A PNW UW Ph.D, media historian, assist prof @ LSU Manship School, studies old newsrooms, likes tea, hiking, journalism. Author of 'A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies' (https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Disruptive-Journalism-Technologies/dp/0815367910). Please see my Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Nskn55IAAAAJ&hl=en or contact me for a full and more updated list of publications. See LinkedIn for more public-facing/professional work:
In the mid-to-late 1990s, readers reacted to journalistic accounts
of the world around them, from... more In the mid-to-late 1990s, readers reacted to journalistic accounts of the world around them, from sending emails to posting to message boards on newspaper sites. Some of these practices, especially positive suggestions of sources and conversations with reporters, represent an earlier time’s web-optimism, now perhaps lost. This article will explore how design practices, including integrated forums, tabs, indexes and other early site design conventions— sometimes intentional, sometimes not— led to the first generation of online interactions between readers and news workers in the United States, and, to some degree, in the United Kingdom and Canada. This project will explore examples of in-situ design hopes surrounding these early digital connections, and why and how some of that enthusiasm failed to make it into the 2000s and beyond.
The many close, transAtlantic connections between the United States and Britain were the setting ... more The many close, transAtlantic connections between the United States and Britain were the setting and inspiration for much of how these nations' respective media systems produce and consume news online today. Publishers, software engineers and journalists in both nations shared worries about the impact of the internet on the newspaper industry, and the early migration-or, in many cases, the uneven migration-to online news sites during the 1990s. This paper will explore some of those shared concerns, down to the editor and reporter level, with a special focus on the mid-to-late 1990s, and concluding with what changed by the end of that decade, and what did not. It is part of a larger study examining the internet and journalism's initial encounters. It is based on a close reading of trade publications, memoirs, oral-history interviews and other primary-source material, and inspired by the work of Niels Brügger, with its treatment of 'web history' in a serious and contextualized way.
Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief ... more Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence meaning, examine personal biases that influence understanding, and formulate a new understanding of the impact of biases regarding cultural communication.
ABSTRACT Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about ... more ABSTRACT Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about the news, they wrote about each other, their bosses, their daily grind in the newsroom, and journalism itself in the form of workplace poetry. This occupational verse was a way to relieve tension, vent about controlling editors and annoying readers. Writing the verses fulfilled a playful impulse and killed time between assignments. It helped to bond news workers with each other in the newsroom, and it allowed them to form their group identities in the face of difficult circumstances. This article briefly explores how occupational poetry, sometimes called “doggerel” by critics but even by its own creators, became part of the professionalization of American journalism and reflected changing newsroom values, priorities and a growing white-collar consciousness among news workers during and after the interwar years and during the early Cold War. Paradoxically, it echoed the blue-collar roots of many reporters, and their struggle and resistance. Ephemeral by nature, newsroom poetry survives into the present as an important commentary on the occupation.
To the enterprising journalists of early eighteenth-century Great Britain, the refined status of ... more To the enterprising journalists of early eighteenth-century Great Britain, the refined status of “author” remained elusive. Journalism itself was a nascent occupation formed in the processes of cultural legitimatization, commercialization, and politicization of authorship. In London, James Ralph, an American expatriate and political writer, emerged as a spokesman for journalism. In his Case of Authors by Profession or Trade, a short treatise published in 1758, Ralph argued that “professional” authors included journalists and other non-patroned writers. They deserved respect as an occupational group, and a special role in society. Ralph equated and extended the privileged notions of authorship and the role of the author — essentially, respectability and some limited independence from political and financial pressures — to his fellow journalists. His Case is worth revisiting because it shows how literary culture was being challenged in his era, extended and subverted as it was by his ...
Journalism in the United States, even in the midst of great change, continues a traditional separ... more Journalism in the United States, even in the midst of great change, continues a traditional separation between news and business operations. The origin of this divide and the metaphors used to describe it emerge from late nineteenth-century criticism of the press, as well as the consolidation of large metropolitan newspapers during that same era. In response to that criticism and inspired by new ideas of business efficiency and industrialized journalism, specialized business-management textbooks discussed a literal and figurative “wall” between business and news departments at newspapers. This study examines twelve of these texts, published between 1901 and 1955, for their extended discussion of this divide, in an effort to better understand how descriptions of an editorial–business barrier developed among journalists during this period of industrialized journalism. Some of the practical effects of the adoption of this metaphor, on both management and news workers, also are discussed.
