Press Criticism

Academic Appointments

Assistant Professor of Journalism, Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY; 2014–present

Affiliate Assistant Professor of Journalism; 2011–2014

Visiting Assistant Professor of Journalism; 2009–2011

Adjunct Lecturer, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ; Summer, 2009

Visiting Instructor of Journalism, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ; 2008–2009

Lecturer in Journalism, LaGuardia Community /CUNY, Long Island City, NY; 2003–2008; Adjunct Lecturer; 2002–2003

Education

Ph.D., Journalism and Media Studies, 2014

Rutgers University School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, New Brunswick, NJ

Dissertation: Gadfly to the Watchdogs: How the Journalism Review (MORE)

Goaded the Mainstream Press Toward Self-Criticism in the 1970s.

Committee: David Greenberg, Chair; Susan Keith; Linda Steiner; Jackson Lears.

Named Outstanding Graduating Student for the doctoral program.

Inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha national journalism honor society.

Master of Science in Journalism, Columbia University, 2000

Bachelor of Arts in English, Magna Cum Laude, University of Pennsylvania, 1999

Prizes, Grants, and Fellowships

Susan L. Greenberg Prize for Best Research Paper, for the paper “Assessing James W. Carey’s Culture of Journalism Criticism Four Decades Later: A Case Study of the New York Times Profile of a White Nationalist.” International Association for Literary Journalism Studies, Vienna, Austria, May, 2018.

Top Poster Presentation, Communication History Division, for the paper “Impudent Snobs: The Coalescence of the Liberal Elite Media.” International Communication Association Conference, Prague, Czechia, May, 2018.

Honorable Mention, 2015 Margaret A. Blanchard Doctoral Dissertation Prize, American Journalism Historians Association.

Outstanding Graduating Doctoral Student, Rutgers University Doctoral Program in Communication, Information and Library Studies, May 2014.

Kappa Tau Alpha national journalism honor society, inducted 2014.

Rutgers University School of Communication and Information 2012 Summer Fellowship. Co-written with fellow doctoral student Andrew Salvati.

LaGuardia Community College Senate Professional Development Subcommittee, Educational Development Initiative Team (EDIT) Grant, awarded Fall 2006.

National Magazine Award for General Excellence, Architectural Recordeditorial staff, 2003.

Publications

Book

Provoking the Press: (MORE) Magazine and the Crisis of Confidence in American Journalism. (Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2019).

Refereed journal publications

“The Accidental Press Critic: Newsroom Ethnography and Resistance to Self-Criticism and Management Change at The New York Times in 1974.” American Journalism, 35(3), 276–297, DOI: 10.1080/08821127.2018.1491203.

McDevitt, M., Parks, P., Stalker, J., Lerner, K., Benn, J., & Hwang, T. (First published online May 25, 2017). Anti-intellectualism among US students in journalism and mass communication: A cultural perspective. Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism.

“A System of Self-Correction: A.M. Rosenthal, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Press Criticism, and the Birth of the Contemporary Newspaper Correction in The New YorkTimes.”Journalism History, January 2017.

Peer-reviewed book chapters

“Abe Rosenthal’s Project X: The Editorial Process Leading to the Publication of the Pentagon Papers.” In Media Nation, ed.

Julian Zelizer and Bruce Schulman (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania), 2017.

“How Spy, The Iconic Satirical Magazine of the 1980s Invented Contemporary Snark, and How Internet Journalism Misappropriated It,” in The Funniest Pages: International Perspectives on Journalism and Humored. David Swick and Richard Lance Keeble (New York: Peter Lang, 2016).

Book reviews

 “An Idiosyncratic Hero’s Journey to Writing like Yourself” (Review of Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process, by John McPhee). The Journal of Magazine and New Media Research18(2), Spring 2018.

“Magazines’ Clout—and the Data to Prove It” (Review of Magazines and the Making of America: Modernization, Community, and Print Culture, 1741–1860, by H. Haveman.). Journal of Magazine and New Media Research, 17(2), Spring 2017.

“A Life in the Hazy Borderlands Between Journalism and Literature” (Review of Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell ofThe New Yorker, by Thomas Kunkel.) Journal of Magazine and New Media Research. Vol. 16, No. 1: Fall 2015.

Review of Gonzo Text: Disentangling Meaning in Hunter S. Thompson’s Journalismby Matthew Winston. American Journalism, 32:2, 2015, pp. 241–243.

“The Structure and Style of Narrative Journalism” (Review of StoryCraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction, by Jack Hart). Journal of Magazine and New Media Research.Vol. 12, No. 2: Summer 2011.

