History of Media Studies Newsletter April 2026

Welcome to the 57th edition of the History of Media Studies Newsletter. The monthly email, assembled by Dave Park, Jeff Pooley, and Pete Simonson, maintains a loose affiliation with the History of Media Studies journal and the Working Group on the History of Media Studies. Please contact us with any questions, suggestions, or items.

1. Working Group on the History of Media Studies

Join us for the next remote session devoted to discussing working papers with authors. Hosted by the Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM). Open to anyone interested in the history of the media studies fields. Instructions to join are here.

Wednesday, May 20

Wednesday, May 20, 14:00 to 15:00 UTC (10am-11am EDT)

Elena Hristova (Bangor University) will join us to discuss a draft chapter of a book project on the mid-century anti-discrimination campaigns of Columbia University’s Bureau of Applied Social Research (BASR), which will be distributed to Working Group members

For the Zoom link and the reading download, visit the Working Group page. Instructions for joining the group are here. Questions? Contact us

2. Conferences, Calls & Announcements

If you have a call or announcement relevant to the history of media studies, please contact us.

1. CFP: Communication studies in between time and space: Disruptions, passages and transitions

• Inspired by self-reflexive debates on the status quo and transnational trajectory of communication studies, this special issue of International Communication Gazette aims to shed light on the multifaceted global history of communication studies in stages of ‘in betweenness’. Such transition periods are marked by political system changes in which rules have become unclear and fluid, old authorities lost legitimacy and new rules are not yet established. How have such times influenced ideas, academic communities and institutions of communication and media studies? How have scholarly communities navigated turbulent times such as the so-called Arab Spring, the end of the socialist Era in Eastern Europe or the long transition from colonialism to independence and republic for instance in Brazil in nineteenth century? How did agency and structures interact to push or silence certain discourses in such periods, propel certain intellectual paradigms and schools of thought or strengthen certain actors over others? Which conclusions can be drawn from these times for today, from the interconnectedness of (higher education) political structures and ideas, institutions and biographies? The guest-editors welcome abstracts of 500–800 words (not including references) describing the primary contribution or argument of the intended article, and how it fits with the overall description of the special issue.
• Deadline: 30 June 2026 (abstracts)
• More details

2. CFP: The Film-Philosophies of Stanley Cavell and Gilles Deleuze

• In the latter half of the 20th century, philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Stanley Cavell developed parallel ideas on film’s distinct capacity for producing thought. While Deleuze and Cavell’s respective influence continues to grow across the Atlantic and indeed globally, and their texts on cinema are by now considered seminal works in the field of film-philosophy, their ideas have only in exceptional cases been brought to bear on one another productively. This special issue of Philosophies, edited by Jeroen Gerrits (Binghamton University, SUNY) and Sandra Laugier (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne), seeks to explore generative conjunctions and differences between Cavell and Deleuze’s transversal thought in light of this changing media landscape, with a focus on the pertinence of their works on film and media for philosophy.
• Deadline: 1 August 2026
• More details

3. CfA: History of the Philosophy of Technology Conference

• Following the success of our first conference, the Society for the History of the Philosophy of Technology (HPT) invites abstracts for our second international conference. The theme of this year’s conference will be National and Cultural Traditions in the Philosophy of Technology. The philosophy of technology has long been shaped by distinctive national, regional, and linguistic traditions. These are not merely different translations of one correct, or rational, way to think about technology. Rather, these traditions point to the ways that technology, more broadly speaking, has been considered philosophically, emphasizing the pluralism and wide-ranging perspectives of the philosophy of technology across national and cultural traditions. We also welcome papers connecting national traditions to broader intellectual movements concerned with technology, including STS, history of technology, feminism, phenomenology, critical theory, pragmatism, environmental thought, design theory, media theory, and non-Western philosophical traditions.
• Conference dates: 26-28 October 2026
• Deadline: 26 May 2026
• More details