In the twentieth century, in the United States, ideas of professional practice in journalism and ... more In the twentieth century, in the United States, ideas of professional practice in journalism and journalism education grew up together. Occupational norms and professional practices were inscribed in reporting textbooks, which reflected the values of their era. They show a continuity of praxis, and an “enduring ethos” of journalistic values that survived into the 1960s and 1970s, in time to be picked up by the studies of Johnstone and then later Weaver and Wilhoit. This ethos including notions of public service, often tied to notions of objectivity, accuracy and fairness. This study includes a close reading of 34 textbooks published over a period of nearly 70 years, from the 1890s through the 1960s, drawing from a larger corpus of material that includes 69 textbooks from the same period. As sites of professional discourse making and continuity, textbooks show how journalism's values are passed down through time.
This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) ... more This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) draws on Pew Research Center data and then-contemporary primary sources, including meta-journalistic analysis, to explore continuities and divergences to the present and our ongoing coranavirus pandemic. Numerous trends, including a cycle of neglect and panic, emerged on the Internet in the 2000s, and have become exacerbated over time. Other, more positive trends, such as more interactive and helpfully mediated/curated access to health experts, have also emerged. This study provides important context for our current moment.
A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies provides a swift analysis of the computeriz... more A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies provides a swift analysis of the computerization of the newsroom, from the mid-1960s through to the early 1990s. It focuses on how word processing and a number of related affordances, including mobile-reporting tools, impacted the daily work routines of American news workers. The narrative opens with the development of mainframes and their attendant use as databases in large, daily newspapers, It moves on to the "minicomputer" era and explores initial news-worker experiences with computers for editing and publication. Following this, the book examines the microprocessor era, and the rise of "smart" terminals, "microcomputers," and off-the-shelf hardware/software, along with the increasing use of computers in smaller news organizations. Mari then turns to the use of pre-internet networks, wire-services and bulletin boards deployed for user interaction. He looks at the integration of decentralized comp...
This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1... more This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1960s builds on previous work by media labor-studies scholars such as Bonnie Brennen, Daniel Leab, Phillip Glende and Sam Kuczun, among others, who have examined the history of the American Newspaper Guild (ANG) in great detail. Their work has focused on legal and policy developments under the Roosevelt administration and in U.S. labor law. My study, as part of a larger project, looks at some of the ground-level impacts of unionization. It does so examining Editor & Publisher, The Quill and The Guild Reporter, among other publications, and references to the material benefits in pay, time off, work-life balance, health insurance, job security and other, practical and positive ancillary effects brought by the uneven unionization of the newsroom. The arrival of white-collar unions for new workers was not a panacea to their problems. But it did help them in their collective quest in the Unite...
The materiality-turn in journalism and mass-communication history both breaks from and continues ... more The materiality-turn in journalism and mass-communication history both breaks from and continues the focus on the history of objects and artifacts that many scholars in our field have followed since its inception. And yet the materiality approach is distinct in that it traces its roots to science and technology studies (STS), and is exemplified by the work of Bruno Latour, but also Fran-cois-Xaxier Vaujany, Nathalie Mitev to name a few STS scholars. Some of these names may be unfamiliar to media historians, but all have examined the historical roles of objects embedded in human systems and the role of agency in such systems. eir research and theoretical approaches are worth considering and may prove helpful for the media historian. us, the purpose of this essay is to outline the current state of the field with regards to media history and materiality-based approaches, and to call for further exploration of our field with them.
In this short research essay, I elaborate on my 2020 article in 'Journalism History' on newsroom ... more In this short research essay, I elaborate on my 2020 article in 'Journalism History' on newsroom work poetry as historical source.
The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy , 2020
In this short essay, the author explains what went wrong when he asked his students to tackle an ... more In this short essay, the author explains what went wrong when he asked his students to tackle an ill-conceived project—an in-class Wikipedia edit—and what he’d do differently next time.
Please note: I am third author on this paper, behind Dr. Bourdeaux and Prof. Helmcke.
Students ... more Please note: I am third author on this paper, behind Dr. Bourdeaux and Prof. Helmcke.
Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence meaning, examine personal biases that influence understanding, and formulate a new understanding of the impact of biases regarding cultural communication.
