Launching a Research Agenda: The Early Monograph Series

Abstract

For more than three decades AEJMC has had its own version of Unsolved Mysteries. Today members who look at the last three pages of Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs will note that Monograph No. 1 was titled Five European Broadcasting Systems, written by alter B. Emery and published by the Association for Education in Journalism (AEJ) in 1966. But long-time journalism faculty recall that the Association published monographs before 1966. When I became a member of the AEJMC Publications Committee five years ago, I inquired about monographs I had seen dated before 1966, but which were not carried in the current listing. Some of the members seemed be aware of an earlier series, but the national AEJMC office did not have any copies and had no information on them. The first clue came at the 1994 AEJMC convention in Atlanta when Robert Drechsel, director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, and a former member of the Publications Committee who knew of my interest in locating monographs from the early series, gave me a citation from one of these earlier publications. To my surprise, the publisher was the LSU Press. A bit of history began rush back at this point. A former professor of mine at LSU, Marcus M. Wilkerson, had been the founder of the LSU Press and served its director from 1935 until his death in 1953. Wilkerson, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 2931, was the author of two books: Public Opinion and the Spanish American War: a Study in War Propaganda (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1932) and Thomas Duckett Boyd: the Story of a Southern Educator (Baton Rouge, LSU Press, 1935). Also, I knew that the LSU School of Journalism had been very active in the administration of the Association in its early years, and Wilkerson had been president of AEJ in 1947. So it seemed quite logical that the LSU Press would be involved in publication of the early monographs. Armed these clues, I found that the LSU Archives had all of the seven earlier monographs. Each is a hard-cover volume in excellent condition. A review of each of the monographs is presented here: Monograph No. 1 Allen, Charles L. Free Circulation: A Study of Newspapers Having Free or Controlled Distribution. University, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1940. The monograph, which is 78 pages, eight pages of front matter but no index or bibliography, indicates that Journalism Monographs were published under the auspices of the National Council of Research, American Association of Schools and Departments of Journalism. In the Introduction the author points out that the or of newspapers had been a subject of spirited discussion at various press association meetings for the previous ten years, with intensity of interest and vehemence of expression sometimes being substituted for factual information. He noted that publishers of newspapers which used paid subscriptions, particularly those who faced free-paper competition, had loudly denounced the throw aways, while publishers of throw aways had been equally vigorous in defending this type of publication. The purpose of Allen's study, a University of Illinois research project, was learn how free or controlled circulation newspapers operated: to discuss the advantages of their techniques, lean their problems and their costs of production, and try evaluate their distribution methods. The study was limited papers which could be visited by the author and publishers who consented personal interviews. Allen gathered information on personnel, advertising rates and procedures, publishing costs, distribution methods, sources of income, and ways in which newspapers had met the free distribution competition. Included in the survey were 81 papers, published in Chicago and suburbs during 1936-1937, both weekly and semi-weekly. …