Volume 48, No. 3, Fall 2022
The Fall issue contains articles by Alexia Little, Madeleine Liseblad & Gregory Pitts, and Monique Freemon & Amber Roessner, as well as the top essays from our Diversity in Media Essay Series — by Bailey Dick, Gerry Lanosga, Wendy Melillo, and Melony Shemberger — and a note on diversity in Journalism History. Interested in reading these articles? Get information on subscribing here.
Article Abstracts
“Cementing Their Heroes: Historical Newspaper Coverage of Confederate Monuments,” Alexia Little
Following continued conflicts over Confederate monuments in American society, this study explores Civil War memory encapsulated in newspaper coverage of the initial construction and dedication of four Confederate monuments. Discourse and narrative analyses of 258 articles published in seven US newspapers in the 1890s and 1920s examine how the American public negotiated terms of heroes, victims, and villains, largely in a hegemonic “Lost Cause” myth that took primacy over fact, thus distorting collective memory of the war.
Breaking the Billboard Magazine Mold: The Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson, and Julio Iglesias Super Specials,” Madeleine Liseblad & Gregory Pitts
Battling an economic recession, Billboard—one of the world’s oldest trade publications—dramatically altered its cover appearance in three super special issues. The smashing success of “The Legend of Barbra Streisand” issue brought needed revenue and a synergistic marketing relationship between Billboard and Streisand’s movie Yentl and its soundtrack. Two more super specials followed: “The Saga of Michael Jackson” and “The World of Julio Iglesias.” Jackson approved editorial content, timed with the Victory Tour. Iglesias’s issue released with his new album and tour. These issues were a financial boon for Billboard, with advertorial content and a controversial “selling” of the cover. Billboard crossed from trade to celebrity consumer publication and transformed the magazine into a new, glossier product with trade and consumer appeal. This study examines Billboard‘s transformation for survival when consolidation, new media technologies, and celebrity culture influences threatened the magazine industry.
“Our Forgotten Mother: Daisy Bates and Her School Integration Campaign,” Monique Freemon & Lori Amber Roessner
This manuscript seeks to recover and properly recognize the public relations efforts of social justice crusader Daisy Gatson Bates (1914–99), the co-owner of the Arkansas State Press and a state-level NAACP organizer, during the early years of the civil rights movement. The purpose of this study is to intervene in the “Great (White) Man’s” account of public relations history by documenting the public relations tactics that Daisy Bates implemented in her advocacy campaign for school integration, analyzing the motivations behind her deployment of the tactics, and evaluating the successes and failures of her strategies. To engage in that endeavor, we analyzed available archival sources, including correspondence between Bates and the NAACP housed at the University of Arkansas and the Library of Congress. We also examined other primary sources, such as official records of the Associated Press, published memoirs of Bates and Melba Pattillo Beals, published editorials in the local Arkansas State Press, and newspaper coverage in White mainstream national news outlets and the Black press, including circulation leaders such as the New York Times and Chicago Defender.
Journalism History journal 