With each issue of American Journalism, we feature teaching materials for a particular article and provide free online access to the article. The teaching materials provide topical overviews and various exercises for teaching the article in either undergraduate or graduate classes. The author of the article creates the teaching exercises and provides links to relevant primary and secondary sources. We hope these teaching materials and the historical studies they reference will enrich your media history courses and, most importantly, your students’ learning. And we hope you will let us know how you use American Journalism in your classrooms.


Behold the Wicked Abominations That They Do”: The Nineteenth-Century Roots of the Evidentiary Approach in American Investigative Journalism
Volume 39, No. 4, 2022
by Gerry Lanosga

Oral Memories, The Black Press, and the Emergence of Local Black Television Journalists:A Teaching Exercise Based on Historical Research
Vol. 39, No. 1, 2022
by Bala James Baptiste

Breaking the White Circle: How the Press and Courts Quieted a Chicago Hate Group, 1949–1952
Volume 38, No. 4, 2021
by Erika J. Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas at Arlington, and Jared Schroeder, Southern Methodist University 

A “Moral Challenge”: Journalists, Joe McCarthy, and the Struggle for Truth, 1950-1955
Volume 38, No. 2, 2021
By Glen Feighery, University of Utah

“Eyewitnesses to a Tragedy”: How the Collegian, the Student Newspaper of South Carolina State College, Covered the Orangeburg Massacre
Volume 38, No. 1, 2021
By Dante E. Mozie, South Carolina State University

Mortimer Thomson’s “Witches of New York:” Undercover Reporting on the Fortune-Telling Trade
Volume 37, No. 4, 2020
By Samantha Peko, University of North Georgia-Gainesville

The Non-Jewish Jew: Walter Lippmann and the Pitfalls of Journalistic “Detachment”
Volume 37, No. 3, 2020
By Julien Gorbach, University of Hawaii, Manoa

The News Ecosystem During the Birth of the Confederacy: South Carolina Secession in Southern Newspapers
Volume 37, No. 2, 2020
By Michael Fuhlhage, Jade Metzger-Riftkin, and Sarah Walker, Wayne State University

Mississippi’s Forgotten Son: Billy Barton and his Journalistic Battle for Redemption in the Closed Society
Volume 37, No. 1, 2020
By Jason Peterson, Charleston Southern University

Making China Their “Beat”: A Collective Biography of U.S. Correspondents in China, 1900-1949
Volume 36, No. 4, 2019
By Yong Volz & Lei Guo, University of Missouri

Westbrook Pegler and the Rise of the Syndicated Columnist
Volume 36, No. 3, 2019
By Philip M. Glende, Indiana State University

Stoicism and Courage as Journalistic Values: What Early Journalism Textbooks Taught About “Newsroom Ethos”
Volume 36, No. 2, 2019
By Raymond McCaffrey, University of Arkansas

“Watchdog” Journalists and “Shyster” Lawyers: Analyzing Legal Reform Discourse in the Journalistic Trade Press, 1895–1899
Vol. 35, No. 4, 2018
By Patrick C. File, University of Nevada, Reno

The Life Cycle and Conventions of Nineteenth-Century Breaking News: Disaster Reporting of the 1875 Virginia City Fire
Volume 35, No. 3, 2018
By Katrina J. Quinn, Slippery Rock University

Ethics and the Profession: The Crystallizing of Public Relations Practice from Association to Accreditation, 1936–1964
Vol. 35, No. 2, 2018
By Nicholas Browning, University of Indiana

Political Papers and Presidential Campaigns in the Republic of Texas, 1836-1844
Vol. 35, No. 1, 2018
By Erika J. Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas-Arlington

“A Lady of Many Firsts”: Press Coverage of the Political Career of Mississippi’s Evelyn Gandy, 1948-83
Vol. 34, No. 4, 2017
By Pete Smith, Mississippi State University

Filtering History: Photojournalists’ Access to U.S. Presidents, 1977-2009
Volume 34, No. 3, 2017
By Erin K. Coyle & Nicole Smith Dahmen

Glamour-izing Military Service: Army Recruitment for Women in Vietnam-Era Advertisements
by Jessica Ghilani, University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
Volume 34, No. 2, 2017

Framing Mexicans in Great Depression Editorials: Alien Riff-Raff to Heroes
by Melita M. Garza, Texas Christian University
Volume 34, Number 1, 2017

Using Allegations of Media Bias During the Civil Rights Movement to Better Understand Those Found Today
by David Wallace, University of South Carolina Upstate
Volume 33, Number 4, 2016

More Than “Rations, Passions and Fashions”:
Re-Examining the Women’s Pages Post-World War II to 1970s in the Milwaukee Journal
by Kimberly Voss and Lance Speere
Volume 33, Number 3, 2016

“Boys Are Running off to the Wars by Scores”: Promoting Masculinity and Conquest in the Coverage of the Mexican-American War
by Mark A. Bernhardt
Volume 33, Number 2, 2016

A Nation-wide Chain within 60 Days”: Radio Network Failure in Early American Broadcasting by Michael J. Socolow
Volume 33, Number 1, 2016

“In the Spirit of ’76 Venceremos!”:
Nationalizing and Transnationalizing Self-Defense on Radio Free Dixie
by Cristina Mislan
Volume 32, Number 4, 2015

Edward Bernays’s 1929 “Torches of Freedom” March: Myths and Historical Significance by Vanessa Murphree
Volume 32, Issue 3, 2015

Trouble with the Statistical Curve:  Walter Lippmann’s Blending of History and Social Science during Franklin Roosevelt’s First Term by Ronald Seyb 
Volume 32, Issue 2, 2015

“We Needed a Booker T. Washington…and Certainly a Jack Johnson”: The Black Press, Johnson, and Issues of Representation, 1909-1915 by Carrie Teresa
Volume 32, Issue 1, 2015

“New Views of Investigative Reporting in the Twentieth Century” by Gerry Lanosga
Volume 31, Issue 4, 2014

“Everything Old Is New Again: How the ‘New’ User-Generated Women’s Magazine Takes Us Back to the Future” by Amy Aronson
Volume 31, Issue 3, 2014

“Partisanship in the Antislavery Press during the 1844 Run of an Abolition Candidate for President” by Erika Pribanic-Smith
Volume 31, Issue 2, 2014

The Princess and the Squaw: The Construction of Native American Women in the Pictorial Press by John M. Coward
Volume 31, Issue 1, 2014

Explaining the Origins of the Advertising Agency by Tim P. Vos
Volume 30, Issue 4, 2013

Breaking Bread, Not Bones: Printers’ Festivals and Professionalism in Antebellum America by Frank Fee
Volume 30, Issue 3, 2013

A Path Made of Words: The Journalistic Construction of the Appalachian Trail by James Kates
Volume 30, Issue 1, 2013