2014 Accepted Research Papers (Alphabetical by Authors’ Last Name)

Stephen A. Banning, Bradley The Whitechapel Club: Bohemian Journalists Shun Elitism in Nineteenth Century Chicago Recent research has revealed elitism among nineteenth century journalists, and a desire to self-identify as professionals. This is important to the development of journalism in that it emphasized university education, codes of ethics and professional organizations. These factors came to fruition in the early twentieth century with university schools of journalism at Missouri and Columbia University, the formation of Sigma Delta Chi and the American Society of Newspaper Editors and their codes of ethics. Bohemian press clubs seemed to contradict this, being the antithesis of the concept of a elite expert working class. Some of these clubs existed even late into the nineteenth century. This research examined Chicago’s Whitechapel Club in relation to how and why it differed from the elite press clubs. Katie Beardsley, Temple, and Carrie Teresa, Niagara Narrative Analysis of the Central Park Jogger Story in the New York Amsterdam News On April 19, 1989, a white female jogger was attacked and raped in New York’s Central Park. Although there were no witnesses or physical evidence to tie suspects to the crime, five Black and Latino youths were eventually arrested and convicted of the time. Existing scholarship on the Central Park jogger case has suggested that the mainstream press portrayed these five teenagers as animals who preyed on an innocent white woman. This paper fills a gap in scholarship by offering a case study of the narrative of the Central Park jogger case outside the mainstream press. Through a narrative analysis of coverage in the New York Amsterdam News, the paper argues that journalists writing for the Black press in the 1990s—much like those working for Black press papers during earlier periods of the 20th century—encouraged critical citizenship. Ulf Jonas Bjork, Indiana University This Island of Infuriated Blacks: American Press Coverage of Haiti, 1790-1820 This study used the results of a search of the America’s Historical Newspapers database to examine coverage of Haiti in American newspapers between 1790, when first unrest in the French colony first began, and 1820, when the country was reunited and entered a period of relative stability. One of the few studies previously made of Haitian news in the U.S. press faulted American scholarship for focusing too much on narratives of black violence and considering that commercial concerns loomed large as well. This study found a sizeable amount of news about U.S. trade with Haiti, but also many articles where race surfaced, an almost inevitable outcome when editors dealt with news about the world’s first black republic. Not all of these stories concerned themselves with black violence however; a considerable number found black rule intriguing, and some even saw Haiti as an inspiring example of former slaves realizing their true potential.

Ginger Blackstone, Florida Fishing for Future Ratings: Can a New Documentary Initiative save CNN? After the ratings success of Blackfish, CNN has launched a new documentary initiative branded as CNN Films. Looking back at the history of the documentary genre on broadcast and cable/satellite television, one can see that the medium has had a troubled past in terms of ratings generation, although there have been notable-but-rare successes. Unfortunately, a number of channels that once embraced documentary programming abandoned the genre and replaced it with so-called “reality” shows. Incorporating expectancy-value theory, one can assess that in order for a documentary initiative to be a successful ratings generator, the content must build a high amount of expectation among viewers and deliver a high amount of value. But it has been quite difficult for programming executives to successfully predict which documentaries will generate the solid ratings they seek. Given these factors, this manuscript argues that the CNN Films push is a risky move by CNN President Jeff Zucker, and it is doubtful that the strategy can deliver the ratings surge the embattled network needs to beat its competition. Katherine Blunt, Elon Yesterday’s News: Media Framing of Hitler’s Early Years, 1923-1929 This research uses media framing theory to assess newspaper coverage of Hitler published in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Washington Post between 1923 and 1929. Nearly 500 articles contained at least passing mentions of Hitler, and of those articles, about 250 offered substantial information about his activities and influence and warranted closer examination. An analysis of the selected articles revealed “creible” and “noncredible” frames relating to his political influence. Prior to his trial for treason in 1924, the credible frame was slightly more prevalent than the non-credible frame, but after his conviction, the non-credible frame dominated coverage, for reports often presented Hitler’s failure to overthrow the Bavarian government as evidence of his lack of political skill. When he reentered the public sphere in 1930, correspondents necessarily had to reintroduce him to the American public and reassess the scope of his influence. Casey Carmody, Minnesota-Twin Cities Developing Journalistic Protections for the Confidential Source: A Historical Analysis of Wisconsin’s Journalist’s Privilege In 2010, Wisconsin enacted the “Whistleblower Protection Act,” a shield law granting journalists a testimonial privilege to protect confidential sources in court. Wisconsin joined numerous other states that had decided to provide such protections, but the timing of the law’s passage was far removed from any Wisconsin controversies related to journalists protecting sources. This study examines what factors played a role that led to Wisconsin’s adoption of a shield law through a historical lens. Past bills are examined to determine what factors influenced the timing of a bill’s introduction. The analysis suggests that precipitating events, such as high profile cases of journalists facing legal issues related to confidential sources, spurred legislators into action. Wisconsin legislators often turned to other state statutes as basis for the creation of their own law. The 2009 bill was ultimately successful because a cost-benefit analysis indicated there was little value in the legislature waiting to act.

