The annual Covert Award in Mass Communication History has been won by Andie Tucher, a Columbia Journalism School professor who directs its Communications Ph.D. program. Tucher won the 34^th annual award for “‘I believe in faking’: The Dilemma of Photographic Realism at the Dawn of Photojournalism,” Photography & Culture, 10:2 (June 2017), 1-20.

The piece was selected from 8 articles nominated. The judges commended Tucher for her “spectacular” scholarship on an important topic, supported by “deep research and original analysis.” 

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

The Covert Committee includes some long-time members, among them Covert’s colleagues, as well as the current and past heads of the History Division. Committee members this year were: Douglas Cumming, Washington and Lee University; Kathy Roberts Forde, University of Massachusetts; Richard Kielbowicz, University of Washington; and Nancy Roberts, Chair, State University of New York at Albany. 

The History Division will present the $500 award to Tucher at its Members' Meeting at the annual AEJMC convention in August, this year in Washington, D.C.

The 2018 AEJMC History Division Book Award, honoring the best journalism and mass communication history book published in 2017, has been won by Fred Carroll for Race News: Black Journalists and the Fight for Racial Justice in the Twentieth Century (University of Illinois Press).  Carroll is a lecturer in the Department of History and Philosophy at Kennesaw State University, where he teaches courses in U.S. history and African-American History.

A panel of three distinguished media historians chose Race News from a field of 29 entries. Race News is an exhaustive archeological dig that reveals the ways that ideological, political, and commercial dynamics of progressive politics shaped how black journalists reported news. The judges praised Carroll’s scholarship and accessibility, saying that Race News “should appeal to anyone with an interest in black culture, dissident and mainstream journalism, and the social and political forces that shaped the American Century.”   

Carroll, who will receive a plaque and a cash prize, has been invited to speak about his work during the History Division members’ meeting on Tuesday, August 7 from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m. at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Washington, D.C.

http://aejmc.us/history/new-editor-will-lead-journalism-history/

The American Journalism Historians Association has named the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Kathryn J. McGarr, formerly of Princeton University, as the winner of its annual Margaret A. Blanchard Doctoral Dissertation Prize.

AJHA has granted the Blanchard Prize to the best doctoral dissertation dealing with mass communication history annually since 1997. “I'm always amazed at the diverse possibilities that can be included under the broad umbrella of media history,” Jane Marcellus, chair of the Blanchard Prize Committee, said. “The Blanchard Dissertation Prize competition continues to bring in excellent work from students at top universities, including those whose Ph.D.s--like our top winner--are not in journalism and mass communication per se but whose work intersects with the field. The members of the committee work carefully and diligently to evaluate entries; they deserve our thanks.”

McGarr and three runners-up will present their research at AJHA’s Annual Convention Oct. 4-6 in Salt Lake City. McGarr’s dissertation, “Gentlemen of the Press: Post-World War II Foreign Policy Reporting from the Washington Community,” was chaired by Julian Zelizer at Princeton.

Joining McGarr will be Jeremiah Favara and Thomas Schmidt, both of the University of Oregon, and Willie R. Tubbs, formerly of the University of Southern Mississippi, now at the University of West Florida. Favara completed “Recruiting for Difference and Diversity in the U.S. Military” under the direction of Carol Stabile. Schmidt’s “Rediscovering Narrative: A Cultural History of Journalistic Storytelling in American Newspapers, 1969-2001” was chaired by Gretchen Soderlund, and Tubbs’ “Forward Myth: Military Public Relations and the Domestic Base Newspaper 1941-1981” was chaired by David R. Davies. 

Scholars interested in the American Journalism Historians Association’s annual Joseph McKerns Research Grant Awards have until June 1 to submit all required documents to the appropriate committee. McKerns grants are intended to provide research assistance and to recognize and reward the winners. Up to four grants for up to $1,250 each will be rewarded upon review and recommendation of the Research Grant Committee.

All current AJHA full members with a minimum of three years' membership at the time of application are eligible. However, the applicant must be the principal investigator of the research project and the research project must be related to mass media history. Awardees are expected to continue their membership through the grant period, and to submit a report discussing the method, findings, complications, and significance of their research to the organization’s newsletter, the Intelligencer, by Sept. 1, 2019.

To be considered for a McKerns grant, AJHA members must submit:

• An application form.

• A one-to-three-page overview of the project, including a budget (which should include a listing of amount and sources of other support, if appropriate), timelines, and expected outlets for the research.

• If appropriate, an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from the applicant's university.

• A shortened curriculum vitae (no more than three pages). Grant applications must be submitted via email to Research Grant Committee Chair Erin Coyle at ekcoyle@lsu.edu. Materials may be submitted as PDF files or Word documents.

The American Journalism Historians Association invites paper entries, panel proposals, and abstracts of research in progress on any facet of media history for its 37th annual convention to be held Oct. 4-6 in Salt Lake City.

The deadline for all submissions is June 1, 2018. Authors may submit only one research paper, as well as a single research in progress about a significantly different topic. Authors are also eligible to participate in a single research panel. Research paper entries must be no longer than 25 pages of text, double-spaced, in 12-point type, not including notes. The Chicago Manual of Style is recommended but not required.