4. Third International History of Knowledge Conference: “Decentering the History of Knowledge”

• The third History of Knowledge Conference will take place in Utrecht on 25-27 August 2027. The conference follows the successful first international History of Knowledge Conference in Porto in 2023, and the second edition, hosted by the Lund Centre for the History of Knowledge in 2025. Utrecht University is home of the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of Sciences and the Humanities, and the field’s flagship Journal for the History of Knowledge. In recent years, history of knowledge has developed into a vibrant field of interdisciplinary research and scholarship around the globe. The History of Knowledge Conference will gather scholars with a diversity of backgrounds to further develop the field and its impact on other disciplines and society. Fostering inclusivity, we welcome all scholars working on the history of knowledge in the broadest sense. The central theme of the conference will be: “Decentering the History of Knowledge.”
• Conference dates: 25–27 August 2027
• Deadline: A call for papers will be published in the Fall of 2026.
• More details

3. The Journal

History of Media Studies encourages submissions (en español) on the history of research, education, and reflective knowledge about media and communication—as expressed through academic institutions; through commercial, governmental, and non-governmental organizations; and through “alter-traditions” of thought and practice often excluded from the academic mainstream.

• New co-editor: Esperanza Herrero (Universidad de Murcia) has joined as a full co-editor-in-chief of History of Media Studies. Herrero had been serving as the journal’s associate editor for Spanish language scholarship. She is assistant professor at the Universidad de Murcia.
• CFP: Histories of Publishing in Media Studies: The journal solicits proposals for a special section on the histories of publishing in the media, communication, and film studies fields. The focus of the special section is on the role of publishers—both commercial and nonprofit—in these fields’ development. We are keen to highlight the contributions of publishing houses and publication initiatives from around the world, including those beyond the Anglophone North Atlantic. See the call for more details.

4. New Publications

Works listed here are newly published, or new to the bibliography.

The History of Communication Research Bibliography is a project of the Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives (ASCLA) at the University of Pennsylvania.

1. Bosch, Tanja. “Epistemic asymmetries: Rethinking culture, theory, and method from the South”. Journalism & Communication Monographs 28, no. 1 (2026): 33–38. https://doi.org/10.1177/15226379251409621.

   ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] To study communication from the South is to do so in translation. Communication scholars from the Global South translate experience, method, and theory into grammars not built for us. The question is no longer whether decolonization is possible within the field, but rather, how one inhabits the field’s ongoing asymmetries while continuing to theorize from within them. That this conversation remains necessary speaks to the depth of colonial epistemic hierarchies that continue to shape communication and media scholarship. This essay therefore contributes to ongoing debates about decolonizing communication scholarship, not as a slogan or a “vibe” (Bosch, 2025) but as a situated practice of doing research. The essay reflects on what it means to pursue research on culture, identity, and politics from the South while engaging a research culture still largely oriented toward Northern epistemologies. These reflections begin from my own position as a scholar working within an African institution but engaging global scholarly networks, where the politics of citation, collaboration, and recognition remain profoundly uneven. The discussion that follows is organized around three interconnected arenas where these asymmetries are most visible: the methodological and ethical dimensions of research practice, the institutional and epistemic structures that condition scholarly work, and the publishing ecosystems that determine whose knowledge circulates most broadly. These themes signal the uneven conditions under which Southern scholars pursue, articulate, and publish their work in a field still structured around Northern norms. These reflections also gesture toward the broader argument of this commentary: the need for a more plural and interconnected scholarly commons.

2. Cimaglio, Christopher. “False news claims as media criticism: Situating 1930s-1940s U.S. progressive critiques of “falsehood in the daily press.” Journalism 27, no. 3 (2026): 624–640. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849241309877.

   ABSTRACT: Widespread claims charging news media with intentionally presenting false information to advance a political agenda are commonly understood as a recent phenomenon driven by the rise of right-wing populism. This article unpacks the prominence of charges of false news in the 1930s and 1940s United States among progressives who identified the commercial press as a powerful conservative force working on behalf of economic elites and against progressive movements. It argues that liberal and left critics deployed claims of falsehood in news as they sought to convince audiences that dominant news institutions were unworthy of their trust, underscore the importance of alternative media, and promote reform of newspaper industry labor practices. Bringing a case study from an illustrative past moment into conversation with recent work on post-truth politics and journalistic authority, this article contributes to the literature on “fake news” as media criticism.

3. Douglas, Susan J. “Textual Analysis: The Foundational Method.” Reading Media: How to Do Textual Analysis (2026): 23–37. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479830336-002/html?lang=en.

   ABSTRACT: In this chapter, Douglas provides a history of the essential role that tex- tual analysis played in media studies’ development as a discipline from the late 1950s through the 1970s, asserting that textual analysis is indeed media studies’ “foundational method.” She documents how a new wave of scholars looked past models of communication that posited popular texts as mere inputs, instead probing them for the complexity of their messages.

