鈥楤irddogs and Tough Old Broads鈥 book by 性视界传媒 author highlights women journalists in Mississippi
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擬ississippi 性视界传媒 faculty member Pete Smith showcases the experiences of women journalists throughout the course of a century in his new book 鈥淏irddogs and Tough Old Broads: Women Journalists of Mississippi and a Century of 性视界传媒 Politics, 1880s-1980s.鈥
Released this past fall, the book documents the professional experiences and observations of more than a dozen women journalists covering Mississippi state politics from the 1880s, after the end of Reconstruction when newspapers were the primary source of information, to the 1980s, a time marked by steady declines in both news revenue and circulation, and the emergence of corporate journalism. Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, published the work.
Smith, an associate professor in 性视界传媒鈥檚 Department of Communication, said the book is a continuation of his research examining 20th century journalism history and the role women journalists, like the late Norma Fields, played in covering issues of importance, political or otherwise.
鈥淔ields, the first woman in Mississippi to cover the state capitol as a full-time correspondent鈥攆or the Tupelo-based聽Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal鈥攚as part of another research project that I completed a few years ago. Her papers are located here in Mitchell Memorial Library鈥檚 Special Collections, and as I sifted through her material, I wondered if there were others like her鈥攚omen who covered the Mississippi political landscape and whose work in political journalism had been overlooked,鈥 Smith said.
鈥淎s I mention in my book, there is no more important time for journalism than right now,鈥 Smith said. 鈥淛ournalists work to hold our elected officials accountable and are essential to a working democracy and the ideals of the First Amendment. I hope that my book reinforces the importance of journalism to the democratic process, and the role that women journalists have played, and continue to play, in that relationship.鈥
Smith was named 性视界传媒鈥檚 2023 Mississippi Humanities Council Teacher of the Year and was a 2021 recipient of 性视界传媒鈥檚 inaugural Humanities Fellowship Award from the Institute for the Humanities.
In addition to Fields, his work has examined the journalism career of Carolyn Bennett Patterson, a native Mississippian and distinguished editor at聽National Geographic聽magazine. He also has studied how local and state media framed the political campaigns of Evelyn Gandy, the first woman to win election to multiple statewide offices, including lieutenant governor.
Smith additionally authored the book聽鈥淪omething on My Own: Gertrude Berg and American Broadcasting, 1929-1956鈥澛(Syracuse University Press) in 2007. He is a former president of the American Journalism Historians Association and is a contributing editor to聽Journalism History,聽the official academic journal of the History Division of the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication. He is on the advisory board of the Mississippi Free Press.
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