just a guide (don’t forget tax and tip will add a minimum of 27% -30% to the meal costs).

    5.       Nominating and securing the Local Journalist awardee.

    6.       Nominating and securing the Donna Allen Luncheon honoree and speaker.

    7.       Identifying and arranging the Local Panel that precedes the Thursday Reception.

    8.       Identifying a local printer for the printing of the conference program.

    9.       Arranging for the transfer of AJHA’s projectors to the next local host.

     

  • 10 Jul 2019 5:40 PM | Melony Shemberger

    The American Journalism Historians Association is seeking nominations for three board positions and the office of second vice president. 

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

    A nominee to the Board of Directors or to any of the other Officer positions must have been a member of the AJHA for at least one calendar year immediately preceding the date of the election. No more than one person from an institution can serve on the board at one time. 

    To make nominations and to vote in an election, an individual must be a member of AJHA. Those who wish to nominate candidates may do so by sending an email with the nominee's name, contact information and affiliation to election and nominations committee chair Nick Hirshon, nickhirshon@gmail.com.

    Please confirm the candidate's willingness to serve before sending the nomination to Nick, and if possible, you should send a brief bio of the candidate.

    Deadline for nominations is 5 p.m., Aug. 15. Nominations also may be made from the floor.
  • 10 Jul 2019 5:21 PM | Melony Shemberger

    By Ross F. Collins, president, American Journalism Historians Association

    One of AJHA’s long-term goals from its founding in 1981 emphasizes raising awareness of journalism and mass media history as a significant and important field of research within the larger history discipline. In its efforts to showcase the work of American journalism history scholars, AJHA has I think raised scholarly awareness of media history, and certainly has raised the bar for high-quality research. But we are not alone in efforts to do that.

    In the last Intelligencer I introduced many of our members to work of our journalism history colleagues in France. Le Temps des Médias, the scholarly research journal of media historians writing in French, has appeared since 2003. According to Christian Delporte, its director, the journal’s founding rests on a goal similar to that of AJHA. In 2000, when the sponsoring Société pour l’histoire des médias (SPHM; Society for Media History) was founded, “the research area was still little recognized in the French academy,” says Delporte. “Even the expression ‘media history’ had not really acquired respectability.”

    Despite that, French scholars certainly had produced towering achievements in media history. The five-volume General History of the French Press from the 1970s is an immense reference far beyond anything ever produced for any other country’s journalism that I’m aware of. But since that time I thought media history research in France had seemed to lose some steam. In 1996 Jean-Noël Jeanneney published his one-volume A History of Media from Its Origins to Today. “We were familiar with historians of the press,” said Delporte. “We saw the appearance of historians of television, even of radio. By then the idea of a ‘historian of media’ was no longer surprising, and we were delighted.” But he and other French scholars deplored the absence of university structure or scholarly organization for media history study. “We never met without raising our incantation: ‘Something must be done!’”

    Jeanneney brought greater public awareness to French media history study as well-known Radio France director, politician, and from 2002 to 2007 president of the Bibliothèque Nationale (French National Library, equivalent of Library of Congress). In 2000 Delporte, along with prominent French media history scholars Gilles Feyel, Michael Palmer and Hélène Eck, met to formalize a plan. They proposed a group open to media history study of any aspect, economic, cultural, social or political, technical, industrial, and open to researchers of all disciplines, both French and international, who worked to advance interest in scholarship of mass media history. SPHM was born in 2000.

    Today, Delporte believes media history study has evolved. “It is no longer identified only as history of the press.” It has extended to questions of media culture and cultural exchange, has reached to studies of image and sound, and has led to exploitation of new archives. In sum, media history has moved to “the heart of the field of contemporary historical study.”

    But, Delporte admits, still, universities do not always recognize the vitality of what he calls a young discipline. He credits SPHM still for moving media history into the mainstream.

    I have been a member of SPHM since its inception, but I admit I’m still part of a small group of United States mass media scholars who are reaching out internationally. In fact, according to the SPHM directory, in this group we comprise three. One is Jeremy Popkin of the University in Kentucky, the monumental English-language scholar of French revolutionary-era journalism who was a founding member of SPHM. I like to keep good company.