Work in progress

“How Independent Journalists, Satirists, and Critics Defined the Edges of Cold War Ideology and Fractured the Consensus Press.” Submitted to the Organization of American Historians Conference, 2019, Philadelphia.

“A Horizontally Disintegrating Digital Media Company: Mass Resignation at The New Republicand the Role of Contributing Editors in Shaping a Magazine’s Self-Conception.” Co-authored with Joy Jenkins, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Oxford University.

“Magazines as Sites of Satire, Parody, and Political Resistance,” The Handbook of Magazine Studies, Miglena Sternadori and Tim Holmes, eds. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, in contract).

Selected Journalism

Research Presentations

Refereed research presentations

“How a Magazine Defines a Community of Journalists and How Those Writers Can Change Journalism: The case of Lingua Franca.” Accepted for presentation at Mapping the Magazine V, Chicago, Illinois, July 2018.

“Impudent Snobs: The Coalescence of the Liberal Elite Media.” Accepted for presentation in the Media History division of the International Communication Association for the 2018 conference in Prague, May 2018. Awarded Top Poster Presentation.

“Assessing James W. Carey’s Culture of Journalism Criticism Four Decades Later: A Case Study of the New York Times Profile of a White Nationalist.” Accepted for presentation at the International Association of Literary Journalism Studies Conference in Vienna, May 2018. Awarded Susan L. Greenberg Prize for Best Research Paper.

“Reported Satire as a Form of Literary Journalism.” International Association of Literary Journalism Studies Conference, Vienna, May 2018.

“Priming the Public for the “Fake News” Epithet: Destabilizing the Cosmopolitan Elite Press,” Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference,” March 10, 2018.

“The Effete Corps of Impudent Snobs, From Agnew to Trump: Toward a History of the Liberal Elite Media,” Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference,” March 10, 2018.

“The Other New Journalism: David Halberstam, J. Anthony Lukas, and Reported Narrative in the Dawn of the Big Important Book,” The International Association of Literary Journalism Studies annual convention, Halifax, Canada, May 12, 2017.

“Hoax, Satire and Conspiracy: The Report from Iron Mountain and Fake News in the Anti-Establishment 1960s,” Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference,” March 12, 2017.

“A Genuine Sense of Helplessness: Newsroom Ethnography and Resistance to Management Change at The New York Times in 1974.” Kevin Lerner. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference, Minneapolis, August 2016.

“Closing of the Journalism Mind: Anti-Intellectualism in the Professional Development of College Students.” Michael McDevitt, Jesse Benn, Kevin Lerner, et al, accepted for presentation by the Mass Communication and Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference, Minneapolis, August 2016.

“Journalism and Criticism: The Case for a Developing Profession. Revisiting James Carey’s Call for a Tradition of Press Criticism 40 Years Later.” Presented at the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, New York, March 12, 2016.

“Abe Rosenthal Edits The Daily Planet: Press Criticism and Self-Scrutiny; Management Dysfunction; and Academic Confidentiality at The New York Times.” Presented at the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, New York, March 8, 2014.

“Racism, Sexism, Elitism and Journalism: The First A.J. Liebling Counter-Convention and the Explosion of Newsroom Ferment in 1972.” Presented at the Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, New York, March 9, 2013.

“A Culture of Self-Correction: A.M. Rosenthal, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Press Criticism and the Birth of the Contemporary Newspaper Correction in The New York Times.” Presented at the 2012 conference of the American Journalism Historians Association, Raleigh, October 11–13, 2012.

“The Journalism Review (MORE) and the Fight Against the Mainstreaming of the Press, 1971–1978.” Presented at Protest on the Page: Print Culture in Opposition to Almost Anything* (*you can think of); the 2012 conference of the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, University of Wisconsin, Madison, September 28–29, 2012.

“A Ringing Declaration of Purpose: (MORE): a Journalism Review, and the A.J. Liebling Counter-Conventions, 1971-1978.” Presented in the Research in Progress session at the American Journalism Historians Association Annual Convention, October 6–8, 2011, Kansas City, Missouri.

“Intellectual Heft: A.J. Liebling as an Opponent of Anti-Intellectualism in American Journalism.” Presented at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, August 10-13, 2011, St. Louis, Missouri. *Awarded top poster prize for the History Division.

“J-School Ate Their Brains: Anti-Intellectualism in the American Press in Essays Denouncing Journalism Schools, 1869–2008.” A revised version of the previously presented paper below. Presented at the Conference of The American Journalism Historians Association, October 7–9, 2010, Tucson, Arizona.

