History of Newspaper Food Journalism
I am looking forward to presenting “Newspaper Food Journalism: The History of Food Sections & The Story of Food Editors” at the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium. It will be held at the University of Florida in March.
For years, historians considered the food sections of newspapers to be either fluff and/or lacking an ethical framework because the food editors were controlled by advertisers. As I began to challenge those assumptions, I looked at what was covered at the week-long meetings of food editors which ran in the 1950s and 1960s. The meetings were sponsored by advertisers and featured their newest products. Yet, the meetings also featured significant speakers and events.
A review of several of the meetings led to an article Lance & I wrote for Gastronomica last summer: “”Food Fight: Accusations of Press Agentry.” I looked at newspaper coverage of a few more meetings to strength my argument about the importance of food journalism in my upcoming book, The Food Section: Newspaper Women & the Culinary Community.
To truly verify what happened at the annual meetings, I went through the coverage of each year from 1950 through 1970. I did this by looking at several newspapers, including the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, the Milwaukee Journal, the Miami News and the Los Angeles Times.
The results are what I will be presenting at the Colloquium. For example: “The 1966 food editors meeting took place in Boston with 155 editors attending. New products were introduced including the first lemons ever grown in Florida, a self-basting turkey, and fish fillets with a crunchy coating that tasted deep fried but were not. A revolutionary “quick thaw” was demonstrated that allowed fruit cups to go from freezer to table in seven minutes, and a new kind of pouch that allowed onions and cabbage to be cooked without smelling up the house was introduced. The food editors tried Boston haddock and Maine lobster along with California wines, according to Crandall. Interestingly, the women’s organization was allowed into the oldest all-male club in Boston, the Algonquin. The editors ate a low-calorie meal in the building. Walker also covered the meetings and told her Charleston readers about butterscotch popcorn, a cheesy corn dish, and a blueberry relish meant to be served with chicken or ham.”
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