4. Fahmy, Shahira S. “The orphan scholars: Communication research in the Middle East and North Africa .” Journalism & Communication Monographs 28, no. 1 (2026): 12–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/15226379251409514.

   ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] For those of us who step into the realm of communication research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), it is not merely an academic pursuit; it is a journey fraught with struggle, resilience, and often profound isolation. Within the vibrant tapestry of our region lies a wealth of knowledge. Yet, tragically, our voices often remain unheard in the echo chambers of global academia. Like orphans, we wander through the halls of Western-dominated discourse, grappling with narratives that portray our identities and perspectives as secondary, if acknowledged at all. This essay aims to illuminate the emotional landscape of being a scholar in this milieu, navigating research complexities against an ever-present backdrop of geopolitical tension and the overarching challenges imposed by ethnocentric biases in scholarship.

5. Goodstein, Elizabeth S.. “The interdisciplinary uncanny: On not recognizing Richard McKeon .” 58, no. 2 (): 127–158. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.58.2.0127.

   ABSTRACT: Revered and feared during his lifetime, Richard McKeon left a rich and ambiguous intellectual legacy. The architect and practitioner of a cosmopolitan and expansive, historically and philosophically self-reflexive interdisciplinarity who reimagined liberal arts education for an era of transformation delighted in transcending boundaries and destabilizing assumptions and in demonstrating the relativity of every foundation to a particular constellation of ideas and methods. This essay explores the uncanny legacy of McKeon’s simultaneously visionary and old-fashioned style of thought, meditating on the timeliness, at this moment of crisis in and beyond the university, of a philosophical pluralism that embraces multiplicity, ambiguity, and difference without abandoning the commitment to critique.

6. Gómez, Rodrigo. “The challenges and possibilities of studying political and cultural identity in Mexico’s media and communication field .” Journalism & Communication Monographs 28, no. 1 (2026): 18–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/15226379251409601.

   ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] Research on political and cultural identity through media and communication in Mexico offers a fertile but demanding terrain. Scholars in this field confront structural limitations in the organization of Mexican higher education and the communication research system while navigating a media environment marked by historical inequalities, rapid technological transformations, and vibrant social contestation. The core argument of this reflection is that although Mexico’s media and communication research field continues to suffer from limited funding, global peripheralization, and institutional fragility, significant progress has been driven by research networks— especially the Asociación Mexicana de Investigadores de la Comunicación (AMIC) research groups since 2009—and by the expanding visibility of Mexican scholarship in regional and global arenas. These gains demonstrate that, even under constraint, communication research can contribute theoretical and empirical insights that matter for democracy, cultural diversity, and social transformation.

7. Jost, Walter. “Richard McKeon’s rhetorical pluralism of philosophical functions .” Philosophy & Rhetoric 58, no. 2 (2025): 230–257. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.58.2.0230.

   ABSTRACT: Ever since Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was published in 1962, philosophical “pluralism,” a concept barely a hundred years old, has emerged across all the academic disciplines in many different forms as a possible response to variants of skepticism, relativism, and dogmatism. What makes Richard McKeon’s meta-philosophical pluralism distinct from all others is both his focus on philosophical first principles and his rhetorical method of coordinating their possibilities for theoretical development and practical application. Yet McKeon’s lifelong intellectual project remains largely unknown even among philosophers and rhetoricians, a situation the present essay modestly hopes to ameliorate.

8. Lotz, Amanda D.. “Patterns and Categories: Connecting Textual Features and Industrial Conditions .” Reading Media: How to Do Textual Analysis (2026): 330–341. https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479830336-027/html?lang=en.

   ABSTRACT: Lotz discusses her own attempts to use production and industry studies to ask questions about texts and vice versa, thereby delineating the stakes for how each method informs the other. She focuses on the growing scope and possibility for gendered depictions in the postnetwork, cable television era, then on how industrial practices and norms have again changed business as usual for television storytellers in the streaming era.

9. Mlynář, Jakub, Robin James Smith, Terry S.H. Au-Yeung, et al.. ““What the world is made up of”: The Chicago School’s alternates and laterals in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis .” The American Sociologist 57, no. 1 (2026): 196–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-025-09659-1.