David Dowling, Iowa Emerson’s Newspaperman: Horace Greeley’s Promotion of the Radical Counterculture Six years before the debut of the New-York Daily Tribune in 1841, Horace Greeley launched the New-Yorker, a weekly designed as a populist version of literary journals like Blackwoods and the Knickerbocker. His editorial agenda in both was to bring the radical counterculture to the masses, particularly the social reform writings of Albert Brisbane and Ralph Waldo Emerson. This study examines the paradox of Greeley’s aggressive commercial promotion of Brisbane’s Fourierism and Emerson’s Transcendentalism, movements that sharply critiqued the corrosive effects of free market capitalism. Greeley’s relentless promotion of the antebellum counterculture did not contradict his support of the associationist movement, as some historians have suggested. Instead his commercial method—as reflected in his correspondence and his published writings—of reciprocal advertising arrangements was consonant with the counterculture’s core tenant of shared resources and mutual support. Greeley reinvested revenue in socialist utopian experiments to promote his labor reform agenda. Kathleen L. Endres and Andrea Ferraro, Akron From War Hero to Sports Icon: The Transformation of the Goodyear Blimp This paper examines the transformation of the Goodyear blimp from war hero to sports icon against a backdrop of social unrest, technological change, broadcasting and sports innovation, and public relations experimentation at a tire company in Akron, Ohio, during the 1960s. Two research questions were developed: 1) How did Goodyear blimp float its way into sports broadcasting history in the 1960s? 2) What implications did the success of the blimp have on Goodyear’s public relations department and the corporate brand? The researchers utilized two methods: archival research and interviewing. In response to research question 1, the researchers outlined how a new director of Goodyear public relations repackaged the blimp, transforming it into a sports icon. In response to research question 2, the researchers identified how public relations contributed to the success of the blimp program in sports broadcasting and how the blimp’s rise in this new field enhanced Goodyear’s brand. Michael Fuhlhage, Wayne State To Limit the Spread of Slavery: A Boston Journal Correspondent’s Multiple Roles in the Kansas Free State Movement This study examines how a correspondent for a leading daily newspaper, the Boston Journal, constructed the reality of “Bleeding Kansas” for readers in a city that was central in the Abolition movement. Albert Richardson boosted Free State town projects, ran for the Free State legislature, gave speeches, and used his regular letters from Kansas to Journal to attract capital and settlers to Kansas during the fight over the abolition of slavery in the territory in 1857 and 1858. Primary sources include his memoir, personal papers, and hundreds of his newspaper reports. Julien Gorbach, Nicholls State The Old New Journalist This study traces the last years of Ben Hecht’s writing career, arguing his importance in postwar American literature. Over the course of a remarkable career, Hecht produced ten novels, about