“The Opponents of Anti-Intellectualism in the American Press: Lincoln Steffens to Jon Stewart.” Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 13, 2010, New York City.

“J-School Ate Their Brains: Essays In the Popular Press Denouncing Journalism Schools, 1869–2008.” Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 14, 2009, New York City.

“The Origins of Journalism Education and its Failure to Emerge as a Professional School, 1869–1912.” Presented at the convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, August 6, 2008, Chicago. N.B.: This paper is a revised version of the following paper, presented previously.

“Chalk-stained Wretches: Journalism as a Failed Professional School in the era of University Reform, Professionalization, and the Progressive Movement.” Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 15, 2008, New York City.

“A Conversation Model of First Amendment Theory and Its Applicability to College and University Free Speech Rights in Hosty v. Carter.” Presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Southeast Colloquium, March 14, 2008, Auburn, Alabama.

“‘Magazining’ and muckraking: The special place of magazines in American media and culture.” Presented at the Joint Spring Meeting of the American Journalism Historians Association and the History Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, March 24, 2007, New York City.

“Masters and voice: The struggle for personal writing style in American newsrooms, 1890–1940.” Presented on the panel “Journalism in the History and Theory of Writing,” at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Meeting, November 10–12, 2006, Charlotte, NC.

Invited research presentations

“Recusing Themselves to Death: How the Era of Mass Media Objectivity Brought on the ‘Fake News’ Crisis,” Susquehanna University, November 9–10, 2017.

“Conspiracies, Hoaxes and Fake News: Rebuilding Trust in American Journalism,” Marist College Honors Program guest lecture in the “Food with Faculty” program, February 21, 2017.

“Abe Rosenthal’s Project X: The Editorial Process Leading to the Publication of the Pentagon Papers,” presented at Media and Politics in Modern U.S. History: The 10th Annual International Conference in American Political History, Co-Sponsored by Boston University, Cambridge University and Princeton University, Boston, March 19–20, 2015.

Panel Presentations

Panels Moderated/Discussant/Respondent

“What is Magazine Media? Expanding the Scope of Magazine Research,” panel convener and moderator, AEJMC annual convention, Chicago, August 12, 2017.

Discussant, Magazine Media Division research panel session: “Magazines and Consumerism: From Sustainability to Consumption,” AEJMC annual convention, Chicago, August 11, 2017.

Panel moderator, “Reconsidering Literary Journalism’s Past,”The International Association of Literary Journalism Studies annual convention, Halifax, Canada, May 12, 2017.

Victor Navasky: Magazine Media Division Professional of the Year award presentation, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, August 6, 2016.

Respondent, Top Papers Session, AEJMC Magazine Division. AEJMC annual convention, August 8, 2015, San Francisco.

“Fact Checking, Verification and Corrections in the Age of Instant Media: A Luncheon with Craig Silverman.” AEJMC annual conference, August 7, 2014, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Organized and moderated a talk by the Poynter Institute faculty member and author of Regret the Errorand The Verification Handbook.

“Changing News Systems.” The Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference. New York, March 8, 2014.

“FREE-lancing: The Ethics and Economics of Paying Writers with Exposure and a Byline.” AEJMC annual convention, August 9, 2013, Washington, D.C. Organized and moderated a panel including freelance journalist Nate Thayer, Slateeconomics reporter Matt Yglesias, Washington City Paper editor Mike Madden and media ethics expert Kevin Stoker.

Magazine and Visual Communication Divisions Teaching Marathon, AEJMC annual convention, August 9, 2012. Organized and moderated panel of 15 faculty sharing teaching tips.

“The Century Club: Magazine History Connections for the Millennial Generation,” AEJMC annual convention, August 9, 2012.

Panel Participant

“The Challenges of Writing 101,” AEJMC annual convention, Chicago, August 10, 2017.

“Teaching with Archives of the Alternative Press of the 1960s–1980s.” AEJMC annual convention, Chicago, August 9, 2017.

“The Challenges of Writing 101, The International Association of Literary Journalism Studies annual convention, Halifax, Canada,  May 13, 2017.

“Promise and Pitfalls in Magazine Research”. Conference panel at Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Minneapolis.

“Anti-Intellectualism in American Journalism.” AEJMC annual conference, August 7, 2014, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. An invited discussion panel organized by Mike McDevitt and also including Todd Gitlin and Stephen Bates.

Professional Conference Workshops

Digging Deep: Training for Reporters and Editors, the New York State Associated Press Association Workshop. March 26, 2011. Invited presentation on the use of social media in reporting. Presented to an audience of editors and reporters for New York State member publications of the Associated Press. Co-presented with Dr. Lyn Lepre of Marist College.

