Winter 2023

Volume 49, No. 4, Winter 2023

The Winter issue contains an editor’s note from Pam Parry and articles by Teri Fineman, Vaibhav Shwetangbhai Diwanji, Melissa Greene-Blye & Chloe Martens, Yu-Li Chang Zacher, Zef M. Segal, Aritra Majumdar, and Rashad Mammadov & Owen V. Johnson. Interested in reading these articles? Get information on subscribing here.

Article Abstracts

““Is It Smart to Be Thrifty?”: How Advertisers Navigated Message Strategies During the Great Depression,” Teri Finneman, Vaibhav Shwetangbhai Diwanji, Melissa Greene-Blye & Chloe Martens
Despite the major historical significance of the Great Depression, little scholarly research exists that analyzes the state of newspaper advertising during the 1930s, particularly in the hard-hit Dust Bowl states. Using Taylor’s six-segment message strategy wheel, this research examined display advertising during one of the most difficult years in the most difficult places: 1934 in the Dust Bowl region of Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Results show that essential services, such as banks, utilities, and transportation, primarily used the informational/rational strategy to provide reassurance and empathy to consumers. However, nonessential industries, such as cosmetics, expensive home goods, and tobacco, often used the transformational/sensory approach to encourage high-quality experiences through spending. This historical analysis offers a unique opportunity for contemporary advertisers to understand how past advertising strategies during a crisis influence the present.

“First Chinese American Newspaperwoman: Mamie Louise Leung at the Los Angeles Record, 1926-1929,” Yu-Li Chang Zacher
This article chronicles the early journalism career of the first Chinese American newspaperwoman, Mamie Louise Leung, who reported for the Los Angeles Record from 1926 to 1929. Despite feeling insecure about her lack of journalism experience right out of college and intimidated by the idea of a Chinese girl not standing a chance among American news writers, Leung built a journalism career that spanned five decades. She proved to be a successful newspaperwoman with her intellect, skills, ambition, hard work, and the unique asset of being ethnically Chinese. Even though she was typecast by her bylined stories as a minority reporter covering topics related to the Chinese community in Los Angeles, she took charge of reporting for the important court beat for the Recordthroughout her tenure.

“Fake News in an Early Hebrew Newspaper: Sensationalist Journalism in HaTzfira in 1874,” Zef M. Segal
The history of fake news is longer and more nuanced than usually considered. This article examines a particular case study in the late nineteenth century, in which the publication of fake news in a Hebrew journal, HaTzfira, caused a severe reaction that exposed structural flaws and undercurrents of journalistic confrontation as well as differing approaches toward the role of truth within the profession. By exploring earlier manifestations of fake news, historians gain a new perspective on its causes and also the strategies for fighting it.

““A Paper Agitation”: The All India Newspaper Editors’ Conference, the Indian State, and the Struggle Over the First Amendment,” Aritra Majumdar
The addition of the First Amendment to the Indian Constitution is considered a crucial moment in the constitutional history of liberty of speech and expression, and by extension, freedom of the press, in postcolonial India. Aimed at limiting the right to free speech and expression through several caveats, the attempt to pass the amendment roused fierce press protest led by the All-India Newspaper Editors’ Conference (AINEC). Such protest notwithstanding, the Nehru government succeeded in passing the amendment through Parliament. This article seeks to revisit the months of April to July 1951 to understand how the press and, in particular, its primary organization—AINEC—understood the threat to their liberty and organized against it. In particular, the arguments put forth by AINEC and the methods applied by its leaders to unify the press shall be studied through the letters, meetings, and editorials of AINEC and its major functionaries. The reactions these endeavors elicited, in turn, shall be studied to explain why the attempted unity, and the larger protest, ultimately failed, and what this failure can explain about the limits of press unity and the difficulties of opposing a nationalist government in early postcolonial India.

“Retreat from the Golden Age: Russian Journalists & Their World, 1992-2000,” Rashad Mammadov & Owen V. Johnson
The overall processes in the first decade of independent Russian media can be divided into distinct phases. The first phase was characterized by a golden age of political independence in the early 1990s. This was followed by a shift toward partial government control and increased proximity to the ruling elites by the presidential elections of 1999. The final phase saw the transfer of power to Vladimir Putin in 2000. The authors argue that several factors contributed to the loss of independence in Russian media during this period, including the complicated economic realities of a transitional society, the growing interest of new financial tycoons (oligarchs) in media ownership, and the reassertion of political influences. Additionally, the specific understanding of professionalism among most Russian journalists played a significant role in the transformation from independent to controlled journalism.