250 short stories, some twenty plays, more than seventy screenplays, and many radio and television scripts. Perversely, his legendary success as a Hollywood screenwriter only served to undermine his literary reputation, so that his prose remains overlooked to this day. But while his first fiction was an alienation novel written some twenty years ahead of its time, his final non-fiction books anticipated the New Journalism of the 1960s. Research for his biography of a Jewish gangster became a confrontation with the myth of the “tough Jew” that he had constructed as a militant Zionist propagandist during the 1940s. Felicia Harris, Georgia Our Tweets Go Back Centuries: Contextualizing the Emergence of the Early Black Press In July 2013, a news story, “Is Twitter the underground railroad of activism?,” made waves on the Internet. The subheading read: “The Zimmerman Trial may have introduced white America to ‘Black Twitter,’ but its roots go back centuries.” Although many would argue that African Americans currently enjoy conditions of freedom not afforded to our ancestors, the scenarios that rouse “Black Twitter” to activism – murder, racial slurs, hostility – almost mirror situations blacks encountered as the black press was being birthed in the 19th century. Amidst a social media revolution, many have lamented the demise of the black press. However, parallels between today’s online activism and activism of 19th century black writers exist and reveal much about the ongoing fights for racial progress and equality. This study contextualizes an emerging black press and explores the implications of parallels between trends of black writers of the past and present. Nicholas Hirshon, Ohio The Myth of the Nassau Mausoleum: Two‐Step Flow at the First All‐Sports Radio Station From its inception in 1987, the world’s first all-sports radio station, WFAN in New York City, broadcast derisive commentary that profoundly affected the image of a major hockey arena, Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Using the two‐step flow of communication, this historical study suggests that hosts Don Imus, Mike Francesa, and Steve Somers encouraged listeners to view the venue as “Nassau Mausoleum,” a term popularized by Somers. Anecdotes culled from primary sources, including interviews with Somers and his producer, demonstrate that sports radio commentary can significantly impact how listeners think and behave. This paper also considers how public relations executives from Nassau Coliseum and its NHL team, the New York Islanders, tried to combat the negative publicity. WFAN’s injurious impact on the Coliseum’s reputation should serve as a cautionary tale for sports executives who must be proactive yet delicate in dealing with hosts who make derogatory remarks. Vincent Kiernan, Georgetown The New York Times and the “Elixir of Life” This paper examines coverage by The New York Times’s science journalist, William L. Laurence, of the discovery of the hormone cortisone in 1949. The paper reviews unsuccessful efforts by the Mayo Clinic to orchestrate the release of news of the discovery. It also considers Laurence’s efforts to lobby President Harry S Truman to develop a domestic industry in growing a rare African vine, while Laurence believed (incorrectly) could serve as a bountiful and lucrative source of cortisone. Senior managers at The Times had no qualms about Laurence’s evolution