Many Cultures, Many Stories. College Media Advisers Spring National Media Convention, New York City, March 17–19, 2005, seminar leader.  Workshop on how to coach student journalists to include multicultural coverage in campus publications.

Curriculum development

Co-author, Marist College journalism concentration in the major in communication. Unanimously passed votes in the Department of Communication and the School of Communication and the Arts. Worked with a colleague to remove medium-specific “silos” from curriculum and ensure that all students take a selection of writing, visual and critical courses in journalism. Fall 2014.

Ad Hoc Committee on The Writing and Literature Major, LaGuardia Community College. Contributed to the writing of a letter of intent for a new English major, to be presented to all CUNY colleges in Spring, 2007.  Researched journalism programs across CUNY colleges. Developed and administered a survey of students to determine interest in an English major. Worked to secure articulation with Queens College English Department. Presented the Major to the college-wide curriculum committee.

LaGuardia Community College English Department Curriculum Committee, 2004–2008. Reviewed and edited course proposals for all new and revised courses during this period.

Course development

Designed and taught a special topics course in journalistic criticism, for Marist College, fall 2015.

Developed an online version of COM 300: Mass Communication Law for Marist College.

Wrote syllabus and course description for Journalism Workshop and rewrote syllabus and course description for COM 342:

Readings in Journalism as part of journalism curriculum revision at Marist College, 2014–2015.

Created and led the freshman Liberal Arts course cluster Journalism and Ethics at LaGuardia Community College.

Developed a section of ENG101 Composition I in conjunction with the English Archives Research Project (EARP) at

LaGuardia Community College. Researched primary documents held in the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.

Designed the Nonfiction Writing Workshop for LaGuardia Community College, wrote the course proposal, and presented the course to the departmental and college-wide curriculum committees. Approved by the college Senate, Spring 2006.

Selected Courses Taught

Marist College

COM 461: News Workshop. Senior-level journalism course integrating the skills and knowledge of their journalism education. Students work on collaborative projects, either developing Medium or WordPress-based news publications or in other semesters, producing an original multimedia tablet magazine.

COM 401: Communication Capping. The liberal arts capstone course for communication majors. Students complete faculty-supervised independent original research projects.

COM 342: Readings in Journalism. Online course in which students read and discuss original works of journalism; primary source materials in the history of journalism; mass communication law; and academic theories of journalism.

COM 341: Press in America: The history of American journalism and contemporary issues facing the press: objectivity and biases; freedom of the press; accuracy; transparency; technology; and media industry issues.

COM 300: Mass Communication Law. Overview of the law of mass communication in the United States, including the First Amendment, libel, privacy, intellectual property, issues of the law and reporting, and telecommunication and advertising regulation.

Rutgers University

COMM 480: Media Ethics and Law. An upper-level course for journalism and public relations majors covering various approaches to media ethics with a brief primer on libel and privacy law.

Seton Hall University

COJR 2431: American Journalism. History of journalism in the United States. Junior-level course, providing an overview of major themes in journalism, communication and public relations history, with a focus on the role of journalism in a democratic society, journalism and communication as industries and as professions.

COMM 2135: Communication Research. Introduction to various research methods in communication, covering quantitative, qualitative, and critical research methods and introductory descriptive statistics. Prepares students for original research in senior seminar.

Professional Service

National service

Editor, The Journal of Magazine Media, a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, 2016–present. Successfully negotiated and signed a contract to migrate the journal from being self-published by the AEJMC Magazine Media Division to being published by The University of Nebraska Press.

Editor, Literary Journalism, the newsletter of the International Association of Literary Journalism Studies, 2018–present.

Member, Program Committee of the International Association of Literary Journalism Studies, 2017–present.

Executive committee member, Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, 2010–present.

Division Head, Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2014–2015. Developed a mentorship program for research and practitioner faculty to collaborate on academic research projects. Conducted a survey of magazine courses taught across the United States for internal use.

Vice Head and Programming Chair, Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2013–2014. In charge of supervising all programming for the 2014 conference in Montreal, Canada.

Judge, National Magazine Awards, 2015, 2017, 2019.

Judge, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, 2016, 2017.

Judge, ASME Next Awards, 2018.

Pre-publication reviewer, The Journalist’s Companion, by Chris Daly for Routledge Press.

Blind peer reviewer, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 2016–present.

Blind peer reviewer, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 2016–present.

Research paper competition reviewer, Magazine and History Divisions of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2011–present.

