Janice Hume

“Portraits of Grief,” Reflectors of Values: The New York Times Remembers Victims of September 11

The systematic examination of obituaries can provide a useful tool to explore the values of Americans of any era. Such an examination can help in understanding an important aspect of American culture, the public memory of its citizens. In the aftermath of 11 September 2001, the New York Times began publishing “Portraits of Grief,” small sketches recalling the lives of individuals lost in the terrorist attacks. This study examines the portraits as commemorations more than chronicles, as reflectors of values and memory at what may prove to be a significant turning point in American history.

Journalists' Attitudes toward Civic Journalism Media Roles

This Q study of journalists at two newspapers finds four different perspectives on civic journalism, but some aspects of civic journalism are widely spread.

Libbie Custer's "Last Stand": Image Restoration, the Press, and Public Memory

A review of 265 newspaper and magazine articles indicates that for decades Elizabeth Custer worked to restore the image of her husband, George Custer, following his controversial demise in 1876. These same activities simultaneously functioned as what scholars have identified as important ingredients for situating a person or event in public memory, particularly by connecting Custer to the “taming” of the West and the Civil War, preserving artifacts, and reminiscing about her husbands heroic qualities.

The Continuous Past: Historical Referents in Nineteenth-Century American Journalism

This study examines how nineteenth-century American journalism used history. Based primarily on almost 2,000 magazine article titles, the authors found a marked increase in historical referents by 1900. Primarily used for context and placement, historical references often noted the countrys origins, leaders and wars, particularly the Civil War. By connecting the present to the past, journalists highlighted an American story worth remembering during a time of nation-building, increased magazine circulation, and rise of feature stories. References to past people, events and institutions reiterated a particular national history, not only to those long settled, but also to new immigrants. Journalistic textual silences were the histories of most women, African Americans, Native Americans and immigrants. This study found historical continuity in contrast to Lipsitz and a repeated national institutional core as opposed to Wiebe. It reinforced other memory studies about contemporary usefulness of the past, and agrees with Highams contention that the centurys journalistic reports created the initial awareness of the nations history.

The Buccaneer as Cultural Metaphor: Pirate Coverage in Nineteenth-Century American Periodicals

Abstract Daring pirates-of-old hold a place of honor in collective public imagination, and the American press has passed along their romantic tales, amplifying and legitimizing them for a mass audience. This study traces the progression of buccaneer legendry in nineteenth-century American magazine articles, examining: (1) uses of history and memory, (2) pirate actions, (3) pirate attributes, and (4) deaths of the pirates. Each offers clues into a changing American press and culture.

The Woman War Correspondent, the US Military, and the Press, 1846–1947

The questions Dobler poses go to the heart of the challenges in sustaining oppositional media and cultural institutions, and the tensions between pursuing mass audiences and sustaining the movement’s ideals. As such, the book is highly relevant to those studying ethnic and movement media more generally—not just for its thoughtful overview of Jewish labor media, but also for its exploration of differing conceptions of the role of media and other cultural activities within the labor movement.

Glittering Dust, Dormant Treasure: Press, Public Memory and Georgia's “Forgotten” Gold Rush

Abstract This article examines nineteenth-century local, regional and national newspaper coverage of the first major American gold rush, which began in 1828 when as many as 20,000 people headed to the hills of northern Georgia to seek their fortunes. So much gold was discovered that a United States Mint was established in Dahlonega, Georgia, a town named for the Cherokee word for gold. The mint produced more than

Journalism in a culture of grief

100,000 during its first year, and more than one-and-a-half million coins by the time it closed in 1861. Accounts of this gold rush are “as fascinating as any fiction,” yet unlike the storied gold stampedes in California, Colorado, Alaska and the Black Hills, the Georgia rush has been lost to American collective memory. The purpose of this article is to seek to understand why. Despite boosterism and increasing nostalgia in coverage, the story was overshadowed by the Civil War, the exploitation of the Cherokee, the hardships of Reconstruction and the sensationalized gold rushes in the American West.