    This group did not offer international research conventions until 2016—at which research papers in English were accepted. Despite a Ph.D. in French history, my ability to write French at a scholarly level is pathetic, so I jumped on the opportunity to present in English. The June conference in a Paris suburb turned out to be a delightful occasion to meet with media history scholars from around Europe, and to see how media history has grown from mostly a topic of interest to U.S. scholars to one of general appeal throughout Western culture and beyond. SPHM is on the verge of publishing a book based on this conference, Penser l’histoire des medias (Thinking of Media History, CNRS Editions), in which I have a modest contribution.

    Next year SPHM will be meeting in Switzerland. And in case you’re wondering—most of these international scholars can speak English. As unfair as that is, the language of global scholarship has become that annoying Anglo-Saxon tongue.

    In welcoming English-language presentations and meeting outside of France SPHM is trying to internationalize its reach, just as AJHA is making efforts to build interest in transnational journalism and international research. We have a lot in common, our efforts to build media history into a central and important historical discipline. You can check out SPHM (English language version available) at http://www.histoiredesmedias.com.

  • 10 Jul 2019 5:09 PM | Melony Shemberger

    Arceneaux continues as interim director at SDSU

    Noah Arceneaux continues as the interim director for the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University for the 2019-2020 academic year. 

    The university will be conducting a national search for a new director, looking for someone to take over the helm of this ACEJMC-accredited program. An official job posting will appear in the early fall semester.

    Hirshon recognized by SPJ for work on campus

    Dr. Nicholas Hirshon, assistant professor of communication at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, received the Society of Professional Journalists' inaugural New Jersey Journalism Educator of the Year Award at a ceremony in June.

    The judges cited Hirshon creating an SPJ chapter on his campus, leading a walking tour of historic journalism sites in Philadelphia with his students during a regional SPJ conference last year, and demonstrating "tireless work" to establishing the New Jersey Journalism Hall of Fame at William Paterson.

    Shemberger elected faculty regent on university board

    Dr. Melony Shemberger, associate professor of journalism and mass communications at Murray State University, was elected to represent the faculty on the university's board of regents.

    Shemberger officially began her three-year term on July 1. She defeated four other candidates, including the incumbent.

    A former vice president of Murray State's Faculty Senate, Shemberger will be sworn into office in August.

  • 06 Jun 2019 12:15 PM | Melony Shemberger

    The American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA) seeks nominations and applications for the editor of American Journalism, the organization’s quarterly refereed journal of media history, established in 1983 and published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis.

    The position begins January 1, 2021, with a transfer of some editorial duties in January 2020. The AJHA Board of Directors appoints the editor of American Journalism to a four-year term, subject to annual review and reconfirmation by the Board. Consecutive terms may be held.

    The editor receives a stipend of $1,000 per issue.

    The editor’s responsibilities include the timely processing of manuscripts submitted to American Journalism, whether on speculation or by solicitation; working with authors to prepare manuscripts for publication; and coordinating with the staff of Routledge, Taylor & Francis to publish four issues per year, including selection of content, editing, and proofreading.

    The editor works with a book review editor, digital media editor, and, if desired, an associate editor. The editor may recruit and appoint editorial staff members. In addition, the editor works with the Editorial Advisory Board, whose duties include continuous development of the journal and selection of the annual “Best American Journalism Article.” The editor organizes and presides over a meeting of the Editorial Advisory Board at the annual AJHA conference.

    The editor works with the treasurer and finance officer of AJHA on budget matters, handles all journal correspondence, and prepares an annual report for the AJHA Board and membership. The incoming editor will work with the editorial staff to maintain the journal’s website, which includes additional information, teaching materials, and author interviews. The incoming editor also will work with the editorial staff to share editorial content on social media.

    Applicants and nominees must be current members of AJHA. They should be able to write and edit clearly and concisely, and they must understand and appreciate the broad range of literature and methods of the media history field. Preference will be given to tenured applicants who have established reputations as journalism/media history scholars and are affiliated with an institution that can provide support to the editor with consideration to office space, travel, use of equipment, provision of student/staff assistance, and/or course release.

    Applications should include a statement indicating a willingness to serve, a curriculum vitae, and a letter of institutional support. Applications or nominations should be sent to the AJHA Publications Committee Chair, Paulette D. Kilmer, at paulette.kilmer@utoledo.edu.