Research assistant, Matthew Dallek, Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).

Judge, Great Plains Journalism Competition, 2016.

AEJMC Newspaper and Online News Division Teaching Grant judge, 2016.

Judge, Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century (TNT21) competition, sponsored by the News Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2013–present.

Assistant Editor, Journal for Magazine and New Media Research, summer 2012–fall, 2013. Collaborate with the editorial staff and advisory board of the journal in soliciting manuscripts, distributing them for peer review, working with authors, and editing manuscripts for publication.

Professional Freedom and Responsibility Chair, Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2012–2013. Arranging PF&R panels for the 2013 AEJMC Conference in Washington, DC.

Teaching Chair, Magazine Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2011–2012. Arranged teaching panels for the 2012 AEJMC Conference in Chicago.

Co-coordinator, Joint Journalism and Communication History Conference, representing the American Journalism Historians Association, 2010-2013. 2011-2012 duties included coordinating the research paper competition, including the call for entries and the review process, and developing the conference program. 2013 duties will include mentoring a successor as well as site coordination. 2010-2011 duties included site coordination, interacting with professional and technical staff at New York University’s Carter Institute for Journalism, the conference site. Also developed the web site for the conference using WordPress content management system.

Advisory Board member, Media History Exchange, 2010-present. Served with the group of faculty and engineers developing the MHX, an interdisciplinary social network for media historians, as well as a conference and meeting scheduling tool. Attended the advisory board meeting at St. Peter’s College, Jersey City, NJ, March 11, 2011.

Pre-publication reviewer, The Routledge Handbook of Literary Journalism, 2016.

Pre-publication reviewer, Principles of American Journalism, second edition, by Stephanie Craft and Charles N. Davis. Routledge, 2015.

Pre-publication reviewer, Media and Communication Research Methods, second edition, by Arthur Asa Berger, Sage. January 2010.

Pre-publication reviewer, Telling the Story, news reporting and writing textbook, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press. May, 2008.

Editorial Assistant, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Spring and Summer, 2006. Assisted editor Linda Steiner of Rutgers University in editing and entering changes to manuscripts.

Institutional service

Founding adviser, Marist College Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. September 2012–present. Won Region 1 Chapter of the Year honors for 2014–2015.

Honorary degree citation reader for honoree Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post, Marist College Commencement, May 20, 2017.

Member, Marist College Honors Council, Fall 2016–present.

Chair, Assistant Dean Search Committee, Marist College School of Communication and the Arts, 2016–2017.

“Out in the Marist World” panelist, April 5, 2017.

Discussion facilitator, Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nationat Marist College, March 29, 2017.

Marist College Honors Council Ethical Leadership Case Study Competition judge, February 11, 2017.

Marist Communication Research Council presentation on archival research methods, February 8, 2017.

Editor, Foxtalk Magazine, Spring 2016.

Member, search committee for Professional Lecturer in Journalism, Spring 2016.

Adviser, Generator magazine, Spring 2015–present.

Member, Communication Capping Revision Committee, 2014–2015.

Copy Editor, Foxtalk Magazine, Spring 2011; Fall 2012. Copy edited the in-house magazine of the Marist College School of Communication and the Arts, written by Marist students, edited by Dr. Lyn Lepre.

Chair, Journalism Program Committee, English Department, LaGuardia Community College. 2007–2008.

Editor, Faculty and Staff Notes, LaGuardia Community College, 2006. Solicited submissions for and edited a yearly compendium of faculty accomplishments.

Alumni critic for 34th StreetMagazine, the weekly arts and entertainment magazine of The Daily Pennsylvanian. Critiqued an issue of the undergraduate magazine to offer professional advice.  January 25, 2007 issue.

Journalist mentor to editors of The Bridge student newspaper; aided editors with ethics and journalism issues.

LaGuardia Community College English Department Curriculum Committee, 2004–2007.

Grant reviewer, PSC-CUNY Grants. Communication Arts & Sciences Panel. 2006-2007 Cycle.

Writing in the Disciplines faculty development seminar, LaGuardia Community College Center for Teaching and Learning, 2005–2006.

New York Stories, Contributing Editor, evaluated manuscripts for publication, 2003–2005.

Professional Associations

• Organization of American Historians, member; 2018–present
• Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, member; 2004–present.
• American Journalism Historians Association, member; 2010–present.
• Society of Professional Journalists, member; 1999–2000; 2004–present.
• International Communication Association, member; 2016–present.
• International Association for Literary Journalism Studies, member; 2016–present.
• Daily PennsylvanianAlumni Association, member; 1999–present.