   ABSTRACT: This article explores the intricate relationship between the development of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (EM/CA) and the ethnographic traditions of the Chicago School (CS). By examining the historical and methodological intersections, the study highlights the complex and nuanced resonances between these influential sociological approaches with a focus on the ways CS writing featured in the development of EM/CA work. Drawing on archival materials, published resources, and conversations with scholars in EM/CA, the article explores the mutual influences and divergences. It discusses the foundational ideas of Harold Garfinkel and Harvey Sacks and their involvements with the CS tradition. Special attention is given to the relevance of fieldwork and the role of detail in both approaches. Our discussion examines how EM/CA emerged as a distinct and rigorous approach to studying the social, emphasizing the organized, situated and embodied practices of everyday life, and how this development intersected with CS. The article also addresses the methodological challenges and contributions of both traditions, offering a comparative account that enriches the understanding of the enduring questions of observational studies and fieldwork in the social sciences. It ends on a central commonality, the important reminder that both approaches provide for the crucial importance of fieldwork and getting out there to see what is actually going on.

10. Nethersole, Reingard. “McKeon on rhetoric and technology: The challenge of 0 (zero) .” Philosophy & Rhetoric 58, no. 2 (2025): 173–196. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.58.2.0173.

    ABSTRACT: On closely reading the Aristotelian-Ciceronian-Kantian-inflected essay “The Uses of Rhetoric in a Technological Age: Architectonic Productive Arts,” Richard McKeon’s 1970 Wingspread Conference address presciently sketches a new rhetoric that is no longer about the approval of an already formed opinion, the steering of public beliefs, or political influence, but rather about dealing with new problems. Showing the “art of discovery, invention and creativity” in action, his inimitable combination of ethos (trust), pathos (emotion), and logos (structure) opens the way to the perception of new facts and previously unnoticed structures and processes, particularly when read in conjunction with the vicissitudes of the relation between words and numbers, the verbal and the numeral across a historically changing trajectory that culminated in the constituted and constitutive force of all pervasive AI digitality. Considering its “inhuman” expansion, the article’s focus on the logos of techne opens a path toward a historical assessment of humankind’s digitally framed existence.

11. Raeymaeckers, Karin. “Prof. Dr em. Els De Bens (1940–2025) .” European Journal of Communication 41, no. 1 (2026): 3–4. https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231251410672.

    ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] As many EJC readers will now know Prof. Els de Bens, a long-time editor of this journal, passed away in November at the age of 85. Els De Bens was full professor emeritus at Ghent University, and passed away after an academic life dedicated to communication sciences. She was a committed researcher, an excellent teacher and mentor for many students and doctoral researchers, and devoted a lot of time in academic service acting as referee and member of many doctoral committees. She was also important in the management of her university, holding a mandate as Dean (1996–2000) and membership of the University Board.

12. Rahut, Debipreeta. “Challenging academic gatekeeping: Reflexive perspectives on Global South journalism and communication scholarship .” Journalism & Communication Monographs 28, no. 1 (2026): 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/15226379251409602.

    ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] In this commentary, I offer a critical reflection on what it means to do journalism and communication scholarship from and about the Global South. This essay examines three problems: the dominance of cognitive authorities, the persistence of extractive research practices, and the prevalence of unequal publication structures. Before delving into these issues, I will first discuss my own subject position, as well as explain the theoretical frameworks that inform this challenge to academic gatekeeping.

13. Salazar, Philippe-Joseph. “Taxis over style? .” Philosophy & Rhetoric 58, no. 2 (2025): 216–229. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.58.2.0216.

    ABSTRACT: This article concerns itself with the displacement and silencing of style in McKeon’s collegiate editions of Aristotle’s Rhetoric. It is divided into two parts: The first proposes unactual elements on style; the second deals with McKeon’s promotion of taxis over style in his editions of Aristotle’s Rhetoric. The article concludes with a brief proposal on the uses and abuses of Pericles’s Funeral Oration.

14. Selinger, William. “An approach to reading McKeon: History, philosophy, law .” Philosophy & Rhetoric 58, no. 2 (2025): 197–215. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.58.2.0197.

