Volume 38, No. 1, 2021
Articles
Henry Luce’s American & Chinese Century: An Analysis of US News Magazines’ Coverage of General Chiang Kai-shek from 1936 to 1949
Daniel M. Haygood & Glenn W. Scott
Time magazine founder and publisher Henry Luce was accused by scholars and critics of using his media empire to support and promote General Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling Chinese Nationalist Party during the pre-war, World War II, and Chinese Civil War periods. The criticism was particularly directed at the content contained in Time magazine, the leading weekly news magazine of the era. However, the coverage of General Chiang was actually much more varied than Luce’s most ardent critics had concluded, and the portrayals differed depending on which events were covered and during which time periods.
“We Females Have to Be Contented with the Tales of Adventures”: Trauma and Gender in Dorothy Day’s Early Reporting
Bailey Dick
This examination into the early writings of radical Catholic activist and newspaper founder Dorothy Day will explore how she fits into a cohort of journalists whose experiences with trauma both drove and shaped their written work. However, unlike many other traumatized journalists or women writers at the time, Day’s reflections on her trauma allowed her to embrace her own experiences of suffering and emotion in her writing that evolved into the deeply personal, yet empowering writing style for which the Catholic Worker is renowned. This finding is revealed through a close reading of Day’s personal papers at Marquette University, as well as her work published in the Call, the New Masses, and the New Orleans Item. These primary documents serve as a supplement to published letters, oral histories, and news articles written about Day’s life.
“Pure Caucasian Blood”: Libel by Racial Misidentification in American Newspapers (1900–1957)
Aimee Edmondson
Utilizing critical race theory, we can better understand the role that the American legal system and newspapers played in their efforts to maintain the racial status quo prior to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. At the intersection of race, journalism, and libel law, we see a rich vein of case law spawned from newspapers erroneously identifying white people as black. Such racial misidentification prompted a series of libel suits from 1900 to 1957 before the US Supreme Court placed libel law under First Amendment protection in New York Times v. Sullivan. Jim Crow had long been secure in southern newspapers and some errors in racial identification were inevitable. Before Sullivan, it could indeed be libelous when newspapers falsely identified white people as black.
On the night of February 8, 1968, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, a town located ninety minutes away from Charleston, state highway patrolmen were stationed at the edge of South Carolina State College, a historically black institution, hoping to gain control of a crowd of unarmed students protesting a nearby segregated bowling alley. Triggered by what they erroneously believed was gunfire aimed toward them, the patrolmen fired into the group, killing three young men and wounding twenty-eight others. Among those covering what became known as the Orangeburg massacre was the college’s student newspaper, the Collegian. Textual analysis and media framing theory guide this examination of how the campus newspaper staff used their coverage to honor their fallen peers. Collegian coverage also communicated the anger of a campus community that felt betrayed by state lawmakers and expressed frustrations over what many believed was a lack of accurate news coverage by the mainstream media.
Book Reviews
George Seldes’ War for the Public Good: Weaponising a Free Press
By Helen Fordham, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 166 pp
Susan Bragg
Pleasure in the News: African American Readership and Sexuality in the Black Press
By Kim Gallon, Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2020
Brian Gabrial
A History of the American Civil Rights Movement through Newspaper Coverage: The Race Agenda, Vol. II
By Steve Hallock, New York, Peter Lang, 2020, 493 pp
Marilyn Greenwald
Yankee Reporters and Southern Secrets: Journalism, Open Source Intelligence, and the Coming of the Civil War
By Michael Fuhlhage, New York, Peter Lang, 2019, 276 pp.
Cathy M. Jackson
Sports Journalism: A History of Glory, Fame, and Technology
By Patrick Washburn and Chris Lamb, Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 2020, 288 pp.
David Kaszuba
Political Godmother: Nackey Scripps Loeb and The Newspaper That Shook the Republican Party
By Meg Heckman, Lincoln, Potomac Books, 2020, 194 pp
Hillary Woodworth McNerney
Social Justice Journalism: A Cultural History of Social Movement Media from Abolition to #womensmarch
By Linda J. Lumsden, New York, Peter Lang, 2019, 308 pp.
Jennifer E. Moore
Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News
By Lisa Napoli, New York, Abrams Press, 2020, 306 pp.
Patti Piburn
Digital Media Reviews
Digital Transgender Archive
Maintained by the College of the Holy Cross, https://www.