This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) ... more This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) draws on Pew Research Center data and then-contemporary primary sources, including meta-journalistic analysis, to explore continuities and divergences to the present and our ongoing coranavirus pandemic. Numerous trends, including a cycle of neglect and panic, emerged on the Internet in the 2000s, and have become exacerbated over time. Other, more positive trends, such as more interactive and helpfully mediated/curated access to health experts, have also emerged. This study provides important context for our current moment.
Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about the news,... more Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about the news, they wrote about each other, their bosses, their daily grind in the newsroom, and journalism itself in the form of workplace poetry. This occupational verse was a way to relieve tension, vent about controlling editors and annoying readers. Writing the verses fulfilled a playful impulse and killed time between assignments. It helped to bond news workers with each other in the newsroom, and it allowed them to form their group identities in the face of difficult circumstances. This article briefly explores how occupational poetry, sometimes called “doggerel” by critics but even by its own creators, became part of the professionalization of American journalism and reflected changing newsroom values, priorities and a growing white-collar consciousness among news workers during and after the interwar years and during the early Cold War. Paradoxically, it echoed the blue-collar roots of many reporters, and their struggle and resistance. Ephemeral by nature, newsroom poetry survives into the present as an important commentary on the occupation.
This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1... more This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1960s builds on previous work by media labor-studies scholars such as Bonnie Brennen, Daniel Leab, Phillip Glende and Sam Kuczun, among others, who have examined the history of the American Newspaper Guild (ANG) in great detail. Their work has focused on legal and policy developments under the Roosevelt administration and in U.S. labor law. My study, as part of a larger project, looks at some of the ground-level impacts of unionization. It does so examining Editor & Publisher, The Quill and The Guild Reporter, among other publications, and references to the material benefits in pay, time off, work-life balance, health insurance, job security and other, practical and positive ancillary effects brought by the uneven unionization of the newsroom. The arrival of white-collar unions for new workers was not a panacea to their problems. But it did help them in their collective quest in the United States during the interwar and then post-World War Two-eras for better working conditions and a firmer sense of their professionalized identity.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, readers reacted to journalistic accounts
of the world around them, from... more In the mid-to-late 1990s, readers reacted to journalistic accounts of the world around them, from sending emails to posting to message boards on newspaper sites. Some of these practices, especially positive suggestions of sources and conversations with reporters, represent an earlier time’s web-optimism, now perhaps lost. This article will explore how design practices, including integrated forums, tabs, indexes and other early site design conventions— sometimes intentional, sometimes not— led to the first generation of online interactions between readers and news workers in the United States, and, to some degree, in the United Kingdom and Canada. This project will explore examples of in-situ design hopes surrounding these early digital connections, and why and how some of that enthusiasm failed to make it into the 2000s and beyond.
The many close, transAtlantic connections between the United States and Britain were the setting ... more The many close, transAtlantic connections between the United States and Britain were the setting and inspiration for much of how these nations' respective media systems produce and consume news online today. Publishers, software engineers and journalists in both nations shared worries about the impact of the internet on the newspaper industry, and the early migration-or, in many cases, the uneven migration-to online news sites during the 1990s. This paper will explore some of those shared concerns, down to the editor and reporter level, with a special focus on the mid-to-late 1990s, and concluding with what changed by the end of that decade, and what did not. It is part of a larger study examining the internet and journalism's initial encounters. It is based on a close reading of trade publications, memoirs, oral-history interviews and other primary-source material, and inspired by the work of Niels Brügger, with its treatment of 'web history' in a serious and contextualized way.
Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief ... more Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence meaning, examine personal biases that influence understanding, and formulate a new understanding of the impact of biases regarding cultural communication.
ABSTRACT Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about ... more ABSTRACT Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about the news, they wrote about each other, their bosses, their daily grind in the newsroom, and journalism itself in the form of workplace poetry. This occupational verse was a way to relieve tension, vent about controlling editors and annoying readers. Writing the verses fulfilled a playful impulse and killed time between assignments. It helped to bond news workers with each other in the newsroom, and it allowed them to form their group identities in the face of difficult circumstances. This article briefly explores how occupational poetry, sometimes called “doggerel” by critics but even by its own creators, became part of the professionalization of American journalism and reflected changing newsroom values, priorities and a growing white-collar consciousness among news workers during and after the interwar years and during the early Cold War. Paradoxically, it echoed the blue-collar roots of many reporters, and their struggle and resistance. Ephemeral by nature, newsroom poetry survives into the present as an important commentary on the occupation.