  • 06 May 2019 11:59 AM | Melony Shemberger

    Ana Stevenson is the recipient of the 35th Annual Covert Award 

    The 35th annual Covert Award in Mass Communication History has been won by Ana Stevenson, a postdoctoral research fellow in the International Studies Group at the University of the Free State, South Africa. Stevenson won for “Imagining Women’s Suffrage: Frontier Landscapes and the Transnational Print Culture of Australia, New Zealand, and the United States,” Pacific Historical Review, 87, no. 4 (2018): 638–666. 

    Stevenson’s article was selected from 18 articles nominated. Her work joins a growing body of literature in both mass communication and history that examines cultural dissemination across national borders; it was impressive to see work that drew from suffrage print cultures of three different countries. Stevenson showed how constructed language advocating for women's suffrage, in particular rhetoric that made ties to geography, the frontier, and settler narratives, was exchanged via transnational connections. Her reporting out of the archives was persuasive, as was her attention to how these narratives advantaged women of European heritage and excluded indigenous peoples.

    The award was endowed by the late Catherine Covert, a professor of public communications at Syracuse University and former head of the AEJMC History Division. It goes to the article or chapter in an edited collection that represents the year's best essay in mass communication history.   

    The Covert Committee includes some longtime members, the current and past heads of the History Division, and previous winners of the award. Committee members this year were Erika Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas at Arlington; Douglas O. Cumming, Washington and Lee University; Richard B. Kielbowicz, University of Washington; Nancy Roberts, State University of New York at Albany; and Sheila Webb, Committee Chair, Western Washington University. 

    The History Division will present the $500 award to Stevenson at the award celebration at the annual AEJMC convention in Toronto, Aug. 7, 2019. 

  • 20 Mar 2019 4:35 PM | Melony Shemberger

    By Ross Collins, North Dakota State University

    Louis XIV ruled 72 years. He must have been a king of robust health.

    Except that he wasn’t. But people weren’t supposed to know that. The press made sure of that.

    Except it didn’t.

    Alexis Lévrier of the University of Rheims writes in last spring’s Paris journalism history review, Le Temps des Médias, that the “fake news” of Louis XIV’s good health arose from an effort of the court to exert total control over the three newspapers of Paris. They were expected to celebrate the robust health of Louis from cradle to (nearly) grave: a strong, virile and vigorous king of Europe’s (perhaps) most influential monarchy.

    That was a journalistic stretch, Lévrier writes. Louis’ mother, Queen Anne of Austria, gave birth in 1638 at the then advanced maternal age of 37 to a fragile boy who worried doctors. But not the press. At least not in its reporting. So often did Paris read of the “perfect health” of the prince that they actually became suspicious.

    Louis overcame the concerning birth. But in celebrating the vaunted vigor of the king the Paris press had to manage some considerable vexes. At age 9 the prince contracted smallpox. The court’s response would set its press management style through many more noisome maladies that would befall the king, from gonorrhea (at age 17), to typhoid (19) to gout (episodic from 47). The approach: Report little of nothing until the king was out of the woods. Then, as in the smallpox case, report a blow-by-blow description including such details as “delirium” and “pustules.”

    A graphic account of the king’s misery after his recovery served to celebrate his strength and courage, the “exceptional resistance of his body,” writes Lévrier. This was the king who never faltered, never aged.

    But the court’s control of Paris journalism faced a challenge beyond reach: newspapers published outside of France and aimed at French readers.

    Particularly Dutch newspapers offered a lively counterpoint to the highly controlled journals of Paris. They read between the lines to presume what really was happening in the court, and were smuggled back to France to offer spirited competition to the official view. But they also were not reliable.

    As fake as the news about Louis XIV’s health was in the censored press, it was as often as fake in the foreign press, writes Lévier. By the early 1700s the king was Methuselah by era standards, and the foreign papers proclaimed his demise so often that the they became as sensationally unreliable as the court-controlled press. In August 1715 gangrene appeared on the king’s left leg. It was two weeks before the doctors realized it may not be sciatica after all.

    The Paris journalists maintained silence. The foreign papers could not scour out any real news but, because the king had become Europe’s greatest celebrity, responded by latching onto to whatever rumor could be caught or contrived. The king actually did die Sept. 1, 1715.

    The court’s control over the king’s health news kept his subjects in the dark until the end. But in the long run it was bad policy. “Notably it fed almost to absurdity a vicious circle impossible to stop,” Lévier notes, as it encouraged fake news from the foreign press, leading the crown to stack lie on further exaggerated lie regarding the king’s illnesses.

