Box 58, Alpine,NJ, 07620, 201-768-1353, 212-998-3792
Books:
the rise of the image the fall of the word, historical analysis of television and print, Oxford University Press, Fall 1998. "A visionary thinker," San Francisco Chronicle. "Compelling and engaging�. It will undoubtedly require skeptics to rethink their prejudice against the power and potential of the moving image," Houston Chronicle. "Remarkable for [its] depth of research, breadth of thought, intrepid spirit, and provocative conclusions," Hungry Mind Review. "A fascinating, counterintuitive tour de force," Wilson Quarterly. "A thoughtful and measured challenge, the kind of...scholarship that helps push us forward," American Journalism Review." "Fascinating to think about," Library Journal. "A terrific book...forcefully and brilliantly argue[d]," Hotwired. "I consider his visionary work to be a great public service," FEED.
A History of News, REVISED EDITION, Harcourt Brace, 1996. FIRST EDITION, Viking, 1988; paperback, Penguin, 1989. Portuguese edition, Historia das Comunicacoes, Civilizacao Brasileira, 1993. Also translated into Dutch (Het Spectrum), Korean (Golden Communications) and Japanese (Shinko Sha). An investigation of the nature and meaning of news--based on an extended international history of journalism, from preliterate societies through Athens, Rome, China, medieval Europe, Renaissance Europe, revolutionary America and France, nineteenth century England and America, and through the twentieth century and the information age. Positive reviews included: New York Times Book Review, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Washington Journalism Review, Journalism Quarterly. A New York Times "notable book for 1988."
Writing and Reporting the News, SECOND EDITION, Harcourt Brace, 1993. FIRST EDITION, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986. Widely used textbook on newspaper journalism. Written with Gerald Lanson.
Broadcast News, THIRD EDITION, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993. SECOND EDITION, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1986. FIRST EDITION, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981. By far the most widely used radio and television journalism textbook in America, according to a study conducted at Syracuse University. "The best-selling textook in its field since publication in 1981," the New York Times, November 7, 1993.
Report of the Public's Right to Information Task Force to the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, Government Printing Office, 1979. Written with 13 others.
Academic Experience:
Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, New York University, Acting Chairman, 1998-1999. Chairman, 1992-1995. Acting Chairman, 1991, 1987. Director of Graduate Studies, 1977-1982. Promoted to full professor, 1995. Tenured, 1983. Promoted to Associate Professor, 1982. Hired 1976.
** Conceived and directed effort to select "The Top 100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20th Century," with judges including David Brinkley, Gene Roberts, Morley Safer, Jeff Greenfield, Nancy Maynard, George Will and Pete Hamill, an effort that received wide publicity in the New York Times, CNN, NPR and in dozens of other newspapers across the country.
** Redesigned entire graduate journalism curriculum, 1981, 1989.
** Redesigned entire undergraduate journalism curriculum, 1986.
** Courses designed and introduced: Graduate -- Journalistic Tradition (now required of all students), Media Criticism, History of News, Broadcast Writing Workshop, Radio Reporting, Television Reporting. Undergraduate -- History of the Media, History of American Journalism, Broadcast (now Television) Reporting.
** Other courses taught: Graduate -- Structure and Function of the Mass Media, Writing and Reporting Workshop, Current Problems in Mass Communication. Undergraduate -- Radio News, Television News, Reporting 1, Media and Government, Television and the Information Explosion, Media and America, Media and Society.
Journalism History Consultant and Member, Content Committee, The Newseum, a $40-million news museum -- the first of its kind -- built by the Freedom Forum outside of Washington, D.C. Prepared the 110,000-word "content book" -- a database upon which the museum's exhibits was based; helped research, write and design most of the museum's history exhibits; particularly responsible for "early news gallery," 1993-1998.
Fellow, Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University. One year fellowship to complete book, The Rise of the Image/The Fall of the Word, 1995-1996.
Chair, Intellectual History Study Group, Association for Education in Journalism, 1989-1990, 1990-1991, Co-Chair, 1988-1989.
Professional staff, President's Commission on the Accident at Three
Mile Island, 1979. Co-director, content analysis of news media coverage of the accident.
Instructor, Communication Department, the William Paterson College of New Jersey, 1974-1976. Designed and introduced three-course program in broadcast journalism.
