History Division
Robert Capa: War Photographer as Performance and Revision of the Myth • Christopher T. Assaf, University of Texas At Austin • This paper will examine the mythos surrounding war photographer Robert Capa. New research challenges whether Capa’s D-Day invasion film was ruined, the number of negatives he made, and Capa himself. Through the lens of Barthes’ (2013) “ideological myth,” this study questions Capa’s self-mythologizing; the narrative of Falling Soldier (1936); his elite photojournalistic status; and his photographs of June 6, 1944. Further inspection will illuminate Capa the war photographer via the hegemonic masculinity fueling his persona.
Democracy on the Skids: The Hutchins Commission’s Fears for America’s Future • Stephen Bates, University of Nevada, Las Vegas • Scholars often remark on the timeless quality of A Free and Responsible Press, the 1947 report of the Hutchins Commission. Yet some of the Commission’s most striking parallels to today did not make it into the book. In closed-door deliberations, Commission members worried that the democratic system in the United States faced grave threats, including a fragmenting and polarized electorate, foreign and domestic propaganda, and what we now call echo chambers, trolls, and deplatforming.
“Libbers’ March”: Newspapers and the 50th Anniversary of U.S. Women’s Suffrage • Dana Dabek, Temple University • This paper explores newspaper coverage of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in the U.S. in 1970, including but not limited to the Women’s Strike for Equality, under the lens of memory studies. Situated within a larger conversation regarding how the U.S. suffrage movement is brought into collective memory by the media, this work contends that feminist message, preservation of memory, and media framing are often at odds.
Individual- and Role-Level Influences on Crisis Coverage: A Content Analysis of Columbine • Danielle Deavours, University of Alabama • Neutrality, to remove one’s emotions and beliefs from reports, is a norm of the journalism profession. A desire to be neutral is often fostered by an adherence to institutional and organizational norms enacted by individual journalists in their routine newsmaking decisions. Yet, when routines are less applicable, like during crisis event coverage, will journalists still adhere to the professional norm of neutrality or will they become more subjective as individual-level influences of emotions and personal beliefs take over? This study focuses on nonverbal expressions of broadcast journalists during crisis coverage, specifically during school shootings. Using a pivotal moment in American school shooting history, the shootings at Columbine High School in Columbine Colorado on April 20, 1999, this study seeks to understand a critical moment in journalistic history of individual and role influences of journalists during crisis. This work features the case study of the first 24-hours of national news coverage from Columbine and a content analysis methodology. As one of the first school shootings in the United States to receive 24 hour live coverage, the broadcasts of Columbine provide unique insight into a non-routinized event’s coverage. The findings in this study contribute to understanding of journalistic practices (specifically broadcast and visual journalism), nonverbal communication, journalism history, and school shootings.
‘Skeptics Make the Best Readers’: The Institute of Propaganda Analysis’ Pioneering Media Literacy Efforts and the Fight Against Misinformation (1937-1942) • Elisabeth Fondren, St. John’s University • This study examines the Institute for Propaganda Analysis’ efforts to build, manage, and expand American institutional media literacy programs before and during World War II. Most centrally, this paper explores the IPA’s visions and advocacy for propaganda literacy against the backdrop of rising nationalism during the period of 1937-1942. Through a historical and textual analysis of archival papers, notes, speeches, correspondence, newspaper articles and the Institute’s publication, the results of this study show how the Institute raised awareness and highlighted the need for information literacy during a time that precedes our modern attempts to promote critical thinking and engagement with political information. Supported by a network of elites, social scientists and editors, these efforts gained momentum. The Institute’s newsletter, Propaganda Analysis, and its educational programs, specialized leaflets and books were received favorably, however, the Institute could neither overcome its financial struggles nor thwart official pressures to cede its work, perceived as ‘un-American’ in light of the U.S. war mobilization. By examining how scholars of public opinion worked with the press, garnered publicity, and shared their expertise on propaganda publicly, the findings offer original insights into the pioneering efforts of the American anti-propaganda movement.
A Know-Nothing’s Portrayal of Mexicans in the 1850s Press: The Work of G. Douglas Brewerton • Michael Fuhlhage, Wayne State University • George Douglas Brewerton was among the first magazine correspondents to use first-person experience to describe the Spanish and Mexican people and culture in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands in the 1850s. His lengthy travel narratives published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1853 and 1854 chronicled his journey with Kit Carson across the Mojave and Old Spanish trails to Taos, New Mexico. The link between the Baptist, Southern, white, Anglo-Saxon, and nativist facets of his social identity and his demeaning portrayal of Mexicans is examined.
