James Carey and Journalism History: A Remembrance
Journalism History › Vol. 32 Nbr. 3, October 2006
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Summary
"Operationalizing" was a term from traditional social science, which at that time held sway not only in communication research but in the "new social history" as well. Erickson, then a colleague of Carey's at the University of Illinois, was the most expansive, arguing that the basic values of the larger culture might be reflected in or embodied in the content of the press and the content of press criticism.5 Marzolf also argued that the content of journalism might reflect the larger culture, but she also was interested in the beliefs, values, and attitudes of the culture of journalism itself-that is, the historical study of journalists as a professional group.
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Extract
James Carey and Journalism History: A Remembrance
I began graduate study at the University of Wisconsin in 1974, the year Jim Carey published "The Problem of Journalism History" in the inaugural issue of this journal.1 The faculty at Wisconsin did not quite know what to make of his plea, so they organized a conference in Madison on "Operationalizing Carey." Three papers from that conference appeared in Journalism History in 1975, and thus was born a cottage industry in journalism history studies: commenting on him.2 I have concocted several Carey commentaries myself over the years, and this essay is yet another. But, alas, it may be my last, for he died on May 23, 2006. Like my professors at Wisconsin, I never quite figured out how to do the historical research that he thought should be done. But from that first encounter with him in 1974-75-in print and in person-I knew that Jim Carey was on to something important. And I would like to believe that my career in journalism history-and perhaps the careers of many of the readers of this essay-has been, at least in part, a conversation with him.
"Operationalizing Carey" was a curious but revealing phrase in 1975. It suggests the interplay of academic su...See the full content of this document
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