DOCUMENT RESUME ED 349 608 CS 507 955 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part I: Journalism History, Section A. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE Aug 92 NOTE 310p.; For other sections of these proceedings,see CS 507 956-970. For 1991 proceedings, see ED 340 045. The Copeland paper may copy poorly because it contains "filled" type. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Content Analysis; Editors; Females; Foreign Countries; *Journalism History; Language Usage; Libel and Slander; *Mass Media Role; Media Research; Newspapers IDENTIFIERS African Americans; Bylines; Historical Background; Journalism Research; Journalists; *Media Coverage; Panama; Sensationalism; USSR; Womens Suffrage ABSTRACT Section A of the Journalism History section of the proceedings contains the following 10 papers: "Mixed Messages ina Progressive Newspaper: The Milwaukee Journal and Woman Suffrage, 1911-1912" (Elizabeth Burt); "The Search for Unity: The Importance of the Black Press in the Emigration/Colonization Issues of the 1800s" (Bernell E. Tripp); "Melancholy Accidents and Deplorable News: Sensationalism and the South Carolina Gazette, 1732-1738" (David A. Copeland); "Murphy's Speech: The Language of Class and Power in Newspaper Coverage of an 1857 Prize Fight" (Dennis Gildea); "Philippa Duke Schuyler: African American Woman Journalist" (Barbara Diggs-Brown); "'But Who Got The Money?' Some Answers to the Panama Libel Question" (Robert L. Spellman); "African-American Photo Coverage in Four U.S. Newspapers, 1937-1990" (Paul Martin Lester); "Joseph E. Johnson: Archetypical Frontier Editor" (Jack A. Nelson); "The Invisible History of Bylines" (Paulette D. Kilmer); and "The Image of the Soviet Union in Three Elite Western Newspapers: 1960-1990" (William Gombash, III). (RS) *********************************************************************** iteprouticLious suppilea oy Carib are the best that can oe made from the original document. *********************************************************************** PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION (75th, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, August 5-8, 1992). Part I: Journalism History, Section A. "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS U.S. DEPARTMENT OFEDUCATION Office Of Educatsonat Research MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEDBY and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 49A, 434'his document has been reproducedas received from the person or organization Originating if 0 Minor changes have beenmade to improve reproduction quality TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions statedin this docu. ment do not necessarily representofficial INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." OERI position or policy MIXED MESSAGES IN A PROGRESSIVE NEWSPAPER: THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE, 1911-1912 by Elizabeth Burt Doctoral Candidate University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Mass Communication Presented to the Annual Meeting of The AEJMC, History Division August 8, 1992 This paper examines how the Milwaukee Journal responded to efforts by the Wisconsin woman suffrage movement to win press coverage andsupport of its campaign for a woman suffrage referendum in 1912. An analysis of the first page and editorial page during the twenty-two month period between introduction of the referendum bill in the legislature and the popular vote on the referendum shows that while the Journal, a progressive newspaper, at first endorsed themeasure, it drastically decreased its coverage and support after the first few months of the campaign. While several possibilities for this shift are considered, it is speculated that it was influenced by interest groups opposed to womansuffrage, specificallyby thebeerindustry. Original documents of the state's woman suffrage organizations, letters from newspaper editors, and the pages of the Milwaukee Journal are used as source materials. MIXED MESSAGES IN A PROGRESSIVE NEWSPAPER: THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE, 1911-1912 Submitted to THE 1992 CONFERENCE OF AEJMC History Division By Elizabeth Burt Doctoral Student University of Wisconsin Madison Price Competition MIXED MESSAGES IN A PROGRESSIVE NEWSPAPER: THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL AND WOMAN SUFFRAGE, 1911-1912 Introduction Social movements have long depended upon the press as a means of spreading their message and recruiting support. Recent analyses of this relationship have suggested that social movements in modern America are dependent on media coverage not only as a means of winning resources and support, but also as a means of validation. This craving for validation (which may in some cases be more notoriety than validation), however, may sidetrack activist- so that the mere means (gaining media attention) may actually become the ends of their actions, allowing them to lose sight of their original goals.1 Activists thus can come to confuse their success in winning media coverage with the success of the movement when, in fact, the two do not always coincide.If, for example the goal of social movements generally is to enlighten the people in regards to a specific issue, win their support, and cause positive change in regards to the movement issue, media coverage may only accomplish, in some cases, the first of these. Further, media coverage may only stimulate awareness of the issue rather than knowledge about it. Finally, coverage of a movement by the press, regardless of the 1 5 quality of the awareness raised, does not necessarily guarantee the success of a movement. There are historical precedents that explain this perhaps mistakenfaith inmedia coverage. Since the period of the Enlightenment at least, when it was believed that knowledge was the key to a better world and that if people were properly educated or informed theycould make the"right" choices, reformers and revolutionaries alike have put their faith in the media, whether it be the book, the pamphlet, the newspaper, or television. Not all these movements succeeded, although they may have won ample access to the media, and we might well ask how many were subverted from their originalvision and goalsby the desire to have their arguments presented to the public. The Wisconsin Woman Suffrage movement is a case in point. Early in the career ofthe national movement, as early as the 1870s, in fact, suffragists became aware of the possibilities of press coverage and began to plan strategies to control or channel it. By the turn of the century, national and state organizations had formed that included press committees with highly developed communication networks. Not only did they release information about woman suffrage,they also responded to negative press on the subject. When, in 1911, a suffrage referendum was passed by the Wisconsin legislature and put on the calendar for a popular vote, the suffrage forces immediately moved into action. In the twenty months between the passage of the bill and the popular referendum, suffragistsmounted a highly organized publicity andpress campaign. They succeeded to the extent that they won the endorsement of many ofthe state's prominent politicians and community leaders, received frequent coverage bymost newspapers in the state, and secured the editorial support of several prominent newspapers, including the Milwaukee Leader, the Milwaukee Journal, and theWisconsin StateJournal.The suffragiststookthese successes as portents that they would also win the popular support they needed to pass the referendum. Here, however, they were in for a crushing disappointment. The referendum was defeated, with nearly two-thirds ofthe vote opposing it.It would seem that media coverage in this case: failed to educate the public in the way the suffragists hoped; had no effect on the public's voting behavior; or in no sense reflected the real "success" (or lack of success) of the movement. This study focuses on coverage of the Woman Suffrage movement by Wisconsin's largest circulation newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal, from January 1911, when suffrage was introduced in the state legislature,to November 1912, when the referendum was defeated.2 When the Journal's coverage is considered in tandem with documents from the suffragists, a curious state of affairs is revealed: (1) Although the suffragists were pouring enormous amounts of energy into soliciting press coverage and support andbelieved they were getting it, thiswas not reflected in the pages ofthe Journal. (2) Although the suffragists believed the Journal endorsed the 3 7 referendum, this, once again, was not reflected in the newspaper after its initial support. The usually outspoken Journal, in fact, adopted an oddly noncommittal position on the issue. (3) As suffrageactivities escalated, contrary to most theories of social movement and the press, coverage in the Journal did not increase.3 There seems to be absolutely no relation between what and how much the suffragists were doing and how many stories appeared in the newspaper. (4) There appears to be no consistency in the newspaper's tone toward suffrage. Stories and editorial page items that might be classified as positive toward the movement could just as easily be followed by negative items of dubious origin. Sources for this study include documents and correspondence of the Political Equality League, a Wisconsin suffrage organization