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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 396 327 CS 215 382 TITLE Selected Papers Presented at the Annual Convention of the American Journalism Historians Association (Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 28-30, 1995). Part II. INSTITUTION American Journalism Historians' Association. PUB DATE Sep 95 NOTE 353p.; For Part I, see CS 215 381. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) Reports Research/Technical (143) Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC15 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Civil Rights; *Journalism; *Journalism History; Journalism Research; *Mass Media Role; *Modern History; *Newspapers; Politics; Press Opinion; Radio; Social History; *United States History IDENTIFIERS Health Communication; Historical Research; *Journalists ABSTRACT The 14 papers in this collection all deal with 20th century journalism and journalists in the United States. The papers and their authors are: "Educating Ike: The Evolution of Presidential PR in 1953" (David W. Guth); "Crumbs from the Publishers' Golden Tables: The Plight of the Chicago Newsboy" (Jon Bekken); "'They Work Too Hard': How Newspapers Justified the 1924 Exclusion of Japanese Immigrants" (Brad Hamm); "Agnes Smedley: A Radical Journalirt in Search of a Cause" (Karla Gower); "The Camera's Red Lens: Television Coverage of Wounded Knee II, 1973" (William Hewitt); "From College Expulsion to Pulitzer Prize: How the New York World-Telegram's Fred Woltman Became the 'No.1 Newspaper Specialist' on Communists" (Brad Hamm); "The Segregationist Press in the Closed Society: The Jackson Daily News' Coverage of the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1964" (David R. Davies); "A 'Political Institutional' Theory of the News: The Emergence of Independent Journalism in Detroit, 1865-1920" (Richard L. Kaplan); "Will Irwin Revisited: A Contrast of Past and Present Criticisms of the Press" (Brian C. Smith); "Returning Government to the Hands of the People: The Pacific Northest's Nonpartisan League Newspapers" (Mary M. Cronin and Paul Schlienz); "Birth Control Crusade: The Public Relations Campaign" (R. Brooks Garner); "AIDS and the Gay Press: Uncovering or Covering Up?" (Rodger Streitmatter); "The Farmer and the Radio Man Should Be Friends: Clear Channel Radio Stations and the Farm Lobby, 1941-1968" (James C. Foust); and "Electrical Transcriptions: Quality Programming for All Radio Stations" (Jann Hyde). (NKA) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** Selected Papers Presented at the Annual Convention of the American Journalism Historians Association, Tulsa, Oklahoma, September 28-30, 1995 Part II S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND Cr't,rie or Eduoat orr.r Research and imlarsvere". EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL CENTER (ERIC) HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Er-This document has been reproduced as received from the person or orgarwarion originating it 4(1 LCbA07(01 Minor changes have been made lo Improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in this TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES document do not necessarily represent INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) official OERI position or policy BEST COPY AVAILABLE CS Educating Ike: The Evolution of PresidentialPR in 1953 David W. Guth, Assistant Professor William Allen White School of journalism and MassCommunications University of Kansas 2069 Dole Center Lawrence, Kansas 66045-2350 e-mail: [email protected] 1 Abstract Educating Ike: The Evolution of President PR in 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower had confidence in his ability to communicatehis vision for America when he assumed the presidency in January 1953.By December 1953, Eisenhower's confidence was still there, but theway his White House chose to communicate with the electorate was changing. During his firstyear in office, Eisenhower had to cope with the transition from beinga military leader to a political leader. His administration was struggling with how bestto use the relatively new medium of television to its advantage. And hewas frustrated by the ability of Senator Joseph McCarthy to seize the public agendaand force the administration into a defensive posture. These challenges forcedchanges in White House public relations. This paperargues that, by year's end, Eisenhower administration communication effortswere evolving from Hunt and Grunig's public information model of public relationsto their two-way asymmetric model of public relationsi.e. from a more reactive to a more proactive approach.This transformation may have eventuallyoccurre d over, a period of time. However, the paper argues that the November 1953 disclosure that Eisenhower's predecessormay have knowingly appointeda suspected Soviet spy to a sensitive government post ignited a political fire storm that hastened these changes-- changes that influence the conduct of presidential public relationsto this very day. 4 Educating Ike: The Evolution of Presidential PR in 1953 Imagine what it is like to be an international hero, a proclaimed savior of civilization. Also imagine the confidence one gains after receiving an overwhelming affirmation of popular support by being elected President of the United States. For Dwight David Eisenhower, this was his reality at the start of 1953. Having led a coalition of nations to victory on the battlefield just a few years earlier, Eisenhower was now about to embark upon leadership of the Free World in the midst of the Cold War. Having enjoyed so much success in such a relatively short period of time, it is easy to understand why the man known to millions as "Ike" expected that success to continue. By the end of the year, Eisenhower had undergone an education by fire. Although still a supremely self-confident man, he had learned that the old ways of doing things did not work in his new environment. As a military leader, he and the journalists had been on the "same side." As a political leader, his relationship with reporters was more adversarial. Although he was the first Republican president in two decades, that did not earn him the automatic cooperation ofa Republican-dominated Congress. And the tools of mass communicaUon were changing. His Democratic predecessors, most notably Roosevelt, had effectively used the new mass medium of radio. Now there was yet another new mass medium, television, toward which Eisenhower was at first ambivalent and, by year's end, would come to embrace. b 2 - This paper is about the evolution of public relations during the firstyear of the Eisenhower administration. Its purpose is two-fold, touse theoretical models of public relations to illustfle changes that occurred in the conduct of public relations and to demonstrate that a single event, a controversy involvinga dead and obscure government official, hastened this evolution. Models of Public Relations Cut lip, Center and Broom have identified four public relations role models based upon the functions practitioners perform. Their four modelsare: the communication technician, a non-manager concerned with the preparation of ,communications; the communication facilitator,a mediator concerned with maintaining two-way communication; the problem-so tyingprocess facilitator, a collaborator who works with other managers to solve problems, andthe expert- prescriber, a definer of problems and implementer of solutions.1 Althoughthese models are well-suited for describing the role ofan individual, such as a press secretary, they do not work as well when attempting to characterize theactions of an organization, i.e. the Eisenhower administration. That is because theunit of analysis upon which the Cut lip, Center and Broom modelsare based is the individual. Hunt and Grunig have developed four public relations role modelsthat are better suited for describing the actions of organizations. Thatis because the unit of analysis which makes up these models is the flow of communications,regardless of - 3 - the number of practitioners involved. The four Hunt and Grunt models are: t h e press agentlpublicity model, where the practitioner serves as a propagandist; t he public information modil, the one-way dissemination of information; the two-way symmetric model, where practitioners serve as mediators between the organization and its publics; and the two-way asymmetric model, where there is two-way communication with an emphasis upon persuasion.2 By all appearances, the Eisenhower administration followed the public information model of public relations when it took power in January 1953. Hunt and Grunig note that it is the public information model that is most typicall, used in government public relations efforts. As they write, organizations using this model often rely upon a "journalist in residence" to communicate objective information. In many ways, this is an ad hoc approach to public relations,one based less on research and more on a desim to influence.public opinion.3 The "journalist in residence" of the Eisenhower administration was James C. Hagerty, who served as presidential press secretary during Eisenhower's two terms in office. Hagerty had been a reporter for The New York Times from 1934 until 1942, serving the last four years as a legislative correspondent in the newspaper's Albany bureau. From 1943 until 1952, Hagerty served New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, firstas executive assistant and later as press secretary. It was from this association that Hagerty became involved in the Eisenhower presidential campaign