from neutral observer to policy participant--to the contrary, they were disturbed only because The Times as an organization drew little credit for Laurence’s project to promote the vine. The paper concludes that Laurence’s escapade illustrates the problems that can occur when even an eminent journalist moves into shaping public policy. Sam Lebovic, George Mason The Politics of Press Handouts in Mid-Century America This paper explores the political history of administrative publicity handouts in the 1930s and 1940s. Although the press handout seems like a neutral tool of modern journalism, this paper uncovers its surprisingly contentious history. Combining the methods of political history with original research in contemporary press commentary, political debate, and the archives of administrative agencies, the paper presents a new account of the partisan clashes over administrative publicity during the New Deal and World War II. By exploring the competing ways in which the implications of the handout were conceptualized and debated, the paper denaturalizes the rise of administrative publicity. And in so doing, it shows the centrality of debates about press-state relations to the history of political journalism, New Deal state-building, and the broader history of American democracy in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Katherine Beth LePrad, South Carolina Containing the ‘Negro Insane’: Press Coverage of the Parker Building at the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane In the mid-nineteenth century state insane asylums in the South faced an increasing population of “negro insane” in a post-Emancipation American society. Still stricken with angst over the crumbling institution of slavery, a beleaguered mental health system contended with fiscal, political, and treatment intricacies, but continued to advance building programs aimed at containing African-American male patients. In the case of the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane in Columbia, attempts to contain the increasing population of emancipated African-American men, termed by mental health professionals and the press as the “negro insane” emerged through press coverage of the Parker Building. The Parker Building on the Bull Street campus of the South Carolina State Hospital for the Insane, was suggested, planned, and constructed for the sole purpose of housing a growing number of African-American male patients in an effort to reinforce total segregation based on race and gender via architectural isolation. Tracy Lucht and Chunyu Zhang, Iowa State ‘Television’s Closet Revolutionary’: Mary Jane Odell and Her Fight for Public Affairs Programming This paper uses primary sources to examine the broadcasting career of Mary Jane Odell (1923–2002), a mainstay in Midwestern television for thirty years as the host of a variety show in Des Moines, Iowa, and a two-time Emmy Award winner for her public affairs programs in Chicago. Acclaimed for her in-depth interviewing, Odell rose to become Iowa’s secretary of state, contributing an important voice to the broader debate over television content and women’s roles in the media. Using a biographical approach, this paper explores how gender influenced

Odell’s theory and practice of “good” television, identifying three distinct phases in her career: tradition, experimentation, and confrontation. Her career serves as a historical case study of 1) the ways in which gender shaped women’s early experiences in local television and 2) the forms of contribution and resistance available to broadcasters who hoped to improve society through mediated discussions of public issues. Jane Marcellus, Middle Tennessee State Combatting Section 213: Feminist Press Rhetoric Against the “Married Persons Clause” of the 1932 Federal Economy Act In 1932, President Herbert Hoover signed into law a far-reaching Economy Act, designed to cut federal spending during the Great Depression. One clause, Section 213, mandated that if both members of a married couple were federal employees, one of them--usually the wife--could be forced to resign. Although historians have discussed Section 213, none have systematically examined coverage in the feminist or mainstream press. This paper fills that gap, using discourse analysis to study feminist press rhetoric and comparing it to mainstream news. Identifying recurring discourses--equity, merit, damage to marriage, hardship and fascism--I argue that although feminist groups differed on other issues, their public arguments on Section 213 were generally consistent. This counters recent arguments that lack of unity led repeal efforts to fail. Articles in the mainstream press suggest that despite public disapproval of employed wives, feminists were effective at shaping newspaper coverage of the law. Jon Marshall and Matthew Connor, Northwestern Divided Loyalties: The Chicago Defender and Harold Washington’s Campaign for Mayor of Chicago Harold Washington, an African American, ran for mayor of Chicago in the1983 Democratic primary against two white opponents. The Chicago Defender hesitated to endorse him despite its history as a leader of the black press. The Defender had become comfortable with the city’s status quo and was afraid to anger leaders of Chicago’s powerful Democratic machine, which backed Washington’s opponents. Unlike some of its competitors in the black media, the Defender was slow to recognize that a progressive, largely African American movement was gaining political momentum. The Washington campaign cared deeply about the Defender’s endorsement because it relied heavily on the city’s black media to strengthen its grassroots efforts in African American neighborhoods. The Defender finally endorsed Washington only after his campaign put intense public and behind-the-scenes pressure on owner John Sengstacke and it became clear that Washington might actually win the primary. Laura H. Marshall, North Carolina Wartime Orchestration of Health Communication: North Carolina’s Good Health Plan In 1944, World War II raged across Europe and patriotism reigned at home. Those who were not drafted into the military enlisted or volunteered to help by buying war bonds and rationing food. In North Carolina, disappointment and chagrin greeted the news that its would-be enlistees had earned the worst rate of military disqualifications of all the 48 states because of ill health. At that news, community leaders devoted their time and expertise to creating one of the country’s first strategic health communication campaigns. This paper examines the genesis