The Research in Progress category is for work that will not be completed before the conference. For research in progress submissions, authors should send a blind abstract of the study. The abstract should include a clear purpose statement as well as a brief description of your primary sources. Abstracts must be no longer than two pages of text, double-spaced, in 12-point type, with 1-inch margins, excluding notes. Primary sources should be described in detail in another double-spaced page.

Preference will be given to panel proposals that involve the audience and panelists in meaningful discussion or debate on original topics relevant to journalism history. Preference also will be given to panels that present diverse perspectives on their topics. Panel entries must be no longer than three pages of text, double-spaced, in 12-point type, with one-inch margins. Authors of accepted papers and research in progress, as well as panel participants, must register for the convention and attend in order to present their research.

Research papers should be emailed to ajhapaper@gmail.com, panel proposals to ajhapanels@gmail.com, and research in progress proposals to ajharip@gmail.com. Full details of all convention competitions can be found at https://ajha.wildapricot.org/call2018.

https://www.cjr.org/criticism/historians-journalists.php

American Journalism, the official journal of the American Journalism Historians Association, announced Wednesday that it is seeking applications for the annual Rising Scholar Award.

The award is intended to provide research assistance of up to $2,000 for a junior faculty member who has not yet achieved tenure. The proposed research project must be related to media history, but all methodological approaches are welcome. Applicants must be current AJHA members at the time the proposal is submitted. Proposals may be for sole-authored or co-authored work. If two or more individuals apply together, the award amount will be shared. The award is not intended for dissertation completion research, and undergraduate and graduate students are not eligible.

To be considered, applicants must submit:

• A cover letter with name and contact information for applicant(s).

• A three-to-five-page prospectus of the project that describes the topic and justifies its contribution to the historiography of the mass media.

• An itemized budget of no more than one page. This budget should include what, if any, additional funding sources will be used.

• If appropriate, the applicant should include the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from the university.

• A list of possible publication venues for the finished project.

• A letter of support from the applicant’s department chair or dean.

• A curriculum vitae of no more than three pages.

The application deadline is June 1, and proposals should be submitted to Vanessa Murphree, School of Mass Communication and Journalism, 105-C College Hall, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406; or via e-mail to vanessa.murphree@usm.edu.

We are excited to announce our 2018 offering in our advanced online oral history workshop series, Sharpen Your Skills: Advanced E-Workshops. “Digital Tools for Oral History” will focus on a selection of innovative options and applications available to the twenty-first century oral historian. BUIOH Director Stephen Sloan and Senior Editor/Collection Manager Steven Sielaff will discuss software and web platforms (most of which are free/open source!) that will enable you to accomplish and enhance your project goals of preservation, access, curation, and dissemination. This workshop is be a single three-hour session on May 23 from 10:00am to 1:00pm CDT and costs $75.

To register for this workshop, follow this link: https://www.baylor.edu/oralhistory/index.php?id=936083

Contact Info: Stephen Sloan, Institute for Oral History, Baylor University

Contact Email:  stephen_sloan@baylor.edu

URL:  https://www.baylor.edu/oralhistory/index.php?id=936083

We invite presentation proposals for The Fifties and Pop/Visual Culture: Film, Television and Beyond Conference, to be held at Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) November 9-10, 2018.

The conference organizers are seeking historically and theoretically intriguing contributions that explore any noteworthy aspect(s) of popular and/or visual culture during the 1950s, whether in the United States or elsewhere, in relation to cinematic, televisual, and other types of media offerings.

Participants are encouraged to interpret the conference theme quite broadly and innovatively. Possible topics may include (but are certainly not limited to) advertising images and strategies, atomic age depictions, Beat writers, changing traditions and value structures, CinemaScope, cold war culture, containment strategies, desegregation, Elvis Presley, ethnic sitcoms, fashion trends, films noir, James Dean, juvenile delinquency, Levittowns, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, McCarthyism, men in gray flannel suits, mid-century icons and stars, normative gender roles and expectations, the nuclear family, science fiction movies, the studio system, technological innovations, television’s early years, variety shows, UFO scares, and saying what couldn’t be said.

We encourage submissions from scholars, educators, and students at all levels, and from disciplines including art, communication, cultural studies, film and video studies, history, journalism, LGBTQ studies, literature, media studies, music, political science, popular culture, sociology, television studies, and women’s studies, among others.

Given adequate participant interest and high-quality submissions, we are hoping to publish selected papers (with author’s permission) in a special collection of essays pertaining to the conference theme.

Please e-mail presentation proposals containing (a) a one-page abstract with complete contact information (name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, and contact telephone number) and (b) a one-paragraph author biography to Professor Kylo-Patrick Hart (k.hart@tcu.edu) on or before Friday, August 3, 2018.

Decisions regarding the status of submitted proposals will be made and communicated as quickly as possible following the submission deadline, and certainly no later than August 17, 2018.  For specific inquiries prior to submitting a proposal, please contact Dr. Hart at your convenience by e-mail (k.hart@tcu.edu).

Contact Info: Kylo-Patrick R. Hart, Department of Film, Television and Digital Media, Texas Christian University

Contact Email: k.hart@tcu.edu