People take the stage in histories of journalism: A report on a symposium in Copenhagen – and a Call for Papers for a special issue of Journalistica

On 5 April 2024 researchers from the fields of history, journalism studies and media studies convened at the University of Copenhagen for a symposium on “Actor-driven approaches to the history of journalism”. The impetus for the event came from me, a postdoctoral researcher specializing in the history of post WWII-journalism in Scandinavia, and Dr. Emil Stjernholm, Associate Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Lund University. This was an enjoyable and eye-opening event on the value, and methodological utility, of studying the people behind the news media in historical research. Building on insights and inspiration from the symposium Dr. Heidi Kurvinen and myself, are now calling for abstracts for a special issue of the journal Journalistica, which we will be guest-editing, to focus topically, methodologically and theoretically on people and networks in history of journalism-research.

The idea of the need to focus on individual actors and networks derives from an insight that came separately to Stjernhom and I: recent history of journalism in the Nordic region has not focused much on agency, even though individuals and networks undoubtedly shape media history – perhaps particularly during time of crisis. Media history, we figured, has been influenced by trends in media studies toward structural explanations according to which media ‘systems’ or institutions take center stage to such a degree that the historical contingencies made visible in individual careers have been downplayed. Although there are significant examples of histories of the profession of journalism in Europe and North America that take seriously the, work, influence and trajectories of individuals, there is not much broader history of journalism (as an idea, a project and an ideology) and its products and purpose in democratic society, which does so.

Journalists working in a newsroom in the 1940s. Picture source: Wikimedia Commons.

To launch the idea we organised a one-day seminar, which consisted of a keynote and four sessions. The seminar was set in motion by professor Henrik Örnebring, Karlstad University, a distinguished expert on the professional ideals that underpin the history of journalism. In his keynote talk, professor Örnebring gave a thought-provoking exposé featuring three cases of newsworkers, editors and those in-between whose agency could not be understood without a biographically informed attention to their personal and professional networks. Through the networks, projects and movements of Swedish eighteenth-century philosopher-journalist Peter Forsskål, nineteenth-century publisher Lars Johan Hierta and twentieth century American community-organizer Thelma Berlack Boozer, Örnebring brought us on a tour de force around agency in the history of journalism. He finished by reflecting on the importance of visible and invisible networks, the ever-porous boundaries between journalism and other democratic “institutions” and the contingency of journalistic practices on specific historical circumstances.

With this panorama as a backdrop the panels of the day could begin. Elisabeth Fondren, Assistant Professor at St. John’s University, New York, opened with an investigation into the WWI war correspondence of US journalist Leonora Raines. She established the value of histories of female war correspondence and argued that the case showed the value of triangulating archival records with published material in the study of foreign correspondents. Heidi Kurvinen, historian and Collegium Researcher at University of Turku followed and gave fascinating theoretical reflections on the value of journalist trade union papers in researching the history of journalism. Discussing Swedish and Finnish journals, Kurvinen argued that this source-type constitutes a rare deposit for journalistic meta-reflections, and also gave examples of telling differences in the extent to which journalists challenge the publishing hierarchy and develop organizational consciousness within them. Andreas Matsson, Program Director at the School of Journalism at Lund University, took the symposium outside of the Western world with his examination of the involvement of Swedish journalists and editors in the government agency SIDA’s projects in Vietnam.

The next two panels brought us around Northern Europe, Britain and the post-Soviet world. Hannibal Munk, curator at Kroppedal Museum addressed the perspective of cartoonists as opinion-makers during the first half of the century while I, Emil Eiby Seidenfaden made an attempt at drawing out the distinctive themes of a “journalistic collective” of post WWII-journalists using trade union papers – a bridge to Kurvinen’s presentation. Valeriia Sementina, doctoral student at Lund University brought us almost up to the present day with some very timely preliminary insights and research questions from her project on independent Russian journalism in the post-Soviet age. In the same geographical vein, Mila Oiva, Senior research Fellow at Tallinn University, reflected on the use of digital methods to map the agency of women in Soviet newsreel-production. She commented on the resulting visualized data material, that although to some of her colleagues such data were findings to themselves, to her as a historian they were a starting point. This assertion on the role of quantitative findings in qualitative research met general approval. Other historical starting points came to the fore with Aaron Ackerley’s illuminating presentation on British interwar “Press Barons”. Ackerley, who is Senior Lecturer at the University of Oslo, reminded us that a proper understanding of the news cannot limit itself to “history from below” but must also look at power and privilege and the extent to which publishers and news magnates have historically interfered with journalistic independence.

Taken together, the symposium forged the outlines of a new network with threads into other emerging platforms within media history such as NordMedia, Nordic Media History Network (NOMEH) and the Entangled Media History Network. Professor Marie Cronqvist, Linköping University, together with Örnebring, gave excellent feedback to all presenters on the day, and I think it is safe to say the participants were inspired by this emerging sub-field representing a-micro “individual agency-turn” in media history. Nurtured by our insights from the day we, Emil Eiby Seidenfaden and Heidi Kurvinen are therefore thrilled to be guest-editing a special issue of Journalistica, which approaches the topic in the broadest possible sense, but particularly welcomes submissions that address research questions pertaining to the role of people and networks in journalism history. Check out the call, read more about the timeline for contributions and submit your abstract before the deadline on 30th October 2024!

Emil Eiby Seidenfaden

Dr. Emil Eiby Seidenfaden has specialised in the history of the news media in Scandinavia, history of international organisations and intellectual history. He works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Modern European Studies in University of Copenhagen. Email: ees@hum.ku.dk