To the enterprising journalists of early eighteenth-century Great Britain, the refined status of ... more To the enterprising journalists of early eighteenth-century Great Britain, the refined status of “author” remained elusive. Journalism itself was a nascent occupation formed in the processes of cultural legitimatization, commercialization, and politicization of authorship. In London, James Ralph, an American expatriate and political writer, emerged as a spokesman for journalism. In his Case of Authors by Profession or Trade, a short treatise published in 1758, Ralph argued that “professional” authors included journalists and other non-patroned writers. They deserved respect as an occupational group, and a special role in society. Ralph equated and extended the privileged notions of authorship and the role of the author — essentially, respectability and some limited independence from political and financial pressures — to his fellow journalists. His Case is worth revisiting because it shows how literary culture was being challenged in his era, extended and subverted as it was by his ...
Journalism in the United States, even in the midst of great change, continues a traditional separ... more Journalism in the United States, even in the midst of great change, continues a traditional separation between news and business operations. The origin of this divide and the metaphors used to describe it emerge from late nineteenth-century criticism of the press, as well as the consolidation of large metropolitan newspapers during that same era. In response to that criticism and inspired by new ideas of business efficiency and industrialized journalism, specialized business-management textbooks discussed a literal and figurative “wall” between business and news departments at newspapers. This study examines twelve of these texts, published between 1901 and 1955, for their extended discussion of this divide, in an effort to better understand how descriptions of an editorial–business barrier developed among journalists during this period of industrialized journalism. Some of the practical effects of the adoption of this metaphor, on both management and news workers, also are discussed.
In the twentieth century, in the United States, ideas of professional practice in journalism and ... more In the twentieth century, in the United States, ideas of professional practice in journalism and journalism education grew up together. Occupational norms and professional practices were inscribed in reporting textbooks, which reflected the values of their era. They show a continuity of praxis, and an “enduring ethos” of journalistic values that survived into the 1960s and 1970s, in time to be picked up by the studies of Johnstone and then later Weaver and Wilhoit. This ethos including notions of public service, often tied to notions of objectivity, accuracy and fairness. This study includes a close reading of 34 textbooks published over a period of nearly 70 years, from the 1890s through the 1960s, drawing from a larger corpus of material that includes 69 textbooks from the same period. As sites of professional discourse making and continuity, textbooks show how journalism's values are passed down through time.
This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) ... more This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) draws on Pew Research Center data and then-contemporary primary sources, including meta-journalistic analysis, to explore continuities and divergences to the present and our ongoing coranavirus pandemic. Numerous trends, including a cycle of neglect and panic, emerged on the Internet in the 2000s, and have become exacerbated over time. Other, more positive trends, such as more interactive and helpfully mediated/curated access to health experts, have also emerged. This study provides important context for our current moment.
A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies provides a swift analysis of the computeriz... more A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies provides a swift analysis of the computerization of the newsroom, from the mid-1960s through to the early 1990s. It focuses on how word processing and a number of related affordances, including mobile-reporting tools, impacted the daily work routines of American news workers. The narrative opens with the development of mainframes and their attendant use as databases in large, daily newspapers, It moves on to the "minicomputer" era and explores initial news-worker experiences with computers for editing and publication. Following this, the book examines the microprocessor era, and the rise of "smart" terminals, "microcomputers," and off-the-shelf hardware/software, along with the increasing use of computers in smaller news organizations. Mari then turns to the use of pre-internet networks, wire-services and bulletin boards deployed for user interaction. He looks at the integration of decentralized comp...
This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1... more This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1960s builds on previous work by media labor-studies scholars such as Bonnie Brennen, Daniel Leab, Phillip Glende and Sam Kuczun, among others, who have examined the history of the American Newspaper Guild (ANG) in great detail. Their work has focused on legal and policy developments under the Roosevelt administration and in U.S. labor law. My study, as part of a larger project, looks at some of the ground-level impacts of unionization. It does so examining Editor & Publisher, The Quill and The Guild Reporter, among other publications, and references to the material benefits in pay, time off, work-life balance, health insurance, job security and other, practical and positive ancillary effects brought by the uneven unionization of the newsroom. The arrival of white-collar unions for new workers was not a panacea to their problems. But it did help them in their collective quest in the Unite...