and implementation of the “Good Health” campaign, a plan initiated by the North Carolina Medical Care Commission in 1945, by a group of concerned North Carolina physicians and health officials. Native son Kay Kyser, a celebrity bandleader, led the charge to increase the number of health facilities in the state via music, radio, and Hollywood celebrities. Raymond McCaffrey, Arkansas Tributes to Fallen Female Journalists: The Role of Gender in the Hero Mythology of Journalistic Practice This historical case study explored the existence of hero myths that journalists might follow, particularly as they relate to traditional norms concerning gender. The study used qualitative methods to analyze New York Times tributes to U.S. journalists who died from 1854 to 2012. The analysis revealed that the Times wrote about 64 percent of the 22 women who died on assignment compared to coverage of about 76 percent of the 340 male fallen journalists. Most of the fallen correspondents depicted in heroic terms were men. As with their male counterparts, the tributes to the fallen female war correspondents invoked themes often found in classic heroic myths. These journalists commonly were seen as giving their lives in service to a cause aligned with journalistic values. Tributes that portrayed women heroically sometimes stressed their masculine qualities. As with men, female journalists who died on domestic assignments seldom were the subject of tributes. C. Allin Means, Missouri Baptist 50 Years Ago the Dominoes Fell: Civil Rights Movement’s Sequential Events Leading to Times v. Sullivan Actual Malice The year 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the Times v. Sullivan Supreme Court decision, which many journalists consider the most important ruling in the history of media law. But what does Rosa Parks’ decision on a Montgomery, Ala., bus nine years before the 1964 ruling have to do with the seminal case? This chronological study of 1950s and 1960s race relations in the Deep South provides an often ironic historical context to the Times v. Sullivan ruling that added actual malice to existing libel law. Analogous to dominoes set up one-by-one to be toppled in precise succession, this critical analysis illuminates how the course of media history might have drastically changed for the worse if just one single domino were removed from the sequence of this extraordinary procession. A robust watchdog press depended on every single domino toppling perfectly toward the landmark decision. Ali N. Mohamed, United Arab Emirates Journalism in the Context of Deliberative and Activist Models of Democracy: A Look Back at Coverage of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement In 1960, the New York Times was sued for libel by three prominent Alabama officials including the governor, because of an advertisement supporting Martin Luther King. The suit ended in the New York Times v. Sullivan decision (1964) – which struck down damage awards by Alabama courts and thus transformed laws of libel. This study seeks to determine the effect of the case on coverage of the civil rights story – using the deliberative and activist models of democracy as theoretical frameworks for comparative analysis. News and editorial items in the Times and the Birmingham News were coded between 1960 and 1964. Data show that both papers supported

change – but for different ethical and political reasons as reflected in their editorial pages. Also, elected officials in Alabama were not important sources of news for either paper. Scott Morton, Alabama War Films: An Examination of World War I Documentary Films and Their Perceptions in the American Press Cinema was still an emerging industry in 1914, with nickelodeons and larger venues giving audiences entertainment experiences never before possible. As an emerging art form, war news was undoubtedly a unique experience for movie patrons at a time when narrative fiction and comedy was standard. Knowing how Americans received these news films should help us to understand more fully the power early cinema had on audiences during World War I. This is especially important because filmic conventions being developed at the time set a precedent for what was to become commonplace in documentary filmmaking. The current study analyzes five documentary news films produced during World War I with attention paid to how the American press perceived these films. Cayce Myers, Virginia Tech Early U.S. Corporate Public Relations: Understanding the “Publicity Agent” in American Corporate Communications 1900-1918 This paper examines the role and practice of U.S. publicity agents, also known as publicity men, from 1900 to 1918. These early public relations practitioners have yet to be acknowledged or examined in public relations historiography despite the seminal role they played in the development of modern U.S. PR practice. Using digital newspaper archives, this paper analyzed 277 articles that included the terms “publicity agent,” “publicity man,” and publicity men.” Theoretically this study of “publicity agents” directly addresses the historical writings of Edward Bernays as well as James Grunig and Todd Hunt’s four models of public relations. This analysis examines the rise of publicity agents in corporations, the relationship of publicity agents with advertisers and the press, the use of publicity agents in non-profits, and publicity agents’ role in politics. Jeff Nichols, Illinois-Chicago Propaganda and the Political Economy of Chicago Newspapers during the First World War Between April 1917 and November 1918, more than seven percent of the country’s publications stopped production, more than during any other economic downturn. The vast majority closed not due to government harassment or angry mobs, but to the combination of soaring newsprint costs and shrinking advertising accounts. While the historians have explored what kind of content newspapers could publish, there has been astonishingly little exploration on how the War Industry Board determined how much content newspapers could publish. The power of the federal government as arbiter between publisher and paper producer and between publisher and advertiser helped breach the editorial independence of Chicago’s mass-circulation papers. Under pressure to surrender free space to government advertisements and to make severe cuts to the page counts of their newspapers, Chicago editors vied to demonstrate their utility to the wartime state.