    ABSTRACT: Richard McKeon was a unique and brilliant thinker. But he was also a difficult writer, which has made it hard for readers to acquaint themselves with his system of thought. This article details the author’s close reading of a single essay by McKeon. By reconstructing its argument, the author intends to indicate something of the nature of McKeon’s larger philosophical project. The essay, titled “The Individual in Law and in Legal Philosophy in the West,” was published in 1968. It presents a history of Western political thought from ancient Greece to the twentieth century. If it were simply a work of historical scholarship, this essay would still be an important document, ranking alongside other more famous grand narratives of Western political thought written in the twentieth century. But this essay also offers a useful window into McKeon’s larger project to reorient philosophy and reorder the human quest for knowledge.

15. Tindale, Christopher W.. “Dialectic, dialogue, and difference .” Philosophy & Rhetoric 58, no. 2 (2025): 159–172. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.58.2.0159.

    ABSTRACT: For Richard McKeon (1975), the relationships between Greek dialectics and dialogue and rhetoric involve the “fruitful interplay of controversy and agreement,” and he judges this interplay to be the contribution that Greek dialectic makes to Western history and thought. Thus, he promises to enrich ongoing challenges of diversity, involving his own ideas on pluralism. This article reflects on and furthers that thinking, connecting early Greek insights on the concepts here identified with the post-McKeon debate on deep disagreement in argumentation.

16. Tokos, Lauren G.. “Addressing the “theoretical blight”: How Robert A. Brady shaped political economy of communication .” Javnost - The Public 33, no. 1 (2026): 67–83. https://javnost-thepublic.org/article/2026/1/5/.

    ABSTRACT: In his foreword to Robert A. Brady’s canonical text, Business as a System of Power (1943), Brady’s colleague, Robert Lynd, questions—“will democratic political power absorb and use economic resources, bigness and all, to serve its ends, or will big economic power take over state power?” This far-fetched proposition guided Brady’s projects and inspired a new class of critical political economics, many of whom applied their analyses to the field of communica- tion. Brady’s expansive contributions to the field of communication are perhaps best under- stood through the context in which he conducted research and his web of influence in the academy. Brady’s musings reveal forgotten—or ostensibly omitted—revelations about how businesses wield power over social, technological, political, and cultural transformations. This investigation traces how Robert A. Brady’s social and political history, fiercely democratic ideology, and scathing critique of business and state coordination prove significant to the history of political economy of communication.

17. Wahutu, j. Siguru. ““I am an African”: Studying majority world fields while in the minority world .” Journalism & Communication Monographs 28, no. 1 (2026): 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/15226379251409513.

    ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] I am a scholar from and of the majority world. This means that I study media fields located in regions where the majority of the world’s populations live—in what some call the “Global South.” I study the majority world while I am located in the minority world—the region where the minority of the world’s population lives (often called the “West,” or the Global North). This work can be equal parts frustrating, debilitating, and rewarding. This ambivalence is compounded by the fact that I entered journalism and media studies as a sociologist looking for a home. Before COVID, sociology was not a particularly welcoming place for media sociologists. Our premier association, the American Sociological Association, barely had a place for us (Brienza & Revers, 2016; Revers & Brienza, 2017). As such, it is no accident that I left the field of sociology and only just returned this year (2025). While I did find a home in journalism studies, in an academic department that welcomed me and my work, this does not mean that it has been smooth sailing for me intellectually. The disciplinary frustrations are manifold, but I will highlight a few.

18. Zheng, Chenjie. “Translation as practice: Experiences in cross-context communication research”. Journalism & Communication Monographs 28, no. 1 (2026): 39–44. https://doi.org/10.1177/15226379251409624.

    ABSTRACT: [first paragraph, in lieu of abstract] As a Chinese graduate student studying communication studies in the U.S., I find “translation” to be an everyday necessity far beyond converting words. In my writing and research, I translate not only language but cultural meanings, theoretical frameworks, emotions, and social contexts. The “culture turn” in translation studies “reconceptualizes translators as active cultural mediators who navigate complex linguistic and socio-political landscapes” (Sun et al., 2025, p. 2). From this perspective, translation serves as a vital bridge for intercultural communication. In my own academic experience, each paper or conference talk involves conveying Chinese media and social phenomena (through the English language) to audiences steeped in Western perspectives. Every time I translate a Chinese concept to an English-reading audience, I strive to preserve an inner logic that may not exist in Western terms. Thus, the challenging task of translation for me is to capture deeper relations between meanings rather than just replacing words. This means unpacking unstated assumptions, explaining unfamiliar customs, and rethinking which theoretical tools make sense.