Media historians generally incorporate a traditional or progressive understanding of the past, which stresses the struggle for freedom and democracy over repression and authoritarianism and emphasizes the triumph of good over evil. Such a perspective often results in linear constructions of history that glorify technological progress and ignore larger conceptual issues of ideology, power, and domination.
In 1974 James Carey assessed journalism history as an embarrassment. He called for the development of a cultural history of journalists, focusing on their attitudes, emotions, motivations, and expectations to augment the standard Whig or Progressive version of journalism history. During the past 30 years journalism historians have debated Carey’s call and a variety of cultural and critical journalism studies have resulted. Unfortunately, few of these studies have been incorporated into American journalism history texts used in colleges and universities. These texts remain in Hanno Hardt’s words, “biographies of power” that glorify and reinforce a traditional ideological vision of the role of the press in American society.
This proposed book project takes a cultural approach to journalism history, envisioning history as a connected and ongoing process. Often referred to as a “bottom-up” approach, this type of history no only considers the emotions, expectations, and motivations of individuals involved in historical events but also assesses the framework imposed by political, cultural, and economic factors influencing society.
This media history will offer students insights into traditional journalism history and will augment standard information offered to support the reigning mythology surrounding the mass media in the United States. It will provide a larger perspective that includes socially, politically, and economically contextualized information regarding the contributions not only of elite journalists but also those of rank and file newsworkers, female journalists, as well as considerations of the ethnic and immigrant press. Each chapter will address the traditional journalism history related to the topic. That history will be referred to as the “Disney” version of history because it is safe, sanitized, widely available, and usually reinforces aspects of the progressive mythology. In addition, each chapter will include alternative views of journalism history. This history will be categorized as the “Conspiracy” view of history because it often remains secret, buried and unexplored. Resistance from this view of journalism history often comes from media and government officials – that ,sed text will connect the journalistic narratives of the past to issues and concerns of contemporary journalism in a way that helps students to understand the importance of studying media history.