Candi S. Carter Olson, Utah State “The Men Don’t Want Us Here”: How WWII War Correspondent Ruth Cowan’s Reportage Bent Gender Stereotypes This paper focuses on Associated Press correspondent Ruth Cowan and her WWII reportage, particularly her portraits of enlisted women and nurses. In spite of the discouragement she received from male colleagues and the restrictions on her movement, including a prohibition on going to the front lines at all, Cowan produced reports that painted a broader, richer image of the human impact of the war. Cowan’s published reports show how she and her fellow WWII women war correspondents used their war to report bending gendered roles and to destabilize public perceptions of what constituted “appropriate” womanhood. As one of the first two women to report from the battlefront, Cowan’s work influenced public perceptions of women at wartime, and it also changed the way that both male and female war correspondents documented the battlefield. Erika J. Pribanic-Smith, Texas-Arlington The Assassination of Jason Clarke Swayze: Libel, Press Freedom, and Editorial Civility in 1870s Kansas Jason Clarke Swayze, founder and editor of the Topeka Blade, died from a gunshot wound on March 27, 1877, after a two-year feud that encompassed Swayze’s Blade as well as the Topeka Times and Commonwealth. Taken in total, the shooting, its causes, and its aftermath raise questions about libel, press freedom, and editorial civility in post-bellum Kansas. The incident demonstrates that Topeka had little tolerance for personal journalism by the 1870s, refuting some Kansas historians’ generalizations about the state’s press. The town’s newspapers reflected broader nineteenth-century journalistic trends, especially the “new journalism” developed by other Midwestern editors. Rather than indulging in invective and sensationalism to sell newspapers, most Topeka editors preferred to focus on objective news and functioned as town boosters. Invective did exist, however, and because libel suits seldom worked, some spurned subjects chose to take the law into their own hands, which posed a threat to press freedom. Ian Punnett, Arizona State Matching Trail Blazers: Oral Histories of the Origins and Functions of TV News Team Uniforms This oral history collects firsthand knowledge from two senior broadcasters regarding the origin and mediating function of mandated on-air uniforms worn by local TV news teams in the 1960s and 1970s. In particular, this study indicates how these uniforms--matching blue blazers with the station’s TV logo embroidered in white on the breast pocket--played an important, but previously unrecognized role in the semiotics of credibility between the on-air newsmen and the TV viewers. For the first time, this oral history records critical testimony with regard to the journalistic rationale behind the implementation, practice, and the heretofore mysterious demise of news team uniforms. Special consideration is given to how this frequently parodied clothing item was actually an essential and under-appreciated component to the rapid growth of local TV news.

