“Teaching Journalism History to Journalists” (original) (raw)
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The problem of teaching journalism history
Journalism history has suffered a twodecade-long crisis of confidence. In the 1970s and 1960s, thoughtful scholars composed analyses of the "problem of journalism history" that have become standard prefatory footnotes to new research.' While there is no real consensvis among these critics, a fairly starxlard list of complaints has emerged: Journal ism history overemphasizes metrop>olitan daily newspap)ers and neglects wonrien, minorities, labor, alternative media, religion, and other groups and topics. Journalism history is whiggish or progressive, presenting a simplistic narrative of the emergence of the modern Fourth Esute as champion of democracy and ignoring all the stuff of a more critical history. Journalism history is "professional" and neglects 'social history,* both in terms of journalism's internal social structure and of its place within the larger society.'
The handbook of journalism studies, 2008
The term journalism history is of relatively recent coinage, more recent than the term journalism, of course. But the discourse now called journalism history has a longer history, one that tracks the rise of news culture as a realm of first print culture and later media culture. As each new formation of news culture appeared, new genres of doing the history of news developed. Throughout this history of journalism history, the boundary separating it from other forms of media history has been porous and blurry. Since the 1970s, journalism history has been wrestling with an identity crisis, one that in many ways anticipates the broader crisis in the identity of journalism today.
"Why Journalism History Matters: The Gaffe, the 'Stuff,' and the Historical Imagination"
American Journalism, 2014
A full understanding of journalism history requires a workout of the historical imagination. I explore the challenges and consequences of this imperative through two of its failures: a silly gaffe in a recent (and mercifully unidentified) mystery novel and the persistent, century-old misinterpretation of Julius Chambers's classic "News Hunting on Three Continents" as autobiographical.
A Century of Journalism History as Challenge
Digital Journalism, 2018
Approaching journalism history through digital archives, digital sources, and digital methods is a demanding task for media historians, but also offers prospects. We explore some of the challenges and potential benefits in the light of a concrete research project that investigates journalism history in Germany from 1914 to 2014. The project focuses on the development of journalistic news storytelling following the inverted pyramid model. This paper mainly discusses the difficulties of assembling an adequate corpus. The German case is complicated, mainly because the country's violent history, with two World Wars and two dictatorships, has left several desiderata for historical journalism research. We subdivide a hundred years of journalism history into different phases, and for each of these we discuss different approaches with regard to the availability, accessibility, and usability of sources in digital form. We conclude that digital archives and digital sources open up new techniques for historical journalism research, including methods such as automated content analysis and text mining. Nevertheless, new technological and cultural environments of news pose genuinely new challenges and require new skills and literacies to cope with journalism history through digital archives. KEYWORDS journalism history; digital archives; digital sources; inverted pyramid model
Medijska Istraživanja, 2008
In Western Europe and the USA, as in Slovenia, there is little interest in the history of journalism (education and research) by students and scholars. On the other hand, there is a huge interest in (mis)use of the history of journalism (political practice) by some politicians and journalists. This article critically reflects the traditional perspectives of the history of journalism. The study shows that despite major shifts towards a social and cultural perspective of journalism that address the links and interactions among structural conditions in contemporary societies, and despite modest reforms in journalism education and the rise of criticism in this field, the majority of journalism historians still continue their preoccupation with ahistorical and uncritical practice.
On the Explanatory and Political Uses of Journalism History
American Journalism, 2013
A t its most basic, history is a tale of continuity and change. Things stay the same until they don't. So the big questions, for scholars, are: What are the conditions most likely to bring about change? How should we define "real" change? And how can individual or collective action make a difference in the outcome?
Journalism - the first draft of history?
Journalism is traditionally thought of as a secondary source for historians. However, from a different perspective, it can be seen as a primary source, not only for cultural history, but for the motivations of historical actors which are too frequently analysed solely in terms of the outcomes of their actions.