Grants and Fundraising:
Project Director, $287,552 United States Information Agency grant for a "University Partnership" between the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at New York University and Rostov State University in the Russian Federation. Prepared new course outlines, course exercises and other materials in order to upgrade journalism education at the 35 university-level journalism programs in Russia. The grant ran from September 1994 to August 1996. In Rostov from September to December 1994; and again in May and June 1995.
Made the presentation that led to a $150,000 donation from George Heynman to New York University's new masters program in Cultural Reporting and Criticism, 1994.
Journalism Experience:
Magazine writer, New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Columbia Journalism Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, messaGe, Tikkun, West, Washington Journalism Review, Seven Days, Soho News, New Times, MORE, 1977-present.
Freelance newspaper writer, New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, New York Newsday, Knight-Ridder newspapers, 1981-present.
Commentator, NPR�s On the Media, 1999-present.
Newswriter, NBC Radio, 1980, 1981.
Judge, Emmy Awards, Television News, 1987-1989. Roy W. Howard Newspaper Public Service Awards, 1977-1980. Overseas Press Club Awards, Television News, 1980. One to One Media Awards (for reporting on mentally retarded), 1979-1980. National Professional Basketball Writers Association, Writing and Reporting Competition, 1980-1983.
Radio Commentaries:
"Twelve Wishes for the New Century," NPR�s On the Media, January 1, 2000.
"The Model-T stage: the Internet in its immaturity," NPR�s On the Media, December 18, 1999.
"A golden age for newspapers?" NPR�s On the Media, December 11, 1999.
Articles:
"Call for an International History of Journalism," American Journalism, forthcoming.
"Why There Are So Many Doors in Movies: Codexes, Ligatures and the Internet," Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2000.
"Highlight of Journalism: Inventing Reporting in Eighteenth Century England," messaGe (German media magazine), January 2000.
"Hidden Cameras in the United States," messaGe (German media magazine), January 2000.
"The History of Television," Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, 2000 edition.
"The Constancy of News," Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 1999.
"The Top 100 Works of Journalism in the United States in the 20th Century," messaGe (German media magazine), August 1999.
Book review: "Media Technology and Society: A History From the Telegraph to the Internet," Media History, June 1999.
"The Future of the Internet: Which Communications Revolution Is It Anyway," Journalism Quarterly, Spring 1998 (cover story).
"Digital Wizards and Composite Reality," Chronicle of Higher Education, January 9, 1998.
Digital manipulation of images, Media Studies Journal, Spring 1997.
"On Shrinking Soundbites," Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 1996.
Book review: Media and Revolution, edited by Jeremy D. Popkin, Journalism History, Winter, 1995.
"Radio: From Dots and Dashes to Rock and Larry King," New York Times, November 20, 1995.
"The Theologian of Talk: Jurgen Habermas," Los Angeles Times Magazine, October 23, 1994.
"La historia ampliada del periodisme," Treballs de Comunicacio (Barcelona), October 1994.
"Let Pictures Speculate, Just Like Words," Newsday and New York Newsday, February 24, 1994.
"Jacques Derrida," New York Times Magazine, January 23, 1994.
"Newspaper" -- 10,000 word essay for Collier's Encyclopedia, first published in 1994 edition.
"The New TV (Ads and the Future of Television)," The Washington Post, April 25, 1993.
"About Rupert Murdoch," Newsday and New York Newsday, April 2, 1993.
"Rock of Ages," The Washington Post, February 28, 1993.
"Pop Goes the World (Globalization and Cultural Homogenization)," cover story, Los Angeles Times Magazine, January 17, 1993.
Book review: Life After Television, by George Gilder, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 19, 1992.
"To Thine Own Selves Be True (Postmodern Psychology)," Los Angeles Times Magazine, August 23, 1992.
"Blackboards and Billboards," New York Newsday, June 16, 1992.
"The Professor of Disenchantment (Stephen Greenblatt and the New Historicism)," West, March 1, 1992.
Book review: Making Local News, by Phyllis Kaniss, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 26, 1992.
Book review: The Vox Dei: Communication in the Middle Ages, by Sophia Menache, Journalism Quarterly, Winter 1991.
"La Influencia Internacional del Periodismo Norteamericano," ABC (Madrid), October 29, 1991.