“Gladwin Hill and “‘The Wetbacks'”: The New York Times and the Mexican Migrant Security Threat” • Melita Garza, Texas Christian University • This study examines Gladwin Hill’s 1951 Pulitzer Prize-nominated series, “’The Wetbacks,’” as well as the journalist’s personal papers to show how the first Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times catapulted illegal immigration to a national topic from a regional one. Reporting at the height of the “Red Scare,” Hill framed Mexican immigrants as a national security threat, a mediated representation that inspired network news coverage, congressional action, and an enduring immigrant stereotype.
Enemy Words on American Airwaves: Cold War Radio Moscow Broadcasts to the U.S. • Kevin Grieves, Whitworth University • Most attention to Cold War broadcasting has been on the European context, and on Western radio reaching across the Iron Curtain to Soviet Bloc audiences. This study examines Americans listening to Radio Moscow during the Cold War era, particularly as reflected in the U.S. popular press. The study investigates the tensions behind American journalists casting Radio Moscow as a propaganda threat, but also reacting derisively and dismissively to Soviet radio content. This paper highlights efforts of Radio Moscow to reach American audiences via U.S. radio stations and traces shifts in American attitudes towards Radio Moscow over time.
History of the Black Power Movement: Going Beyond Mediated Images • Adrianne Grubic, The University of Texas at Austin • The Black Power movement is best known for its iconic images. The movement was so much more than that, despite media in the 1960s promulgating that it had only one purpose, that of violence. This paper will analyze articles and books from historians and movement leaders looking at how their revolution was viewed by the media and themselves, along with how Black power was demonstrated in mediated spaces such as the arts and literature.
Film Censorship’s Last Stand: The Memphis Board of Review 1967 to 1976 • Thomas J. Hrach, University of Memphis • Memphis, Tennessee, was the last major American city to continue the practice of censoring films when its Board of Review was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in 1976. Memphis held on so long to the practice of censoring films because of the city’s legacy of censorship and its goal of retaining old world values in the changing era of the 1960s and ‘70s. A history of the Board of Review in Memphis shows how censorship was an attempt to hold onto old-school thinking in uncertain times.
Platform life, platform death: civilian counter-histories of military-made social media • Muira McCammon • The purpose of this article is to analyze the creation, use, and termination of TroopTube by the Department of Defense for the sharing of messages and videos by, between, and for U.S. servicemembers. Drawing on news coverage of the platform and an interview with a designer, this research uses the grounded theory approach to demonstrate that the public civilian response to this military-made social media platform was not a continuous narrative; rather, the press presented different platform narratives, which highlighted different imagined and actual affordances of the platform as imagined by the state. The research demonstrates that while newspapers, magazines, and blogs promoted and actively encouraged the use of TroopTube, it was, in fact, imperiled from the start. Drawing on press accounts and semi-structured interviews with those who imagined, contracted, and explained the platform to American civilian and military audiences, I offer up the concept of the platform counter-narrative—of which there are two types, the platform counter-narrative and the platform counter-memory. The first arises during the time of the platform’s life, and the second, follows its death.
* Extended Abstract * The Nation’s First Press Secretary: Ray Stannard Baker and the Lessons of Publicity • Meghan McCune, Louisiana State University; John Maxwell Hamilton • American journalist Ray Stannard Baker is primarily remembered by historians as a prominent muckraker. This paper argues that Baker had another important distinction that has been overlooked; he qualifies as the nation’s first presidential press secretary. In his role as chief spokesman for President Woodrow Wilson during the Paris Peace Conference, which marked the end of the First World War, Baker set an exceptionally high standard for the position. At a time when governments around the world developed large-scale propaganda systems for war, Baker held a democratic view of his position as press secretary. A progressive with a strong faith in publicity, Baker believed he was not only as a spokesperson for the President, but also an advocate for the press.
