The papers in this session tackle multiple issues surrounding advocacy journalism, a contested term that refers to a genre of journalism that deliberately and transparently combines reporting with a point of view and, as the name implies, advocates for a particular action, solution, or outcome. With roots as old as journalism itself, advocacy journalism posits that all journalists participate in the mass-mediated public sphere and that “objectivity” is a myth. Practitioners of advocacy journalism argue that traditional media organizations often distort the news by selectively including certain facts or quoting certain individuals because those facts or views fit a certain worldview. Whereas advocacy journalists are transparent about their perspectives, however, the mainstream media insists on its objectivity.

The goals of this panel are to inform participants about various forms of advocacy journalism across times, places, and political perspectives, and to offer an arena for a lively discussion around questions of both historical and contemporary relevance. We want to historicize the idea of objectivity, which did not emerge as an articulated professional standard in journalism until the early 1920s. We will address questions for discussion such as: Are advocating and informing mutually exclusive? How have different groups understood the role of journalism, the role of objectivity in news reporting, and appropriate news content across time? What is the difference between advocacy journalism and propaganda? And finally, who exactly is a journalist? Most of the journalists discussed in the papers described below were not professionally trained, but were advocates for a particular cause. We hope to create a lively debate about the meaning and history of advocacy journalism and its role in some of the political issues of the past.

Each paper offers a particular case study around the theme of advocacy journalism in US history, and illuminates various perspectives on that theme. Panelists focus on different time periods from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth century; they focus on different racial, religious, class, gender, and political perspectives; they explore advocacy journalism across the political spectrum, from the far left to the far right. The panelists position our contemporary culture wars in a larger context that questions the idea that “objectivity” in journalism has only recently been challenged.