The materiality-turn in journalism and mass-communication history both breaks from and continues ... more The materiality-turn in journalism and mass-communication history both breaks from and continues the focus on the history of objects and artifacts that many scholars in our field have followed since its inception. And yet the materiality approach is distinct in that it traces its roots to science and technology studies (STS), and is exemplified by the work of Bruno Latour, but also Fran-cois-Xaxier Vaujany, Nathalie Mitev to name a few STS scholars. Some of these names may be unfamiliar to media historians, but all have examined the historical roles of objects embedded in human systems and the role of agency in such systems. eir research and theoretical approaches are worth considering and may prove helpful for the media historian. us, the purpose of this essay is to outline the current state of the field with regards to media history and materiality-based approaches, and to call for further exploration of our field with them.
In this short research essay, I elaborate on my 2020 article in 'Journalism History' on newsroom ... more In this short research essay, I elaborate on my 2020 article in 'Journalism History' on newsroom work poetry as historical source.
The Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy , 2020
In this short essay, the author explains what went wrong when he asked his students to tackle an ... more In this short essay, the author explains what went wrong when he asked his students to tackle an ill-conceived project—an in-class Wikipedia edit—and what he’d do differently next time.
Please note: I am third author on this paper, behind Dr. Bourdeaux and Prof. Helmcke.
Students ... more Please note: I am third author on this paper, behind Dr. Bourdeaux and Prof. Helmcke.
Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence meaning, examine personal biases that influence understanding, and formulate a new understanding of the impact of biases regarding cultural communication.
This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) ... more This short history of previous online pandemic news coverage (of SARS, H1N1, MERS, c. 2003–2012) draws on Pew Research Center data and then-contemporary primary sources, including meta-journalistic analysis, to explore continuities and divergences to the present and our ongoing coranavirus pandemic. Numerous trends, including a cycle of neglect and panic, emerged on the Internet in the 2000s, and have become exacerbated over time. Other, more positive trends, such as more interactive and helpfully mediated/curated access to health experts, have also emerged. This study provides important context for our current moment.
Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about the news,... more Throughout the twentieth century, reporters and other news workers not only wrote about the news, they wrote about each other, their bosses, their daily grind in the newsroom, and journalism itself in the form of workplace poetry. This occupational verse was a way to relieve tension, vent about controlling editors and annoying readers. Writing the verses fulfilled a playful impulse and killed time between assignments. It helped to bond news workers with each other in the newsroom, and it allowed them to form their group identities in the face of difficult circumstances. This article briefly explores how occupational poetry, sometimes called “doggerel” by critics but even by its own creators, became part of the professionalization of American journalism and reflected changing newsroom values, priorities and a growing white-collar consciousness among news workers during and after the interwar years and during the early Cold War. Paradoxically, it echoed the blue-collar roots of many reporters, and their struggle and resistance. Ephemeral by nature, newsroom poetry survives into the present as an important commentary on the occupation.
This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1... more This study of the material benefits brought to American news workers from the 1930s through the 1960s builds on previous work by media labor-studies scholars such as Bonnie Brennen, Daniel Leab, Phillip Glende and Sam Kuczun, among others, who have examined the history of the American Newspaper Guild (ANG) in great detail. Their work has focused on legal and policy developments under the Roosevelt administration and in U.S. labor law. My study, as part of a larger project, looks at some of the ground-level impacts of unionization. It does so examining Editor & Publisher, The Quill and The Guild Reporter, among other publications, and references to the material benefits in pay, time off, work-life balance, health insurance, job security and other, practical and positive ancillary effects brought by the uneven unionization of the newsroom. The arrival of white-collar unions for new workers was not a panacea to their problems. But it did help them in their collective quest in the United States during the interwar and then post-World War Two-eras for better working conditions and a firmer sense of their professionalized identity.
A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies provides a swift analysis of the computeriz... more A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies provides a swift analysis of the computerization of the newsroom, from the mid-1960s through to the early 1990s. It focuses on how word processing and a number of related affordances, including mobile-reporting tools, impacted the daily work routines of American news workers.
The narrative opens with the development of mainframes and their attendant use as databases in large, daily newspapers, It moves on to the "minicomputer" era and explores initial news-worker experiences with computers for editing and publication. Following this, the book examines the microprocessor era, and the rise of "smart" terminals, "microcomputers," and off-the-shelf hardware/software, along with the increasing use of computers in smaller news organizations. Mari then turns to the use of pre-internet networks, wire-services and bulletin boards deployed for user interaction. He looks at the integration of decentralized computer networks in newsrooms, with a mix of content-management systems and PCs, and the increasing use of pagers and cellphones for news-gathering, including the shift from "portable" to mobile conceptualizations for these technologies.