"The Death of Reading," Los Angeles Times Magazine, September 22, 1991. Reprinted Fast Times, November/December 1991.
"Deconstruction and the Get-Real Press," Columbia Journalism Review, September/October, 1991.
Book review: The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life, by Kenneth J. Gergen, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 4, 1991.
"Deconstructing Jacques Derrida," Los Angeles Times Magazine, July 21, 1991.
"Why the Protest Against the Gulf War Fizzled," Newsday and New York Newsday, March 27, 1991.
"Deconstruction Crew," Tikkun, September-October, 1990.
"Onward to 2000: Steel yourself against the hubbub," Chicago Tribune, February 16, 1990; also appeared under the title "Get ready for the new millennium," in Philadelphia Inquirer, February 15, 1990.
Book review: The Yellow Kids: Foreign Correspondents in the Heyday of Yellow Journalism, Newsday, August 27, 1989.
"It's News, But Is Steinberg Case Significant?" New York Newsday, December 20, 1988.
"Tabloid Time Line," Seven Days, June 1, 1988.
"Sensationalism and Moralizing in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Newsbooks and News Ballads," Journalism History, Winter-Autumn 1985.
"John Peter Zenger Fought for Freedom We Must Still Protect," Newsday, August 2, 1985.
"Floyd Abrams: The Lawyer with Press Appeal," cover story, Washington Journalism Review, with Esther Davidowitz, April 1985.
"Abe Rosenthal: The Man and His Times," cover story, Washington Journalism Review, with Gerald Lanson, July/August 1983.
"The Counterpunch Interview," with Eliot Frankel, Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1983.
"'Trust Me' Journalism: Increasing Analysis and Interpretation in the Daily Press," with Gerald Lanson, Washington Journalism Review, November 1982.
"Can UPI Be Turned Around?" Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 1982.
"Clout: Rupert Murdoch's Political Post," Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1982.
"An Analysis of News Media Coverage of Issues at Three Mile Island," with Nadyne Edison, Journalism Quarterly, summer 1982.
"Jello Journalism: Why Reporters Have Gone Soft in Their Leads," with Gerald Lanson, Washington Journalism Review, April 1982 (Note: According to Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute, this article has appeared on more newspaper bulletin boards than any other journalism review piece.)
Book review: Media the Second God, by Tony Schwartz, Washington Journalism Review, March 1982.
"Crime Doesn't Pay, Except on the Newsstands," Washington Journalism Review, December 1981.
"Prostrate before prestigious awards, some journalists can lose persective," with Eliot Frankel, syndicated to Knight-Ridder newspapers, Winter 1981.
Book review: Before the Colors Fade, by Harry Reasoner, Washington Journalism Review, October 1981.
"Prize and Prejudice: the Journalism Awards Racket," with Eliot Frankel, Washington Journalism Review, September 1981.
"More 'Jimmy' Fallout (Michael Daly and Teresa Carpenter)," Washington Journalism Review, July/August 1981.
"In Broadcast Journalism Training, Whose Calling the Kettle Black?" Journalism Educator, April 1981.
"All the Obscenity that's Fit to Print," with Eliot Frankel, Washington Journalism Review, cover story, April 1981, reprinted in volume of Social Issues Resources Series.
"Coverage of Events at Three Mile Island," with Nadyne Edison, Mass Comm Review, Fall 1980.
"Post Election Rap," Soho News, November 19, 1980.
"Foggy Days at the Times," Columbia Journalism Review, November/December 1980.
"A Date with Jody Powell," New Times, May 13, 1977; excerpted, Columbia Journalism Review, July/August 1977.
"The Election According to Murdoch," with Joshua Mills, MORE, November 1977.
Chapters:
"The Death of Reading?" in The Prose Reader, edited by Kim Flachmann, Prentice Hall, 1999.
"Rock of Ages," in Issues in Aging, edited by Mark Novak, HarperCollins, 1997.
"The Death of Reading?" in Reading: The Success Formula, third edition, Kendall/Hunt, 1995.
"The Death of Reading?" in From Reading, Writing, second edition, edited by McCuen and Winkler, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993.
"Television Transforms the News," in Communication in History, edited by David Crowley and Paul Heyer, Longman, 1991. Second edition, 1996. Third edition, 1998.
