DOCUMENT RESUME ED 392 079 CS 509 173 TITLE Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (78th, Washington, DC, August 9-12, 1995). History Division. INSTITUTION Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. PUB DATE Aug 95 NOTE 428p.; For other sections of these proceedings, see CS 509 174-187 and CS 509 196. PUB TYPE Collected Works Conference Proceedings (021) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC18 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Advertising; Audience Analysis; Content Analysis; Feminism; Higher Education; *Journalism History; Journalism Research; Mass Media Effects; *Mass Media Role; *Newspapers; *News Reporting; Religion IDENTIFIERS Femini-t Press; Historical Research; *Media Coverage; Ninet..anth Century; Ohio ABSTRACT The history section of the Proceedings contains the following 13 papers: "Telling the Untold Story: An Examination of the History of the Religious Press in America" (Phyllis E. AIsdurf); "Dusting with a Ballot: The Portrayal of Women in the Milwaukee Leader" (Jon Bekken); "The Struggle to Control Motion Picture Advertising, 1921 to 1968" (Sharon E. Blum); "The Shark-Infested Waters off Cape Canaveral: An Oral History of the Early Media Coverage of Project Mercury" (Ginger Rudeseal Carter); "Woman as Citizen: An Ideological Analysis of Three Women's Publications, 1900-1910" (Janet M. Cramer); "Don Bolles: News Martyr of the 1970s, Enigma of the 1990s" (Kenneth C. Killebrew); "'The Courage to Call Things by their Right Names': Fanny Fern, Feminine Sympathy, and Feminist Journalism in the Nineteenth-Century American Popular Press" (Carolyn KitCh); "The Emergence of Religion Pages in Three Ohio Dailies: 1865-98" (Debra L. Mason); "'Who Was 'Shadow'?' The Computer Knows: Using Grammar-Program Statistics in Content Analyses Finally May Lolve This Civil War Riddle and Other Writing Mysteries" (Barbara G. Ellis and Steven J. Dick); "The Caning of James Gordon Bennett, the Penny Press, and the Primordial Soup of Modern American Journalism" (David T. Z. Mindich); "The First College Journalism Students: Answering Robert E. Lee's Offer of a Higher Education" (Joseph A. Mirando); "'Books are Weapons': Books in Twentieth-Century Presidential Campaigns" (Priscilla Coit Murphy); and "The Reader as Consumer: Curtis Publishing Company and the Definition of Audience, 1910-1930" (Douglas B. Ward). (CR) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** PRCCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR EDUCATION IN JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION (78th, Washington, DC, August 9-12, 1995). History Division. U.S. DEPARTMENT Of EDUCATION Moe or Educational Rweerch and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMAT)ON "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS CENTER (ERIC) MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 0 This document has been rproduced as (*coned from the person of onaanashon ongInatIng t. 0 Minor changes hew gown num* to wimeoye J kr-c reproduction quality Points of yens 0, opinions statid in t his docu- ment 6o not neCIIIIIOnly teptlftent Ott tool OERI position or policy TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).- Telling the Untold Story: An Examination of the History of the Religious Press in America Phyllis E. Alsdurf Doctoral Student University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication 111 Murphy Hall 206 Church Street S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55455-0418 (612) 625-9824 Present to the History Division Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 78th Annual Convention, August 9-12, 1995 Washington, D.C. 2 ABSTRACT: The history of the religious press in America is fragmentary and relatively unexamined as an area of historical study, especialb in relation to changing social and cultural forces. This paper reviews the coverage of the religious press in standard journalism histories and scholarly journals and outlines the importance an application or a cultural studies approach could have for the study or the religious press. 4 3 The history of the religious press in this country has largely gone untold.It is a history that must be searched for in the nooks and crannies of journalism histories, pieced together from the categor of "other" to which it has often been relegated. Consensus histories usually give a slight nod to the existence of religious publications, but there has not been any attempt to examine the religious press in this country as a whole and to consider its changing role in relationship to broader social and cultural themes. This paper xvill offer a limited review of histories available on the religious press in this country, focusing primaril on the Protestant press.It will briefly consider the models of historical research that have been used in these histories and offer a modest proposal for future work in this area. The Religious Press throughout American History The religious press and topics ot religious concern once figured more centrall in the content of mainstream media in this count r than the do