A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies is an illuminating survey for students and instructors of journalism studies. It represents an important acknowledgement of the impact of pre-internet technological disruptions which led to the even more disruptive internet- and related computing technologies in the latter 1990s and through the present.
One of the most important centering places in American journalism remains the newsroom, the heart... more One of the most important centering places in American journalism remains the newsroom, the heart of the occupation’s vocational community since the middle of the nineteenth century. It is where journalists have engaged with their work practices, been changed by them, and helped to shape them. This dissertation is a thematic social history of the American newsroom. Using memoirs, trade publications, textbooks and archival material, it explores how newsrooms in the U.S. evolved during a formative moment for American journalism and its workers, from the conclusion of the First World War through the 1950s, the Cold War, and the ascendancy of broadcast journalism, but prior to the computerization of the newsroom. It examines the interior work culture of news workers “within” their newsroom space at large, metropolitan daily newspapers. It investigates how space and ideas of labor transformed the ideology of the newsroom. It argues that news workers were neither passive nor predestinated in how they formed their workplace. Finally, it also examines how technology and unionization impacted the newsroom and news workers, and thus charts the evolution of the newsroom in the early- to-middle decades of the twentieth century. In so doing, it fills an important gap in the journalism-studies literature prior to the newsroom ethnographies of the 1970s and 1980s.
Uploads
Papers by William Thomas Mari
of the world around them, from sending emails to posting to
message boards on newspaper sites. Some of these practices,
especially positive suggestions of sources and conversations with
reporters, represent an earlier time’s web-optimism, now perhaps
lost. This article will explore how design practices, including integrated
forums, tabs, indexes and other early site design conventions—
sometimes intentional, sometimes not— led to the first
generation of online interactions between readers and news
workers in the United States, and, to some degree, in the United
Kingdom and Canada. This project will explore examples of in-situ
design hopes surrounding these early digital connections, and
why and how some of that enthusiasm failed to make it into the
2000s and beyond.
Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence meaning, examine personal biases that influence understanding, and formulate a new understanding of the impact of biases regarding cultural communication.
of the world around them, from sending emails to posting to
message boards on newspaper sites. Some of these practices,
especially positive suggestions of sources and conversations with
reporters, represent an earlier time’s web-optimism, now perhaps
lost. This article will explore how design practices, including integrated
forums, tabs, indexes and other early site design conventions—
sometimes intentional, sometimes not— led to the first
generation of online interactions between readers and news
workers in the United States, and, to some degree, in the United
Kingdom and Canada. This project will explore examples of in-situ
design hopes surrounding these early digital connections, and
why and how some of that enthusiasm failed to make it into the
2000s and beyond.
Students desire meaningful ways to dissect and explore confusing and challenging concepts. Chief among these in our world today are the multifaceted issues and exceptionally complex discourses involved in immigration. The guided visualization in this G.I.F.T. may be used to demonstrate emotions, the five cannons of rhetoric, intercultural communication, proofs of persuasion, or theories within the critical or phenomenological traditions. This guided visualization also adapts well to a blended classroom (with students onsite and offsite) since the instructor leads students through the visualization. Through this activity, students will describe the emotions that underpin communication about immigration, interpret how emotions influence meaning, examine personal biases that influence understanding, and formulate a new understanding of the impact of biases regarding cultural communication.
The narrative opens with the development of mainframes and their attendant use as databases in large, daily newspapers, It moves on to the "minicomputer" era and explores initial news-worker experiences with computers for editing and publication. Following this, the book examines the microprocessor era, and the rise of "smart" terminals, "microcomputers," and off-the-shelf hardware/software, along with the increasing use of computers in smaller news organizations. Mari then turns to the use of pre-internet networks, wire-services and bulletin boards deployed for user interaction. He looks at the integration of decentralized computer networks in newsrooms, with a mix of content-management systems and PCs, and the increasing use of pagers and cellphones for news-gathering, including the shift from "portable" to mobile conceptualizations for these technologies.
A Short History of Disruptive Journalism Technologies is an illuminating survey for students and instructors of journalism studies. It represents an important acknowledgement of the impact of pre-internet technological disruptions which led to the even more disruptive internet- and related computing technologies in the latter 1990s and through the present.
Please email the author if you'd like a copy (William.mari@northwestu.edu)