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Michael J. Socolow

Professor
Communication and Journalism

Michael J. Socolow is a media historian whose research centers upon America’s original radio networks in the 1920s and 1930s.  His scholarship on media history has appeared in Journalism & Mass Communication QuarterlyThe Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic MediaTechnology & Culture, and other scholarly journals.  He is the author of  (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016).  He was awarded the  by the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation and the Broadcast Education Association for Six Minutes in Berlin.  In 2019, Professor Socolow was a Senior Fulbright Research Scholar at the  at the  [Australia]

He is also a former broadcast journalist who has worked as an Assignment Editor for the Cable News Network and as an information manager for the host broadcast organizations at the Barcelona, Atlanta, and Sydney Olympic Games.  He has written pieces on media regulation and media history for The New York TimesWashington PostSlatePoliticoColumbia Journalism Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Chronicle Review, and other journalistic outlets.  In the Department of Communication and Journalism, he teaches CMJ 211: Journalism Studies I, CMJ 237: Journalism Across Platforms, CMJ 380: Advertising, Media & Society, CMJ 489: Seminar in Media Ethics, CMJ 520: Media History, CMJ 525: Propaganda and Political Persuasion, and other courses.

From 2020 to 2022, Dr. Socolow was Director of the McGillicuddy Humanities Center at the 91.

For more on Professor Socolow’s scholarship check out his  profile. His Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) page . He tweets at .

Recent Scholarship

“Lawyers, Los Angeles and Le Show: On Covering O.J. Simpson While Listening to Le Show, 1994 – 1995,”&Բ;Resonance (2025) 6 (2): 200–208. DOI: 

“,” in Garza, M.M., Fuhlhage, M., & Lucht, T. (Eds.). (2023). The Routledge Companion to American Journalism History (1st ed.). (Routledge, 2023). DOI: 

“Commercial Television’s Secret Goldmine: The Hidden Riches Generated by U.S. Network TV News, 1960–1970,”&Բ;Journalism History 49 (2) (2023), 91-94. DOI: .

“‘Australians are the Greatest Sport Loving People in the World’: Sport Broadcasting’s Role in the Development of National Radio in Australia, 1925–1935,”&Բ;Media History 28 (4): 510-528. DOI:   

“Comparing Australian, British, Canadian, and U.S. Broadcasting: The 1934 Radio Reports Compiled by Australian Broadcasting Commissioner E.M.R. Couchman,”&Բ;Journal of Radio & Audio Media, 28 (1) (2021), 86-106. DOI: 

“”&Բ;Journal of Radio and Audio Media 27 (2) (2020): 208-233.

“” in John Bird and Judith Yaross Lee eds. Seeing Mad: Essays on Mad Magazine’s Humor and Legacy (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2020): 177-192.

Recent Reviews and Media Commentary

“,”&Բ;Inside Higher Ed, March 12, 2025.

“,”&Բ;Los Angeles Review of Books, September 21, 2024.

“,”&Բ;The Conversation, February 22, 2024.

“”&Բ;Reason, February 9, 2024.

“,”&Բ;Journal of American History 110 (1):189–191 [Film Review].

“”&Բ;Slate, May 11, 2023.

“”&Բ;The Conversation, April 27, 2023.

“ The Conversation, March 14, 2023.

Interviews

“,” National Public Radio “Weekend Edition,” August 3, 2024.

“,”&Բ;Columbia Journalism Review, July 24, 2024.

Portrait of Michael Socolow
Professor