Gods Within the Machine - A History of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1923-1993

This study traces the colorful history of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) as an alliance of primarily midwestern editors in the 1920s to a slightly more diverse 1,000-member organization cautiously poised to enter the 21st century. Using minutes, correspondence, interviews, official proceedings, and other in-house documents, Pratte shows how the loosely knit organization, serving as an independent bridge between the more liberal ranks of the reporters and the more conservative publishers, has been absorbed into the corporate culture. The history, presented in both chronological and topical form, discusses the leadership and lack of leadership concerning such issues as ethics, freedom of the press, world press freedom, newspaper economics, journalism education, diversity, and minority affairs. As the first critical history of the professional, elite organization of editors to be written by an independent outside source, this work suggests ASNE has provided ordinary leadership for extraordinary times.

List of contents

What Sort of Teeth and Who Is It to Bite?
Due to the Persistence of a Few
Keeping the Faith in World War II
Putting Mother Hubbards on the Heathen
The Corporate Idea
The 1960s: Our Prestigious but Somewhat Moribund Society
Looking Upon Ourselves as Potential Publishers
Editor-Businessman: The Changing Character of ASNE in the 1980s
A More Far-Reaching Effect
Bibliography
Index

About the author

PAUL ALFRED PRATTE is Professor of Communication at Brigham Young University, where he specializes in media history, opinion writing, news reporting, and mass media and society. A former reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald, Salt Lake Tribune, and Salt Lake Desert News, he is a founder and 1994 president elect of the American Journalism Historians Association.

Product details

• Authors: Paul A Pratte, Paul A. Pratte
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 19.05.1995
• EAN: 9780275949761
• ISBN: 978-0-275-94976-1
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > Journalism; USA, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Journalism, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Media & Communications, Press & journalism, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, c 1938 to c 1946 (World War Two period), c 1919 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), c 1939 to c 1945 (including WW2), c 1918 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), News media and journalism, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), Popular Culture: Media, Television, and Radio