Susan Bragg
Public Books 101, Season 1: The Internet
https://www.publicbooks.org/
Jason Lee Guthrie
The Tom Wolfe Papers at the New York Public Library
http://Archives.nypl.org/Mss/
Connor Harrison
The Worcester Women’s History Project.
http://www.wwhp.org/Resources/
William E. Huntzicker
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Volume 38, No. 2, 2021
Articles
A “Moral Challenge”: Journalists, Joe McCarthy, and the Struggle for Truth, 1950–1955
Glen Feighery
News coverage of US Sen. Joseph McCarthy has long been studied, and consistent throughout this extensive research is the implication that he influenced journalism standards—specifically, objectivity. Drawing on trade publications and professional magazines to examine those implications, journalists not only discussed McCarthy coverage but acknowledged that reporting on the senator was difficult. Often, journalists were confronted by their own shortcomings and prompted to question their practices. Many felt objectivity hampered their ability to portray the truth about the senator; indeed, some believed that objectivity spread misinformation. Journalists responded by discussing, and in many instances embracing, interpretive reporting to provide context. They saw covering McCarthy as an opportunity to improve journalism. Between 1950 and 1955, journalists reconsidered objectivity and expanded the idea of fairness beyond simple balance. It also led journalists toward a responsibility to interpret and explain facts as well as convey a fuller truth. These strategies could still benefit journalists today.
“When I Couldn’t Bedazzle Them With Brilliance, I Bamboozled Them With Bullshit”: Harry Edwards, Black Power, and Countering Media Repression of the Black Athlete’s Revolt
Dexter L. Blackman
Harry Edwards led the organization of a Black Power campaign to organize a boycott of the 1968 Olympics. Contrary to the prevailing conclusion that the boycott failed to materialize because it was unpopular, Edwards’ efforts challenged the state-enforced Cold War-consensus that racial discrimination was declining in American society. Consequently, the state, including the mainstream media, moved swiftly to repress the boycott by demonizing him as a “black militant” and accessing the effort as misguided. Edwards, like several Black radicals, responded by adopting a militant façade that attracted media attention that allowed him to counter oppositional pronouncements and keep the boycott newsworthy for a year. Edwards’ use of the media, however, continues to complicate understandings of the boycott and Black Power. Uncritical mainstream media-based assessments suggest both failed because they were unpopular. By contrast, activist-focused studies conclude that activists succeeded by expanding discussions on racial discrimination in the national discourse.
“Serve It Up Hot and Brief”: The Journalistic Innovations and Influence of Willard M. Kiplinger
Rob Wells
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. Newsletter industry pioneer Willard M. Kiplinger, whose Kiplinger Washington Letter claims to be the oldest continuously published newsletter in the US, perfected a type of reporting that influenced publications ranging from Newsweek to U.S. News & World Report, Bloomberg, Axios, and others. The Kiplinger Washington Letter was influential during the New Deal, with Kiplinger serving as a crucial bridge between conservative business leaders and New Deal regulators. 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.
“Well-Bred and Well-Fed,” the Science Service Covers Eugenics: 1924 to 1966
Susan E. Swanberg
Founded in 1921 by then-retired newspaper publisher, E.W. Scripps, Science Service was established as an agency for the popularization of science. The original intent of Science Service was to publish its content in newspapers and popular science periodicals. Eventually, however, the organization produced its own popular publications, including the Science News-Letter (News-Letter). Stories written by Science Service writers and occasional contributors appeared in the News-Letter and were often re-published in the mainstream press. In spite of its high aspirations, Science Service became a promoter of eugenics, likely because E.W. Scripps himself believed in the protoscience. From the early-to-mid 1920s until 1966, the News-Letter published articles endorsing the principles, values, and doctrines of eugenics. The goal of this case study is to explore the previously unexamined role Science Service played in propagandizing (or at least promoting) eugenics’ unscientific, nativist ideas about heredity in Science Service publications and in the popular press.
Book Reviews
Promoting Monopoly: AT&T and the Politics of Public Relations, 1876–1941
by Karen Miller Russell, New York, Peter Lang, 2020, 254 pp.
Caitlin Cieslik-Miskimen
An Aristocracy of Critics: Luce, Hutchins, Niebuhr, and the Committee that Redefined Freedom of the Press
by Stephen Bates, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 2020, 312 pp.
John P. Ferré
Constructing the Outbreak: Epidemics in Media & Collective Memory
by Katherine A. Foss, Amherst, Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts Press, 2020, 232 pp.
Amie M. Jones
Jimmy Carter and the Birth of the Marathon Media Campaign
by Amber Roessner, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Louisiana State University Press, 2020, 344 pp.
Kathryn J. McGarr
Editor Emory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama, 1940–1975
by Kimberley Mangun, New York, Peter Lang Publishing, 2019, 268 pp.
Gheni Platenburg
An Unladylike Profession: American Women War Correspondents in World War I
by Chris Dubbs, Lincoln, Nebraska, Potomac Books, 2020, 336 pp
Natascha Toft Roelsgaard
American Consultants and the Marketization of Television News in the United Kingdom
by Madeleine Liseblad, New York, Peter Lang Publishing, 2020, 278 pp.
