SoJ Web Report | Feb. 3, 2011
 |
Professor David Nord will describe one of those historical periods in his talk, “’Plain and Certain Facts’: Four episodes of public affairs reporting in 18th century Boston,” at the next Research Colloquium at 4 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Ernie Pyle Hall auditorium.
Using four examples from the 1730s and 1740s, Nord looks at efforts to collect, verify and publish information during a time in journalism when newsgathering was haphazard at best. In each example, Nord says, the reporters understood their civic duty to responsibly report the news.
Nord’s research also connects to today’s journalism. In his abstract, he writes, “Though the chief aim of the talk is to shed light on the history of news reporting, it also might prompt some thought about the condition of journalism today—another era in which news reporting is performed by all sorts of people who don’t fit the traditional definition of ‘reporter.’”
Nord’s research interests lie in the history of American publishing, especially journalism history and the history of the religious press. He is author of Faith in Reading: Religious Publishing and the Birth of Mass Media in America, Communities of Journalism: A History of American Newspaper and Their Readers, and Newspapers and New Politics: Midwestern Municipal Reform, 1890-1900. He is co-editor of The Enduring Book, vol. 5 of A History of the Book in America, and contributing author of American Reception Study, Explorations in Communications and History, and An Extensive Republic, vol. 2 of A History of the Book in America.
His articles have appeared in the Journal of American History, American Quarterly, Journal of the Early Republic, Journal of Urban History, Journalism Quarterly, Journalism Monographs, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, and Journalism History.
His work has earned the Book of the Year Award from the American Journalism Historians Association, the James Russell Wiggins Lectureship award from the American Antiquarian Society, several Catherine Covert Awards for best article of the year in mass communication, and the Ralph D. Gray Award for best article of the year from the Journal of the Early Republic.
On the faculty since 1979, Nord also has been involved with the Center for the History of the Book in American Culture at the American Antiquarian Society. He has served on the center's Board of Overseers and is a volume editor on A History of the Book in America, a multi-volume project of the American Antiquarian Society and the University of North Carolina University Press. He has served as interim editor, acting editor, and associate editor of the Journal of American History. He is currently editor of History News Service.
The Research Colloquium provide researchers and scholars a venue to present current work and garner feedback from colleagues. Check out the semester schedule online.
Questions? Comments? Email the Web editor.