Lori Amber Roessner, Tennessee, Jodi Rightler-McDaniels, South College, and Shiela Hawkins, Tennessee Forgetting the ‘Mother’ of Social Justice: Cultural Amnesia Surrounding Ida B. Wells’s Women’s Rights Crusade Known most prominently as a daring anti-lynching crusader, Ida Wells-Barnett (1862-1931) worked tirelessly throughout her life as an advocate for the rights of women, but as this manuscript contends, her work in this area has been little acknowledged nor long remembered. Casting cursory prior observations aside, this study sought to better understand how Wells-Barnett has been remembered in the press as a women’s rights advocate by engaging in a systematic examination of milestone anniversary coverage of Well-Barnett’s role as the founder of the Alpha Suffrage Club (January 1913) and as a participant in the Washington Suffrage Parade (March 1913), two key moments in Wells-Barnett’s life as a women’s rights activist. Thomas A. Schwartz Discussions of the Democratic Theory of the Press in Journalism Autobiographies Journalism is often defended on the grounds of the “democratic theory” of the press in society—its constitutional mission to inform the public, to be a “watchdog” on government, and to improve the democracy. This study attempts to explore what journalism autobiographies say about the democratic theory of the press, whether and how it explains what journalists do and how they do it. The paper explores 16 autobiographies, generally concluding that they reference democratic theory minimally and what is discussed is shallow, ambiguous and paradoxical about the purpose of journalism in a democracy.

Elaine Sponholtz, Florida

Foreshadowing Digital Media: Lotte Reiniger, Animation, and Media Innovation

As a girl, animation pioneer Charlotte “Lotte” Reiniger (1899-1981) absorbed the artform of

silhouettes, transforming it in order to tell stories in the new medium of film. Reiniger created

the earliest existing animated feature film and first silhouette film in history. This paper will

examine facets of the aesthetics and innovations she and her team developed to create her

fairytale films. The paper describes how Reiniger’s work, begun during the Weimer Republic,

set the stage for the software applications used in digital media of the 21st century. In doing so,

the lack of recognition for her groundbreaking technological innovations is examined, as well as

the deficiency of scholarly work about her important contributions to film history and to the

history of women in film. Finally, a case is made for a reexamination and recontextualization of

Reiniger’s work in light of its continued vividness, influence, and importance in mass media

history.

Bernell Tripp, Florida Silent Partner or Happenstance? The Influence of the American Missionary Association on the Correspondents of the Black and Abolitionist Presses This study examines the relationship between the AMA and the activities of some of those schoolteachers who also served as correspondents and journalists during the early stages of

black media development. Since churches, schools, and newspapers were critical elements in the lives of 19th-century African-Americans, analyzing this interrelationship with these educators and one of the largest and most active organizations involved in black activism provide insight into the impact of all three influences on African American society and the teachers to whom blacks entrusted their greatest hopes for the future. This study will also attempt to determine to why so many AMA teachers were interested in serving as journalists and to what extent the organizations’ leaders encouraged this active involvement in the personal well-being of their communities. Willie Tubbs, Southern Mississippi Closing the Gap: The Choctaw Community News and the self-determination movement This paper analyzes the Choctaw Community News, the official publication of Mississippi’s only federally-recognized tribe, in its first decade of existence. The advent of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw’s tribal newspaper in 1969 coincided with a rebirth and refocus of a nationwide movement for Native American self-determination and with the rise to prominence of the American Indian Movement (AIM). The analysis of the Community News focuses on all content that fell under one or more tenants of self-determination – Native American autonomy, civil rights, economic opportunity, community development, education, and preservation of tribes’ unique culture and heritage. Through the pages of the Community News, the Mississippi Band of Choctaws’ leaders and content creators express an opinion that is as assertive though not as aggressive as national organizations like AIM. David Vergobbi, Utah When Advocacy Animated a Party Press: The Coeur d’Alene Mining War of 1892 By 1890, organized labor had engaged corporate mining companies for socioeconomic control of North Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene mining district. This ideological struggle led to a social class advocacy journalism. Editors became vociferous advocates of capital or heralded the rights of labor. When the combatants started courting political assistance during the violent 1892 labor/capital clash, editors began, then prompted, political party identification to clarify social class positions. Only when martial law effectively destroyed the miners’ unions did Coeur d’Alene advocacy journalism emerge as political party partisanship, for electoral purposes to represent social class ideology. Coeur d’Alene newspapers thus reverse historical evolutionary trends and help define a template to determine a unique early industrial frontier journalism that exemplified the force socio-economic catalysts could play in the evolution of American journalism—through the impetus of societal institutions, not political parties, vying for power. Pamela E. Walck, Ohio Worth More Than a Footnote: The Pittsburgh Courier’s Jessie M. Vann and Her Steadfast Promise From 1940 to 1963 Urged by her husband on his deathbed to assist the Pittsburgh Courier, Jessie M. Vann, 55, traded her apron for ledger books in October 1940. In so doing, she saw the newspaper’s coverage area expand into dozens of American cities, circulation grew to a million readers, and the popular Double Victory campaign launch in 1942 helped set the stage for the long civil