From Prohibition’s Demon Drink to Acceptable Indulgence: Distillers and the Battle to Normalize Liquor in America • Wendy Melillo, American University • The liquor industry’s image enhancement strategies following the repeal of Prohibition were specifically designed to erase the negative legacy of America’s great social experiment. The distillers’ goal to normalize liquor products in the minds of Americans was about much more than just increasing market share against their beer and wine competitors. To achieve cultural acceptance, the liquor industry would have to dismantle the lesson Prohibition taught Americans, which was to treat liquor as “hard” and more dangerous when compared to other types of beverage alcohol. By establishing a self-regulatory advertising code, infusing its ads with drink responsibly messages, positing alcohol equivalency, and associating liquor with the nation’s heritage, the liquor industry has established the drinking of its products as part of a culturally acceptable American lifestyle.
Influence of the Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision on southern editorial arguments during the “massive resistance” to integration • Ali Mohamed • We examine the role of the Southern press in the “massive resistance” to the High Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling of 1954 on school integration, and the extent to which newspaper editorials relied on social and legal rationales for segregation based on the High Court’s earlier Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896. All three of Plessy’s rationales for institutionalizing segregation — states’ rights, a dual system of “social rights” based on race, and the doctrine of “separate but equal” — were widely adopted by the press. However, newspapers took the “equal” part of Plessy’s “separate but equal” doctrine much more seriously than did elected officials in the South – causing significant friction between the press and political leaders – especially in Alabama and Mississippi. A content analysis of the Birmingham News from 1960 to 1964 found that, although the News supported segregation through arguments of “states’ rights” and a dual system of “social rights” as laid out in the Plessy decision, the paper’s editors remained consistently committed to equality and the rule of law throughout the turmoil of the civil rights movement.
Shaping Billboard Magazine: Lee Zhito’s Rise From Part-time Writer to Vice President, 1945 to 1993 • Madeleine Liseblad, Middle Tennessee State University; Gregory Pitts, Middle Tennessee State University • The name Billboard is recognized in the music and entertainment industry, but the journalists behind the publication’s rise to prominence have not been recognized. Lee Zhito—with his red handlebar mustache and constantly present pipe—spent nearly fifty years with Billboard, starting as a writer and working his way up to become publisher and vice president. He was arguably one of the earliest music and entertainment journalists, covering the music industry but also keening aware of new technologies and distribution platforms that would impact the entertainment industry and consumers. He defended the publication’s integrity to advertising critics by maintaining a strong ethical center, while always advancing the prominence and influence of Billboard in the music and entertainment industries. Despite Zhito’s impressive career and impact at Billboard, academic studies about his reign have not been conducted. Surprisingly little has been written about Billboard, beyond encyclopedia entries or academic studies about its various music lists. Zhito helped grow Billboard, which in turn helped grow radio and the recording industry; a symbiotic relationship in many ways. This study is based on the newly acquired Lee Zhito collection at the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. The collection—donated by his daughter Lisa Zhito—contains ten linear feet of manuscript materials, including correspondence, periodicals, clippings, tapes and films. The collection technically covers the years 1956 to 1995, but there are some items dating back to the 1930s. The bulk of the collection is from 1975 to 1995.
Our Forgotten Mother: Daisy Bates and Her School Integration Campaign • Lori Amber Roessner, University of Tennessee; Monique Freemon, University of Tennessee • Answering calls of public relations historians, this study seeks to recover the role of Daisy Bates in the Little Rock school integration campaign and to serve as an intervention into the great men’s account of public relations history. Culling available archival sources and published news texts in White mainstream and Black Press, we examined the public relations tactics that Bates implemented in her campaign for school integration, analyzed the motivations behind her deployment of the public relations tactics, and evaluated the successes and failures of her strategies.
‘Complaining,’ Campaigning,’ and everything in between: media coverage of pay equity in women’s tennis in 1973 and 2007 • Shannon Scovel, University of Maryland • This paper analyzes the media coverage of pay equity in women’s tennis in three newspapers during the 1973 U.S. Open and 2007 Wimbledon tournaments, the first and last Grand Slams to offer equal pay. A content analysis of over 100 articles demonstrates that journalists portrayed the female athletes involved in the pay equity conversations in 2007 as empowered advocates, marking an important shift from the “emotional” and “demanding” descriptions reporters applied to women in 1973.