"All the Obscenity That's Fit to Print," with Eliot Frankel, in Media Now, edited by Don Ungurait, Ray Hiebert and Tom Bohn, Longman, 1985.
Papers and Panels:
"Issues in Journalism Education," Berlin, November 1999.
"Fast Cut to the Future of News," Emerson College, October 1999.
"Kinetic Images: TV, Film, Video," organized and moderated panel, "America: Cult and Culture," National Design Conference, American Institute of Graphics Arts, Las Vegas, September-October, 1999.
"Towards an International History of Journalism," organized and moderated panel and presented paper, "Why Our Histories of Journalism Are So Lonely," Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention, New Orleans, August 1999.
"The Case for the Manipulation of Images," Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention, New Orleans, August 1999.
"Media and Education," Curry College, May 1999.
"The Rise of the Image," Taos Talking Picture Festival, April 1999.
"The New Media," National Writers Workshop, Hartford, April 1999.
"The Power of Moving Images," First annual conference on Design for Film and Television, American Institute of Graphic Arts, March, 1999.
"Living in a Media World," The Power of the Media, conference, Syracuse, March, 1999.
"Children and Television," Educating Students in a Media-Saturated Culture, Englewood, NJ, February 16, 1999.
"How Forms of Communication Grow: Print, Newspapers, Reporting and 'the New Video,'" San Francisco State University, October, 1998.
"Fast Cutting," panel, Hamptons Film Festival, October, 1998.
"the rise of the image the fall of the word," panel, Media Studies Center, October, 1998.
"The Question of Progress in Communications Technology: Lists on Clay Tablets, the Gutenberg Bible and Contemporary Television," for the panel: "Learning From the Past: The Communications Revolution and Media History," also organized panel, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention, Baltimore, August 1998.
"Learning How to Print: Trials and Errors from the 15th through the 18th Centuries," Media History, first international conference, London, July, 1998.
"Undercover Journalism and Hidden Cameras," Media Studies Center Ethics Roundtable," New York, February 12, 1997.
"Beyond the Telecom Act: The Impact on Mass Media and the Public Sphere," Freedom Forum, Arlington, February 7, 1997.
"A History of News," Freedom Forum Authors Series, December 18, 1996, Arlington, Virgina. Broadcast on C-Span.
"Issues and Mysteries in the Newseum," presented at the Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Anaheim, California, August 1996.
"The Future of Television," School of Public Communication, University of Navarra, Spain, October 1993.
"The Extended History of News," Inaugural Lecture, academic year 1993-94, Catalan Society of Communications, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, Spain, October 1993.
"The Hutchins Commission: An Historical Perspective," at the Poynter Institute, October 1993.
"Teaching Ethics in the Classroom in Light of Increasing Deception in Broadcast News," panel presented at the Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Kansas City, August 1993.
"Modern Journalistic Writing's Mid-19th-Century Beginnings," at the symposium, "Journalism, Whitman and New York," South Street Seaport, May 1992.
"Traditional Definitions of News," at the Poynter Institute's seminar, "Redefining the News," February 1992.
"The Concept of Objectivity in Journalism History," a panel presented at the Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Boston, August 1991. Organized and moderated the panel and presented one of the papers.
"Noticing Literary Theory: The Press and the Ghost of Paul de Man," presented as part of the panel, "The Coverage of Ideas," at the Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Minneapolis, August 1990. Also organized and moderated the panel.
"The Extended International History of News," presented as part of the panel, "Definitions of News," at the Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington, D.C., August 1989. Also organized and moderated the panel.
"News Before Newspapers," presented as part of the panel, "Expanding the Boundaries of Journalism History," at the Convention of the American Journalism Historians Association, Charleston, October 1988. Also organized and moderated the panel.
"The Penny Press: A Reexamination of Some of its Contributions to Journalism," presented at the Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Norman, Oklahoma, August 1986.
"Sensationalism and Moralizing in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Newsbooks and News Ballads, presented to the Conference on Sensationalism and the Mass Media, Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 1986.
"Possible Evidence of a Handwritten Newspaper in Venice in the Sixteenth Century," presented at the Convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Memphis, August 1985.
"An Analysis of News Media Coverage of Issues During the Accident at Three Mile Island," presented before the Science Writing Educators Group, convention of the Association for Education in Journalism, Boston 1980.
