American Journalism, 27:3, 7-26
Copyright © 2010, American Journalism Historians Association
Learning the “Outsider” Profession: Serial
Advice Columns in The Journalist
By Randall S. Sumpter
This article explores the role a late nineteenth-century trade
journal, The Journalist, played in disseminating standardized reporting practices and rules of behavior and in sorting labor away
from already saturated markets. An examination of four, multi-part
serials published by this trade weekly found they contained guidelines for defining, gathering, and writing news stories. However, this
study also found the column writers gave pragmatic advice about
coping with barriers to accepted reporting practices. In some cases,
the authors showed beginners how to bend or otherwise successfully
violate the rules, or counseled them to abandon professional standards when instructed to by editors and publishers. This indicates
early news trade journals functioned as much as forums for building community and discussing why journalism could not attain the
same sort of professional standards as law and medicine as they did
agents of professionalization. Although this article continues media
history’s investigation of the professionalization of journalism, it
presents evidence that even early practitioners recognized that this
effort would not follow a linear path.
U
ntil the twentieth century, most journalists learned
their trade through long apprenticeships.1 Some practical guides written by seasoned reporters and editors
existed, but there were few college courses or
Randall S. Sumpter is
formal training programs and textbooks to ease an associate professor
an apprentice’s way up the nineteenth-century in the Department of
ladder of journalism.2 Novice journalists were Communication at
Texas A&M University,
not alone. The post-Civil War industrializa- 4234 TAMU,
tion of America created many new occupations College Station, TX 77843.
that did not yet have standardized training pro- (979) 845-0208
[email protected]
grams.3 In most cases, however, new practitioners could consult trade journals, periodicals meant to help readers
perform their specialized duties.4 Trade journal publishing in the
United States had its genesis in mid-eighteenth century “price cur
American Journalism, 27:3, 27-58
Copyright © 2010, American Journalism Historians Association
Colonel Edward M. House and the Journalists
By James D. Startt
Colonel House was one of the most influential men in the United
States during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson. As the president’s
political confidant, House served him as a trusted counselor and
as his personal representative abroad. The colonel, as House was
known, drew information and opinion from an array of diplomatic
and political figures to use in advising the president. Although historians have made House’s association with these men part of their
studies of Wilsonian statecraft, they have allowed his similar association with many journalists to remain basically unstudied. However, House made the knowledge he garnered from the journalists a
significant source of his advice to Wilson. He was also a conduit of
news and opinion from the White House for the journalists. By exploring how House interacted with journalists, this essay documents
the important role they played in his work, and it provides insight
into the era’s political journalism, particularly during World War I.
It also suggests that the liaison House maintained with journalists
should be included in any account of presidential-press relations in
Wilson’s time.
Introduction
T
he well-known friendship between Colonel Edward M.
House and Woodrow Wilson remains one of the most
fascinating relationships in American history. In the
words of House’s most recent biographer, he
was “Wilson’s Right Hand.”1 That is no exag- James D. Startt is a
senior research professor
geration, for House established what is arguably in history at Valparaiso
the closest friendship that any advisor has ever University, Huegli Hall,
had with an American president. Wilson relied Valparaiso, IN 46383-6493.
(414) 530-6771
on his judgment in both domestic and foreign [email protected]
affairs, and during his presidency, he was closer
to House than to any of his cabinet members. Aside from the members of Wilson’s own family, House was the president’s most intimate friend. At the White House during the Wilson years, there was
American Journalism, 27:3, 59-89
Copyright © 2010, American Journalism Historians Association
The Geography of an American Icon:
An Analysis of the Circulation
of the Saturday Evening Post, 1911-1944
By Douglas B. Ward
This article argues that regional variations in audiences have
played an important and generally unexplored role in journalism history. Its geographic analysis of the reading patterns of the Saturday
Evening Post in 1911, 1920, 1928, 1935, and 1944 finds strong areas
of readership in the Western United States and low readership in the
South. The pattern of the Post closely resembles that of another Curtis
Publishing Company magazine, the Ladies’ Home Journal, during a
similar time period. Post readership also showed a correlation with
such demographic areas as literacy rates, race, family size, income,
and ownership of household appliances. The article argues that a
consistent geographic and demographic pattern of readership over
more than three decades suggests a deeper, more complex relationship between the Post and its audience than one created solely by
editorial content. It reinforces the idea of Post readers as well-to-do
white urbanites. Yet it shows that Post readership was far more complex than the notion that “everybody read the Post” (a common implication through the years). The circulation distribution of the Post was
indeed mass in number, but with many regional variations.
