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This article focuses on Puerto Iguazu, an Argentine town bordering Brazil and Paraguay, where the local media create a patchwork of substitute social services that form the basis of governance. More than 1,200 kilometers away from the federal capital, Iguazu was historically neglected by the central government: water shortages, power cuts, natural gas and fuel scarcity, impassable roads, and squatter settlements contributed to infrastructural collapses in a territorial periphery. Local news coverage has been consistently critical of the failing state in Iguazu, treating governmental neglect as social emergency, which requires an urgent media intervention. Through their routine news itineraries and agendas, social solidarity, and assistance campaigns, Iguazu journalists have taken on certain pragmatic functions ordinarily understood to be the task of the government. In reference to Foucault's theory of capillary power, I call this locally embedded performance of the state, separate from official policies and projects, capillary governance. I pay special attention to the role of infrastructure, showing how different infrastructural networks--from power and water supply to communications technologies--interconnect, at times enabling and other times disabling the work of journalists. Merging anthropology of journalism with political anthropology, this article analyzes media practices on a remote border, where official governmental policies and actions are tentative and uneven, showing how Iguazu journalists take on the role of state actors. [Keywords: Border, media, journalism, state, governance, Argentina, Triple Frontera], I will not tire to repeatedly inform you that here in Iguazu, a natural wonder of the world, we don't have power or water. --Kelly Ferreyra, La Voz de Cataratas, [...]

The Irish Party, the organization which represented the constitutional nationalist demand for home rule for almost fifty years in Westminster, was the most notable victim of the revolution in Ireland, e. 1916-23. Most of the last generation of Westminster-centred home rule MPs played little part in public life following the party's electoral destruction in 1918. This article, probes the political thought and actions of one of the most prominent constitutional nationalists who did seek to alter Ireland's direction during the critical years of the war of independence. Stephen Gwynn was a guiding figure behind a number of initiatives to 'save' Ireland from the excesses of revolution. Gwynn established the Irish Centre Party in 1919, which later merged with the Irish Dominion League. From the end of 1919, Gwynn became a leading advocate of the Government of Ireland Bill, the legislation that partitioned the island. Revolutionary idealism--and, more concretely, violence--did much to render his reconciliatory efforts impotent. Gwynn's experiences between 1919 and 1921 also, however, reveal the paralysing divisions within constitutional nationalism, which did much to demoralize moderate sentiment further. doi: 10.1017/S0018246X10000269

In this article we examine the extent of career cross-over from journalism to politics in Australia using biographical data on the pre-parliamentary careers of federal politicians since 1901. We find that while journalists continue to be over-represented in Australia's national Parliament, there is evidence of a decline in the number making the career switch to politics. We argue that one explanation for this is the growing professionalisation of both vocations, and of journalism especially. Journalism education inculcates in graduates a strong sense of the media's Fourth Estate role, contributing to a professional identity that militates against taking up a political career. We also find that in recent decades, in spite of a small number of celebrated cases of journalists joining the ranks of the ALP, prior careers in journalism have been more prevalent among Coalition MPs. We argue that this reflects an ALP pre-selection system that has become less accommodating of all pre-parliamentary occupations other than trade union official and political staffer.

The missions of both the mainstream and specialized press affect their coverage of the Supreme Court, which in turn might well affect how their audiences perceive the institution. The U.S. [...]

This article is a response to an account of a communist espionage circle which appeared in this journal in 2003. It argues that the original article is seriously misleading because of its apparently exclusive reliance on previously classified intelligence documents and the interpretations found within them. Combined with a failure to provide an appropriate historical context, particularly concerning the politics of the drama's central figure--the Daily Herald journalist W. N. Ewer--and a tendency to import questionable value judgements into the narrative, the original piece substitutes the secret policeman's opinions for a real history of its subject-matter.

The Progressive Era was generally an age of optimism. It was an age in which people believed that it was possible, through legislative reform, to correct societal ills such as [...]

In the crucial formative years of Richard Nixon's rise to power, syndicated columnist Drew Pearson, a fellow Quaker, emerged as Nixon's primary journalistic enemy. With an audience of tens of millions, he denounced Nixon's earliest Red-baiting campaigns, unearthed his links to political extremists and organized crime figures, and helped uncover the secret personal slush fund that led to the famous 'Checker's' speech, which nearly ended Nixon's political career in its infancy. Pearson worked hand-in-glove with the Republican politician's most ardent opponents, secretly writing memos and speeches for the Democrats and timing his journalistic exposes for maximum election-eve impact. As the battle-scarred Nixon became convinced that the news media were out to get him, Pearson confirmed his' deepest fears. Using unexamined archival documents and oral history interviews, this article examines an important but little-studied relationship between two of the 1950s leading political and journalistic figures.

The black journalist and politician, Roscoe Simmons, was best known for his ability as an orator. Simmons's lecturing activities reveal the networks underlying a black public sphere upon which ambitious black leaders relied to publicize their political agendas. Those networks expanded in the first half of the twentieth century as blacks exploited the press, radio, and other technologies, and as blacks migrated in numbers from the Southern states. Meetings of African Americans served several functions: as opportunities to debate the race's prospects; to voice political concerns; and as sources of entertainment. Simmons incorporated all these principles in his platform performances, as he worked to secure valuable connections with organizations ranging from churches and fraternal bodies to Republican clubs and urban machines. Beginning with his family connection to Booker T. Washington, Simmons cultivated friendships with influential blacks and whites over a period of fifty years. His conservative ideology, however, did not suit all tastes.

The early nineteenth century witnessed gladiatorial contests in print between the contributors to the conservative Quarterly Review and the radical Edinburgh Review. Among the chief protagonists of the two papers were Robert Southey, leading contributor to the Quarterly from its launch in 1809 until 1839, and Thomas Babington Macaulay, whose first contribution to the Edinburgh, on `Milton', appeared in August 1825, after which he became a mainstay of the periodical. Their `reviews' were long essays of 10,000 or more words, in which the works purportedly being reviewed were mere pegs on which to hang their own observations. They were generally scathing about publications which took an ideological stance opposite to their own, and sympathetic to those which adopted a similar position to that which they held. Though they frequently made barbed references to each other in their reviews, Southey never reviewed a work by Macaulay, who only once criticized one by his rival. Nevertheless, that particular occasion, in January 1830, was a classic clash of Titans. It demonstrated their fundamental disagreement over the prospects facing society from the initial impact of the industrial revolution.

This article discusses the case of radical black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row in Pennsylvania for supposedly killing a policeman, questioning the political implications of his trial and his conviction. The protest of historians and other academics, addressed in a letter from the American Historical Association, is highlighted.

This article recounts opposition by journalist Chu Anping to the Chinese Communist Party through his journal 'The Observer,' and its political consequences. The popularity of this publication and Chu's devotion to the cause of free speech are discussed.

The authors discuss the life of dissident journalist Chu Anping and his conflicts with the Chinese Communist Party. His reputation as a young intellectual, overseas study, and founding of the publication 'The Observer' are described.

Chinese Communist Party chair Mao Zedong moved swiftly to prevent ideological splits within his party by identifying potential opponents, especially journalists, and eliminating them. Mao spent much of the 1950s pretending to tolerate opposition but permitting only his interpretation of Marxism.

The authors raise the question of what happened to Chu Anping, a Chinese editor who was openly critical of the Communist Party. He physically vanished, with the strong possibility of having been executed, at the age of 58.