"A Content Analysis of News Media Coverage of the Accident at Three Mile Island," presented at Convention of the International Communication Association, Acapulco, Mexico, May 1980.
Videos Experiments (to view some on line):
"Elian: Human Interests" 2000
"Endless" 2000
"Easy Pass: Outgrowing the Planet" 2000
"What Should You Do When You No Longer Believe...in Anything?" 1999
"Kids Today: The Online, Remote-Control Childhood" 1999
"On Mass Transit" 1999
"The Ironists' Manifesto" 1999
Appearances:
2000:
BBC Radio (New York City newspapers), April.
CNN "Newstand" (tragedies in the news), March.
NPR's "On the Media" (Chicago Tribune/Times Mirror), March.
KPFA, San Francisco (Chicago Tribune/Times Mirror), March.
1999:
WPIX-TV (celebrity), New York, October.
"On the Line," WNYC public radio (irony), New York, October.
History Channel, "The Newspaper," August.
WBAI, New York, April.
CNN (images and the Kosova war), April.
CNN (communications and the Littleton shootings), April.
KPFK, Los Angeles, April.
"Media Issues," Wisconsin Public Radio, March.
"On the Media," NPR, March.
"On the Media," NPR, February.
1998:
"On the Media," NPR, December.
"On the Line," WNYC public radio; October.
Various other public radio stations, October to December.
On press coverage of Clinton scandals: WABC-TV, October; CNN, October; BBC-TV, October; Fox News, September; Fox News, October.
Before 1998:
On New York City "Tabloid Wars": "On the Media," NPR, August 1996; CNN, February 1993; "Thirteen Live," WNET-TV, May 1991; ABC Radio Special, hosted by David Brinkley, May 1991; CNN, March 1991; CNN, April 1991.
On Persian Gulf War, Winter 1991: CNN, WCBS-AM, Financial News Network.
On journalism history: Inaugural Lecture, 1993-94, Catalan Society of Communications, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, Spain, October 1993; CBC radio network, July 1991; Columbia University School of Journalism, "World" lecture, November 1988; MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour (twelve minute one-on-one interview with Robert MacNeil), November 1988; Overseas Press Club, lecture, November 1988; "Howard Cosell: Speaking of Everything," ABC Radio, October 1988.
On various media issues: "Media Matters," PBS, 1997; CNN, August 1996; Fox Television, November 1993; "All Things Considered," NPR, May 1993; "Nightwatch," CBS Television, October, 1991; CNBC, August 1991; CNN, December 1989; "Live at Five," WNBC-TV; New York, November 1988; WGBH-TV, Boston, November 1988; "20/20," ABC Television, June 1984; "Live at Five," WNBC-TV, New York, October 1983.
Various appearances on Russian television and radio, and Russian newspaper interviews, September-December 1994.
Plus many local radio appearances across the United States.
Print interviews have included The New York Times (many times), Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Daily News, the Christian Science Monitor (many times), the Chicago Tribune, Newsday, and many other smaller newspapers and magazines in this country and abroad.
Honors and Awards:
Selected for Freedom Media Studies Center Fellowship, academic year 1995-96.
Selected to deliver "Inaugural Lecture," academic year 1993-94, Catalan Society of Communications, Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, Spain, October 1993.
Selected to deliver "World" lecture, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, November 1988.
National Teaching Award, the Poynter Institute, 1985.
Edward R. Murrow Award, presented by CBS to outstanding student in broadcast journalism, 1973.
Public Service:
East Paterson baseball program, summer 1999.
Organized program in broadcast journalism for East Harlem Tutorial Program, 1987, 1988.
Lecturer, Arts Connection, program for journalism in New York City high schools, 1989.
Professional staff, President's Commission on the Accident at Three
Mile Island, 1979.
Professional Organizations:
Chair, Intellectual History Interest Group, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 1989-1990, 1990-1991. Co-chair, 1988-1989.
Member, Broadcast and History Divisions, AEJMC, and American Journalism Historians Association.
Education:
Master of Journalism, University of California at Los Angeles, 1973.
Bachelor of Arts, Haverford College, 1971, honors in English.
Personal Information:
Born 1949. Married to Esther Davidowitz, magazine writer and editor. Three children.