    Why am I telling you this story? Well, aren’t we all still interested in King Louie? It’s only been three centuries, after all.

    More germane, it pulls from a large body of international journalism history research that we in AJHA almost never hear about. Our sister group in Paris, the Society for the History of Media, publishes this journal. While the language barrier is a challenge, I think we can do more to internationalize our discipline. I hope we can find ways to strengthen our global reach, and intend to consider ideas in future columns.

  • 20 Mar 2019 3:23 PM | Melony Shemberger

    Will Mari, assistant professor in the department of communication at Northwest University, had his book, A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies 1960-1990, published in February 2019 by Routledge as part of its "Disruptions" series. The book covers the history of the computer in U.S. newsrooms during the latter Cold War. It is the first such media-history account of newsroom computerization. 

    For more information: https://www.routledge.com/A-Short-History-of-Disruptive-Journalism-Technologies-1850-to-2000/Mari/p/book/9780815367918

    Erika Pribanic-Smith, associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Arlington, is the co-author (with law scholar Jared Schroeder) of Emma Goldman’s No-Conscription League and the First Amendment published in late 2018 by Routledge. This book analyzes the communications that led to Goldman's arrest — writings in Mother Earth, a mass-mailed manifesto, and speeches related to compulsory military service during World War I — as well as the ensuing legal proceedings and media coverage. The authors place Goldman’s Supreme Court appeal in the context of the more famous Schenck and Abrams trials to demonstrate her place in First Amendment history, while providing insight into wartime censorship and the attitude of the mainstream press toward radical speech.

    For more information: https://www.routledge.com/Emma-Goldmans-No-Conscription-League-and-the-First-Amendment-1st-Edition/Pribanic-Smith-Schroeder/p/book/9781138493476


    Editor's note: Please recommend books written by AJHA members to your libraries for purchase.

  • 20 Mar 2019 3:13 PM | Melony Shemberger

    By Rebecca Taylor, Siena College

    It was 375 years ago that John Milton penned what would become the oft-cited essay against censorship by royal decree, Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, to the Parliament of England. Published in 1644, the text is arguably a sophisticated reading assignment for undergraduate journalism students to interpret.

    But Milton’s arguments against government suppression of the press can be used in the undergraduate journalism classroom, to analyze contemporary cases in modern media, and to enhance the student’s understanding of First Amendment protections.

    As a professor who teaches communications law at a small liberal arts college, students generally grimace when I assign Areopagitica, which is often one of the first required texts in my media law seminar. 

    The importance of the assignment is not just to digest the complex text, but to underscore its application to contemporary cases involving the First Amendment, and more specifically prior restraint. Prior restraint is pre-publication censorship, and generally held to be unconstitutional.

    To underscore the applicability of Milton’s essay, I pair the reading with a contemporary case.  In one of my classes, we used Milton’s arguments to analyze President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop the publication of the book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump Whitehouse, amid his claims that the book contained defamatory content. Another semester, we applied Milton’s arguments to examine efforts to prohibit a controversial website from providing detailed instructions to print and assemble a gun using a 3-D printer, a case that was pending in federal court.

    Students are required to argue all of the relevant arguments from Areopagitica they can identify to the facts of the contemporary case – that truth will prevail, that censorship is insulting and paternalistic, and that legitimizing censorship in one form would inevitably lead society down a slippery slope, permitting government to sanction other forms of self-expression.  And while it is important to note that critics have sharply criticized Milton for his limited view of freedom of the press, the merits of some of the arguments against prior restraint maintain relevance today.

    I should note I provide a link to an annotated version of Areopagitica, which students find immensely helpful in understanding the text.  Some students tell me they’ve elected to read Areopagitica aloud in pairs to better dissect its meaning.

    Not only am I impressed with their performance, but the students also express genuine pride in demystifying such a famous, yet complex, text.

    Moreover, I find students are better able to digest the reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court in Near v. Minnesota, the landmark case that held a presumption of unconstitutionality in acts of prior restraint. Having tackled a 17th century essay on censorship, they exhibit greater confidence when examining United States Supreme Court decisions. Clearly, the Court’s legal language can be sophisticated, but in general, not so challenging as 1644 Milton. And the historical document’s relevance to contemporary cases in journalism law and ethics can make for an engaging class assignment.


    Rebecca Taylor, J.D., is director of the Journalism program at Siena College in New York, where she teaches reporting and communication law.

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