Seeking Panelists on Connections of Media to Labor, and/or Labor and Contemporary (post-WWII) Political Culture

[chris....@cfu.net]

I would like to assemble a panel that covers the intersections of the mass media and labor culture/politics.

My research describes how a purposeful shift toward upscale audiences in the late 1960s/early 1970s led to a change in narratives about labor unions and workers in newspapers. Instead of being “with” the workers, the newspaper narratives began to go “against” the workers because they inflicted inflationary damage and inconveniences on the newspapers’ new upscale consumers. Moreover, mainstream media newspapers shifted their focus to reporting on upscale strivers with the new office “workplace” lifestyles column, and with a new emphasis on personal finance reporting, for America’s budding individualist entrepreneurs. With the working class bereft of (mainstream) journalism that spoke to their lives, the emerging conservative media filled a gap, but only for the white working class whose grievances they stoked. 

If you have something that might fit this, or imagine this more broadly than I have, I welcome your suggestions and participation.

Christopher Martin, Ph.D.
Professor of Digital Journalism

Department of Communication Studies
University of Northern Iowa
mar...@uni.edu

[christoph...@uni.edu]

Thanks -- we have 4 papers presently and are looking for a 5th, plus a chairperson/commenter. Our now-broader panel theme is Culture and Working-Class Narratives.

[jzr...@columbia.edu]

Hi Chris,

   I am a doctoral candidate in the History Department at Columbia University and I write about automation in the post-war US. My work focuses on the ideological underpinnings of the idea of automation--the notion that work should be abolished--and if you are still looking for another presented I would love to come on board. My dissertation essentially argues that "automation" was essentially a contested narrative about the meaning of work, rather than a specific technological process. I would be very happy to put together a paper showing how "automation" became a contested discourse in the postwar period, and show how workers interpreted its meaning. 

   Thank you so much for considering! Please feel free to contact me either on the thread or outside it: jzr...@columbia.edu

 My Best,

   Jason

[bjbu...@gmail.com]

Hello Christopher and others,

I study strikebreakers in the printing trades in the late 1950s and 1960s. There are dozens of strikes against major newspapers during the time you describe, which likely impacted the way in which these papers covered labor. I'm looking right now at cultures of mobility, and tracking migrating strikebreakers who traveled alone or together, sometimes in kinship groups and sometimes via "rat herders" employed by newspaper employer associations. I'm using text editing and mapping tools to visualize the paths of these migratory workers from strike to strike -- Toronto, San Francisco, Oklahoma City. I've presented a different angle of this story (the role of female TTS operators) at the Southern Labor History Association a few years back. Part of my argument is that there is an "other labor community" with parallels to the labor (union) community that is embodied by strikebreakers.

Doe this fit with your emerging panel?

Bridget Burke

Associate Dean of Libraries

University of Oklahoma

[chris....@cfu.net]

Bridget,

Your research sounds really fascinating! The idea of mapping the migrations of strikebreakers is wonderful.  Unfortunately, we just filled out our panel yesterday, so we don’t have any additional spaces (except for locating a moderator/commenter).

Best wishes in placing your paper.

Chris Martin

[chris....@cfu.net]

We have a full panel now.  Just need a commenter.