INTRODUCTION

This introduction to The Routledge Companion to American Journalism History frames and situates the diversity of topics about the subjects, people, key ideas, organizations, and historiography concerning US mainstream and alternative news media’s past covered in the 43 chapters of the book. In this volume, journalism historians reimagine journalism history, its omissions and commissions, and its theories and methods, in an era when the need for historical reappraisal is paramount and seemingly everywhere. To tell the first rough draft of history, contemporary journalists are realizing they must look to history to deepen their analyses of threats to democratic norms. Chapters in this book aim to critically examine legacy journalism as an exclusionary tool, offer a thought-provoking starting point for researchers and all who seek to delve into the discipline, stimulate ideas for new directions, and offer an introduction to the subject for the reading public. This work advocates for a journalism history of all the people, and to have that history recounted by a diverse group of scholars.