TEAM Biographies

Film: 

Writer, Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Rise of Broadcast News, documentary broadcast by most PBS stations and shown at numerous film festivals.

Books:

• The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism, St. Martins Press, 2017. A first-rate and much-needed biography of the great Lowell Thomas. Nobody can properly understand broadcast journalism without reading Stephens’s riveting account of this larger-than-life globetrotting radio legend.” —Douglas Brinkley, author of Cronkite.
• Imagine There’s No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. "We learn an enormous amount about figures censored out of history, and about the persecution that freethinkers suffered until shockingly recently. His martyrs fill our hearts; his heroes inspire," The New Yorker.
• Beyond News: The Future of Journalism. Columbia University Press, April 2014. “This engaging book tells us how journalism must change in order to better serve the times — and the public. Stephens calls for interpretation and insight, intelligence, and illumination. Beyond News offers all of these and more. Thought-provoking and a delight to read,” Geneva Overholser, University of Southern California.
• Journalism Unbound: New Approaches to Writing and Reporting. Oxford University Press, published December 2013. A call for a wiser, deeper, broader and more adventurous journalism and journalism education.
• Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11. An oral history of the events of that day in the words of more than one hundred and thirty television and radio journalists, ranging from the three network anchors to reporters from Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Edited with Allison Gilbert, Phil Hirschkorn, Melinda Murphy and Robyn Walensky. “This extraordinary book…, beyond its compelling backstage detail, gives us a remarkable window into how individual reporters, like their nation, struggled through stages of shock, denial, outrage, pride and professionalism,” American Journalism Review.
• 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. 
• A History of News, Third edition, Oxford University Press, 2007; REVISED EDITION, Harcourt Brace, 1996. FIRST EDITION, Viking, 1988; paperback, Penguin, 1989. Translated into Portuguese, Dutch, Korean and Japanese. 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. "The best-selling textook in its field since publication in 1981," 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. 

** 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. Also conceived and directed efforts to select “The Top Ten Works of Journalism in the United States” for the first and second decades of the 21st century.

** Journalism History Consultant and Member, Content Committee, The Newseum,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.

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.

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.

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.