Michael J. Socolow
Digital Media Reviews
Prelinger Archives
https://archive.org/details/prelinger
Reviewed May 2021
Mark Baldridge
Topographical Collection of King George III
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/georgeiiitopographicalcollection; Reviewed May 2021
Amélie Doche
The Internet Archive
https://archive.org/about/; Reviewed May 2021
Ollie Gratzinger
Women Who Rock Digital Oral History Archive
https://Womenwhorockcommunity.org/Digital-Oral-History-Project/
Mary Beth Ray
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Vol. 38, Issue 3, 2021
“We are Propagandists for Democracy”: The Institute for Propaganda Analysis’ Pioneering Media Literacy Efforts to Fight Disinformation (1937–1942)
Elisabeth Fondren
The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) advocated for “propaganda literacy” against the backdrop of rising nationalism before and during World War II (1937–1942). Through a historical analysis of unpublished archival papers, notes, correspondence, newspaper articles, and the Institute’s publications, this article shows how the IPA raised awareness and highlighted the need for information literacy during a time that precedes modern attempts to promote critical thinking and counter one-sided views. Supported by a network of public opinion scholars, educators, and editors, these anti-propaganda efforts gained momentum. Initially, the IPA’s monthly newsletter Propaganda Analysis and its educational programs, specialized leaflets, and publicity campaigns were received favorably by the public. But critics in government and the press attacked the IPA’s platform. By early 1942, the IPA could neither overcome its financial struggles nor thwart social and political pressures to cede its work, perceived as “un-American” in light of the US’s war mobilization.
Selling Mexico’s Robin Hood: Pancho Villa and His Public Relations Campaign to Target the Press and Public Opinion
Young Joon Lim & Michael S. Sweeney
Francisco “Pancho” Villa was not just a military general or quasi-politician, but also a practitioner of public relations. By close observation of his actions and words, as recorded by primary sources, this study explores his strategies and tactics to build support among three specifically targeted audiences: the people of Mexico, American war correspondents, and the people of the United States. By examining secondary literature about public relations and about Pancho Villa’s life, this study finds evidence of his practicing public relations as we understand it today. This analysis is enriched through the use of primary documents from the archives of Byron C. Utecht at the University of Texas at Arlington, who interviewed and observed Villa.
We Are Nobody’s Fools: The Radicalization of the Hampton Script from 1930–1959 to Advance Black Activism
Sheryl Kennedy Haydel
At Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia, student journalists continued the tradition of publishing the Hampton Script. During this time, the Script covered race, politics, and community building during decades of economic and racial turmoil. Despite publishing on the campus of one of the country’s oldest historically Black universities, the Script departed from the conservative leanings of Hampton and embraced an aggressive tone to advocate for racial uplift and equality. Furthermore, the student editors and writers adopted a mission to actively engage the paper’s audience by delivering news about race, politics, and community solidarity. In doing so, the Script embraced the traditional role of the Black press—that of being the champion for the race and forum for protest.
“They’ll Never Make Newspaper Men”: Early Gendering in Journalism, 1884–1889
Autumn Lorimer Linford
Scholars have long noted that journalism is a heavily gendered profession. An examination of the initial five years of the Journalist, the first news trade publication dedicated to defining and standardizing modern journalism in the late 1800s, finds that gendering in the news industry began as early as 1884. This early establishment of gender-based newsroom work suggests that gender and professionalization shaped each other, intertwining so that modern journalism was gendered from the start. The Journalist provides evidence that male news workers standardized masculine character traits and behaviors as benchmarks in the field—ideals that still persist today.
Book Reviews
Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood
By Vanessia Díaz, Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Press, 2020, 328 pp.
Joanna Arcieri
Maverick: A Biography of Thomas Sowell
by Jason L. Riley, New York, Basic Books, 2021, 270 pp.
A.J. Bauer
Free Speech and the Suppression of Dissent during World War I
by Eric Chester, New York, Monthly Review Press, 2020, 504 pp.
Jon Bekken
Cold War Correspondents: Soviet and American Reporters on the Ideological Frontlines
by Dina Fainberg, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021, 376 pp.
Raluca Cozma
Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter
by Kerri K. Greenidge, New York, Liveright, 2019, 432 pp.
Rachel Grant
Public Relations History: Theory, Practice, and Profession
by Cayce Myers, New York, Routledge, 2020, 184 pp.
Burton St. John III
Politics, Culture, and the Irish American Press: 1784–1963
Edited by Debra Reddin Van Tuyll, Mark O’Brien, and Marcel Broersma, Syracuse, NY, Syracuse University Press, 2021, 448 pp.
Carolina Velloso
Digital Media reviews:
The Public Domain Review
Mark Baldridge
Firefly Lane (2021)
Stefanie Davis Kempton
Editor & Publisher (1901–2015) Internet Archive
Will Mari
The Free Speech Center
Middle Tennessee State University,
Dylan M. McLemore