today. Journalism historian Frank Mott notes that in the First period of magazine publishing in this country, 1741 to 1794, five religious magazines were published and "religion furnished an important part of magazine contents. Nlost of the earl magazines published sermons occasionall in some guise Or other, and a few were devoted largely to homiletical literature....There were man 4 clerical contributions to general magazines, and heresies were pretty strictly banned." I The next thirty years would mark "a prolific p6riod in the founding of religious magazines and in religious discussions in secular periodicals," Mott states, as publications both secular and religious responded to missionaiy enthusiasm, the Kentucky revivals and a perceived "torrent of infidelity." 2Mott characterized the early 1800s as a period of "comparative prospeiity" for religious weeklies and a time when "religious periodicals as a whole found a kinder welcome than the magazines of more general appeal." 3 The religious weekly newspapers competed with their secular counterparts, but differed in their "political new and focus on religious and denominational news. By 1828 one listing of religious publications enumerated 28 religious monthlies and 73 weekly religious newspapers but omitted, according to Mott, "some of the most important."4 And in 1840 the Biblical Repository claimed that "of all the reading of the people three-fourths is purely religious...of all the issues of the press three- fourths are theological, ethical and devotional."5 From 1865 to 1885 the number of religious publications doubled in number to over 650, with a surprisingly large number of religious weeklies, according to Nlott. INIott, Frank Luther, A History ef American Nlao,azines. vol. 1 iCambride, NIA: Harvard 1)iiversity Press, 19301. 50. 2lhid., 132. 3lbid., 4lhul., 370. 5 Most large cities had several of these papers; by 1869 fourteen cities had three or more apiece. Though in both aggregate number and total circulation they fell far below the secular newspaper press, they did not, as a rule, fall below it in ahilit; and they possessed a formidable power." 6 After the Civil War, the religious press consisted of reviews which were published monthly or quarterly and were "devoted largely to theology and scholarship" and the weekly newspapers that covered more general news," although the "rise of the great dailies crowded the religious weekly out of the news field:7 It was a period of lively, and often acrimonious, debate between religious publications and some discussion as to whether religion and journalism were even compatible. After a religious jourmll attacked the Atlantic's theology, its editor. .james Russell Lowell, labelled the religious press "a true sour-cider press, with belI -ache privileges atii_Whed."S Although the 1800s marked the beginning of a decline in the influence of religious publications, religious issues continued to be discussed in general interest magazines. Nlott notes that debates over evolution, the eNistence of hell and the religious revivals were covered b the popular press.°Religion ma have been losing its hold as a cultural force, but it would continue to figure centnillin the public square. Thus, in 1908 it was considered perfect l acceptable when Walter Williams, founder and dean of the University of Nlissouri School of journalism, delivered a speech bNIctt, History of Americania:T,azine, vol. 3 tCambrido,e, N1A: Har,ard University Press, 1938), 07, Ibid., 03, 00. 8Ibid., 65. 9ibid.. 85-6. 6 entitled, "The Bible: A Textbook for Journalists." The address became so popular it was given several times and eventually was published in pamphlet form. Speaking to the Iowa State Press Association, Williams called the Bible "the best text-book I know on journalism" and "a model of good journalism."IoMoses, he said, was "the first great editor," Luke, "the best reporter whose works I have read," and the Apostle Paul, "the best special correspondent."11Liberally sprinkling his remarks with Scriptural quotations and references to biblical personalities. Williams made his case for the link between good journalism and a faith in God. He stated: Fr(mi inthnate acquaintanceship with newspaper men. I can say with confidence that in journalism there are few, if any, men who have not an abiding faith in the Fatherhood of God. They may not attend our churches as they should; t hey may sometimes speak lightly of ceremonials and creeds: they may appear affected with modern indifference: they ma critici/e the sermons of they eHow pulpit. But ou will find, if ou know newspaper men as I know them, that they have the highest reverence for hol things, the most sincere l'aith in a personal God, not a mere absentee First Cause. Fundamental to good journalism is keeping the faith: anth in God and faith in man.1 2 One %\ould be hard pressed to find a serious journalist or practitioner of religion toda who would speak so glibly about the merits of such a union. The kind or religious patriotism that Williams espoused would not be viable or desirable in the pluralistic culture of our times.