#  David Beavers (APRW) 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 1, 2024** 

 12:00PM - 02:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS Knafel room K354, or online via Zoom**  



 

 



 

##  This Week's Speaker

 David Beavers, "Journalism's Fragile Institutionalization: Press Licensing in the Interwar Period"

##  Abstract

 Americans' trust in the media has declined precipitously in the past half-century, outpacing the decline in media trust among other Western democracies and exceeding the decline in trust in other American institutions and professions. What explains Americans’ declining trust in the news media? To begin answering this question -- and to provide a contextual framework for the quantitative chapters of my dissertation that follow -- I first retrace the process through which journalism took the institutional shape it takes today. Unlike most other professions, which have rigorous boundary-setting mechanisms, journalism relies predominantly on discursive strategies for maintaining its institutional legitimacy, which renders it more vulnerable to elite criticism. In this chapter, I document the decisions institutional actors made which cemented journalism's fragile institutionalization through an analysis of debates over press licensing in the period 1910-1940, drawing on an original corpus of trade publications, convention proceedings, state press association records, newspaper coverage, personal papers, legislative journals, and political memoirs.

 *The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) meets all academic year, Tuesdays, 12:00 - 2:00 PM, in CGIS K354. This workshop presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.*

 *All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend.*



 

 



 

 

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