rights movement in America. Although her husband had had private misgivings about her ability to handle publishing, Jessie defied expectations and thrived throughout the 1940s—and tried desperately to guide the Courier over the next two decades as mainstream newspapers lured talented writers, editors, and advertising dollars away at the expense of black publications. Despite her many successes, Jessie has remained a brief mention in the larger story of Robert L. Vann and the Courier. This study seeks to make Jessie Vann more than a historical footnote. Ken Ward, Wichita State State before Self: A Study of Silver and Sectionalism in the Cripple Creek Mining District, 1896-1904 As the United States approached the presidential election of 1896, the so-called “silver question,” which asked whether or not silver should be utilized as currency alongside gold, became a prominent issue. In the West, sectional interests favoring silver in states like Colorado cleaved the Republican party in two, driving voters to support pro-silver fusion tickets in previously Republican regions. This research attempts to understand how silver was utilized by newspaper editors in Colorado’s Cripple Creek Mining District. That community was uniquely situated in the conflict, producing millions of dollars worth of gold annually in a state that overwhelmingly produced silver. Through the analysis of roughly 2,000 articles published during election months in the district from 1896-1904, this research pursues findings that illuminate the influence of silver on district newspaper editors and manipulation of the movement by those editors, developing a richer understanding of journalism in western states during the era. Patrick Washburn, Ohio (retired) JACK JOHNSON, JESSE OWENS, AND JOE LOUIS: Why Did White Newspaper Coverage Shift Sharply from Negative to Positive? White newspaper coverage of Jack Johnson, who was the first black heavyweight champion from 1908-15, differed greatly from the 1930s coverage of two other black athletes, Olympic track star Jesse Owens and heavyweight champion Joe Louis. In examining the coverage, this study agrees with other historians that the non-controversial lifestyles of Owens and Louis, along with their high-profile victories over German athletes, played major roles in them not being treated negatively by the press like Johnson. However, this study suggests that historians have been so enamored by the two easy explanations for the difference in coverage that they have overlooked the fact that the 1923 creation of the first national code of ethics for newspapers, along with agenda setting, also may have been factors in what was written about Owens and Louis. Julie Hedgepeth Williams, Samford Exotic, Admirable, Annoying, Cruel: Muslims in the Early American Press Modern American media are conflicted about how to portray Muslims in a post-9/11 world. However, 9/11 was not the first time Muslims appeared in the American press; they were there from early times. What did the early American press say about Muslims? This study used

keyword searching in the America’s Historical Newspapers database to see what newspapers from 1754-1827 said about Muslims. Despite limitations of the process due to the varying names for Muslims (some of which the researcher surely missed), the search turned up numerous stories about the followers as Islam. Those articles, mostly about Muslims overseas, fell into five broad categories: Muslims as exotic people to learn about; Muslims as admirable; Muslims as disturbing; Muslims as cruel; and Muslims close to home. Despite the fact that the largest chunk of articles cast Muslims as disturbing or cruel, the newspapers in the sample didn’t think of Muslims who were actually on American shores as scary or unpleasant.