Journalism History

Historian Mike Conway describes the controversial production of a 1962 NBC documentary that captured the digging of a tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall to sneak East Germans to the West. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.

Scholar Vanessa Murphree reviews the rocky and trailblazing history of one of the first community radio stations to offer online streaming, WWOZ 90.7 FM in New Orleans. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.

Professor Beth Garfrerick discusses the partnership between community weekly newspapers and national newspaper syndication services in the first half of the 20th century and the resulting influence on thousands of rural newspaper readers. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.

Author Vince DiGirolamo uncovers the successes and struggles of the children who have hawked and delivered newspapers since the founding of America. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.

Historian Bill Huntzicker, author of the book The Popular Press, 1833–1865, describes the forces that radically altered the journalism industry in New York and across the United States in the mid-1800s. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.

Author Michael Fuhlhage explores the undercover tactics of Northern reporters working in the South and the role of newspapers as open source intelligence in the lead-up to the Civil War. Show transcripts are available at https://journalism-history.org/podcast/.

Author Amber Roessner discusses her book, "Jimmy Carter and the Birth of the Marathon Media Campaign." She argues his underdog presidential victory signaled a transition from party politics focused on issues and platforms to a newer brand of personality politics.

Former reporter and editor Mark J. Prendergast remembers reporting on upheavals across Central America in the 1980s, the landfall of Hurricane Hugo in Puerto Rico in 1989, the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and the 1993 and 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, as well as his role in the declassification of the Pentagon Papers.

Professor Julie Lane discusses the passionate following that Joe McCarthy had during his lifetime and the political and journalistic implications at the time as well as those that continue into today.

Author W. Joseph Campbell describes the major media events that made 1995 a watershed year, from the Oklahoma City bombing to the trial of O.J. Simpson to the Bosnia peace accords to the President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair.