Journalism Ethics Center Director Awarded National Grant for Historical Research

University Relations

Raymond McCaffrey, director of the university's Center for Ethics in Journalism.

Raymond McCaffrey, director of the Center for Ethics in Journalism at the University of Arkansas, was awarded a Joseph McKerns Research Grant by the American Journalism Historians Association.

McCaffrey, an assistant professor with the School of Journalism and Strategic Media, J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences, won a $1,250 grant award for a proposed historical research project focusing on Louis Stark, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times who in 1924 pioneered a new journalism beat that involved coverage of the increasingly powerful U.S. labor movement. Stark, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1942 for his work on the emerging journalism beat, was called the "dean of all reporters on the labor scene" by President Harry S. Truman.

In his grant proposal, McCaffrey wrote: "Stark's story should be an important one to scholars and others interested in journalism history. For Stark's efforts to launch the labor beat are part of a larger story: How the Times and other major U.S. newspapers helped legitimize the labor movement with their reporting. In contrast, today's media coverage has waned as the labor movement faces sterner opposition from politicians and business owners."

McCaffrey was one of four recipients of a McKerns grant awarded by the American Journalism Historians Association on Oct. 6, 2018, at its annual convention, in Salt Lake City. The grant award, named in honor of the late Joseph P. McKerns, a journalism historian at Ohio State University, is designated for research related to mass media history. 

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