Framing women’s roles in 20th century farming: A content analysis of cover images • Catherine Staub, Drake University; Amy Vaughan; Alina Dorion • This content analysis examined how women are portrayed throughout the 20th century on the covers of two high-circulation farm magazines. Coders identified gender, age, activity, gendered stereotypes, and predominance of the figures in 801 farm magazine cover images. Findings suggest an under-representation and stereotypical portrayal of women on the covers throughout the 20th century. This research contributes to an understanding of the framing role of farm magazines in the representation of women’s contributions to agriculture.
Capturing “The Real Thing”: James Ricalton Brings the Russo-Japanese War to American Parlors • Natascha Toft Roelsgaard; Michael S. Sweeney • James Ricalton was one of a handful of photojournalists who covered the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, which has been cited as “World War Zero” for its scale, weaponry, and use of press controls. The war also was the first covered with widespread use of halftones, marking a milestone in photographic history. Ricalton used a stereographic camera to produce twin images sold by Underwood & Underwood on cardboard cards for home viewing. This article aims to restore the work of a masterful photojournalist to its proper place in history. In addition it critically analyzes a selection of his photographs of the Japanese army using John Szarkowski’s typology of photograph as “window” and “mirror,” revealing, respectively, the subject and the mind of the photographer.
“A True Newspaper Woman”: The Career of Sadie Kneller Miller • Carolina Velloso, University of Maryland, College Park • This paper examines the life and career of Sadie Kneller Miller, a journalist working at the turn of the twentieth century. Miller earned a prominent contemporary reputation, but her career has been largely lost to posterity. This paper uses traditional historical research methods to reconstruct Miller’s career and show the ways Miller both challenged and conformed to norms and expectations of women journalists of the period. This is the first scholarly work on Miller.
“Don’t Waste The Reader’s Time”: The Journalistic Innovations and Influence of Willard M. Kiplinger • Rob Wells, Univ of Arkansas • The newsletter format has witnessed a popular resurgence in digital media but little is known about the origins of this multi-billion dollar industry for specialized information. This paper examines a newsletter industry pioneer Willard M. Kiplinger, whose Kiplinger Washington Letter claims to be the oldest continuously published newsletter in the U.S. This publication perfected a type of reporting that influenced publications ranging from Newsweek to U.S. News & World Report, Bloomberg, Axios and others. A 1967 Newsweek obituary of Kiplinger said at the time, “There are at least 1,000 newsletters in the country today. Many of them borrow heavily from the Kiplinger techniques.” The Kiplinger Washington Letter once boasted being “the most widely read business letter in the world.” It was influential during the New Deal, with Kiplinger serving as a crucial bridge between conservative business leaders and New Deal regulators. His reporting and engagement with both camps embodied the “corporate commonwealth” ethos that promoted business stability through self-regulation and voluntary cooperation through trade associations. Kiplinger’s weekly newsletter nurtured a close reader engagement through a specialized research service and extensive correspondence with his subscribers, a type of early crowdsourcing that anticipated the active audience interaction in digital journalism.
How the 1910 Bombing of the Times Building Destroyed the Socialist Party and the Unions • Daniel Wolowicz • This paper examines how the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building, which killed 20 employees and was dubbed “the crime of the century,” led to the defeat of 1911 Socialist mayoral candidate Job Harriman and resulted in the federal prosecution of the leaders of the International Association of Bridge, Structural and Iron Workers union who were responsible for a nearly decadelong terrorist campaign to bomb non-union worksites across the United States. At the center of this sweeping story stands Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, the publisher and owner of the Los Angeles Times, a man whose iron will helped transform L.A. from a gritty frontier town into one of the fastest-growing cities in the world and home to Hollywood. The far-reaching investigation and ensuing trial included Detective William S. Burns, the man known as “America’s Sherlock Holmes,” as well Clarence Darrow, one of the most famous attorneys in U.S. history. It was an epic battle between organized labor and the cabal of Los Angeles powerbrokers who would do anything to keep unions and Socialists from gaining a foothold in the City of Angels at the turn of the century.
“The paper of record of the women’s movement”: The national identity of off our backs • Kate Yanchulis, University of Maryland • off our backs, subtitled “a women’s news journal,” built and maintained national coverage of the feminist movement and a national reputation within that movement from its first issue in 1970 until it folded in 2008, yet it remains largely neglected by scholars. Through interviews with staff members and archival material from the periodicals’ offices, this paper shows how off our backs forged its national identity and strived to be the front page for the feminist movement.
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