F
ew magazines have ever achieved the Doug Ward is an associate
status of the Saturday Evening Post professor of journalism at
the University of Kansas,
in the early twentieth century. With 1435 Jayhawk Blvd.,
a weekly circulation in the millions, iconic cov- Lawrence, KS 66045.
ers by such artists as Norman Rockwell and J.C. (785) 864-7637
[email protected]
Leyendecker, articles and stories by the likes of
F. Scott Fitzgerald, David Graham Phillips, Agatha Christie, Richard Byrd, Edith Wharton, and Samuel Blythe, and pages packed
The author wishes to thank Rhonda Houser and Mickey Waxman of the
Center for Digital Scholarship at the University of Kansas for their help in
preparing and analyzing the geographic and statistical data.
American Journalism, 27:3, 91-114
Copyright © 2010, American Journalism Historians Association
The Dixiecrat Summer of 1948:
Two South Carolina Editors—a Liberal and a
Conservative—Foreshadow Modern Political
Debate in the South
By Sid Bedingfield
This study explores the political ideologies of two South Carolina editorialists—one liberal, the other conservative—during the tumultuous summer of 1948. Rebellious Southern Democrats walked
out of the party’s national convention that year and launched the
so-called Dixiecrat campaign for the presidency. At the same time,
a federal judge in Charleston delivered a series of blistering opinions ordering an end to whites-only primaries in the state. The two
editors, William Watts Ball of Charleston and James A. Rogers of
Florence, represented competing visions of the South in 1948. Ball
was fiercely conservative, an unabashed supporter of the old South,
Rogers a self-proclaimed liberal who envisioned a progressive future. Their debate that summer offers insights into the historical and
cultural forces that have shaped politics in the South ever since.
Introduction
T
hey were both white Southern newspaper editors, but
otherwise they could not have been more different. One
was a fiery conservative nearing retirement, a veteran
political warrior who gained national fame for
Sid Bedingfield is a visiting
his biting opposition to Roosevelt’s New Deal.1 professor in the School
The other was a progressive liberal who was of Journalism and Mass
new to the editor’s chair, a former Baptist min- Communications at the
University of South Carolina,
ister who preached moderation and pressed for 600 Assembly Street,
2
gradual change. In the summer of 1948, Wil- Columbia, SC, 29208
liam Watts Ball of the News and Courier of 803-777-6272
[email protected]
Charleston and James A. Rogers of the Florence Morning News represented two visions of the South during a
critical moment in political history. Through their daily editorials,
they chronicled the demise of the state’s whites-only political sys
American Journalism, 27:3, 115-150
Copyright © 2010, American Journalism Historians Association
Art Commentary for the Middlebrow:
Promoting Modernism & Modern Art
through Popular Culture—How Life
Magazine Brought “The New” into
Middle-Class Homes
By Sheila Webb
This study examines the role of Life in defining a new lifestyle
based on modernism in the interwar period. With its first issue in
1936, Life embodied modernity as it pioneered a way of reaching
an audience through the photo-essay. Life’s presentation of art and
modernity, one thread in training its readers how to be middle class,
is placed within the artistic and cultural environment of the time.
This paper argues that the editors of Life “domesticated” modern
art through a series of strategies: monetary value, artistic practice,
and biography. Life’s tying of art to modernity is discussed within
the context of other institutions that also believed art was integral to
creating modern society – the Museum of Modern Art and the federal government through the WPA. An examination of the interplay
among these three cultural actors provides insight into the larger
historical issues of art production, circulation, and consumption,
and the role of the government, elite institutions, and the media in
promulgating art standards. This study combined three methodological approaches: an investigation of archival material, a textual
analysis of all 262 issues from 1936 to the outbreak of World War II,
and a content analysis of 4,522 images in 76 categories.
I
Webb is an
n the 1930s, three new and seminal Sheila
assistant professor in the
cultural forces—Life magazine, the Department of Journalism
Museum of Modern Art, and the fed- at Western Washington
516 High St.,
eral government through the WPA’s Federal Art University,
Bellingham, WA 98225.
Project—championed modernism and modern 360-650-6245
art. Important actors in pushing middle class [email protected]
Americans toward understanding and embracing the new, all three shared the belief that art was integral to creating modern society. All three believed they were engaged in the