Michael S. Sweeney

Department Head

Professor, Department of Journalism & Communication
At USU since 1996

Vita

Specialty Areas:
Contact: (435) 797-3213 (office)
(435) 787-8696 (home)
mike.sweeney@usu.edu

Academic Degrees:
-- Ph.D., Communication, Ohio University, 1996
-- Master of Journalism, University of North Texas, 1991
-- B.A., Journalism, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1980

Fall 2009 classes:
JCOM 1130, Beginning Newswriting
JCOM 4100, Hard News Cafe

Dr. Sweeney's resource pages:
Dr. Sweeney's Guide to AP Style (used by colleges throughout the United States)
Test Yourself on AP Style
Anatomy of a Crime
Read Strunk and White's "Elements of Style"
Some Words About Headlines
The Dangers of the Word "Alleged"
The First Homicide
Historiographical Essay for USU Grad Students

Personal Stuff:
I knew I wanted to be a journalist when I was 14. That's when I delivered the Washington Evening Star to the student housing at the University of Maryland. Watergate was in the news--mostly in the Washington Post, which would explain my small subscription list-- and it was an exciting time to dream of being a reporter. I also discovered that I like to write, and being a newspaper reporter means getting paid for writing.

The most influential people in my journalism career were my college reporting instructor, Jim Patten, who insisted on accuracy; my first city editor, Gale Baldwin, who let me watch as he copy edited my stories and told me why he made the changes that he did; and my last boss, the late K. Mark Murphy, who was metro editor of the Los Angeles Times.

I graduated from the University of Nebraska (Go Big Red!) in 1980.

I decided to go to graduate school and broaden my career opportunities in 1987, mainly because years of working the late shift at newspapers were making my home life difficult. I was working nights and my wife was working days, and that meant I had little time to spend with my son and only two nights and two mornings a week to spend with my wife. I got a master's degree at the University of North Texas in 1991 and a doctorate at Ohio University in 1996. And I am still married.

As a student in Nebraska, I worked as a sports information assistant and as a photographer in the Nebraska Press Association. After I graduated, I worked as an education, police and general assignments reporter at the Springfield (Mo.) Daily News. I moved to Texas in October 1981.

In 12 years at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram I was a copy editor, copy desk chief, columnist, sports copy desk chief, reporter, entertainment editor, deputy features editor and weekend guide editor. I even had a daily humor column for a while. (Sample item: Some of the Top Ten Things Overheard at the New McDonald's That Serves Pasta: "Boss, the wine machine is clogged again," and "Ronaldo will seat you now.")

But I like teaching more than any of that stuff. I also do research in mass media history. My wife's name is Carolyn. She is a teacher's aide in River Heights, Utah. My son is David, a 2007 graduate of USU. He plays the trombone, piano and guitar and is married to a terrific woman from North Dakota, Angela. We have a black Lab, Hailey, and a brown basenji, Chance.

Recently...
My seventh book, Last Unspoiled Place: Exploring Utah's Logan Canyon, is on sale in bookstores throughout Cache County as well as the rest of the country. My eighth book, released in spring 2008, is Peace: Biography of a Symbol. My ninth book, for National Geographic, should be out by spring 2009. It's about survival.

Northwestern University Press published The Military and the Media in August 2006. It is a history of American press-military relations.

In 2004 I traveled to the North Atlantic with Dr. Robert D. Ballard to collaborate on the book Return to Titanic. Two other books I wrote for the National Geographic Press are On the Move, a transportation history co-authored by Janet F. Davidson, and From the Front, a history of war told through the eyes and ears of war correspondents. A book based on my dissertation, Secrets of Victory, a history of World War II press censorship, was named 2001 book of the year by the American Journalism Historians Association.

In April 2008, the Hard News Cafe (www.hardnewscafe.usu.edu), a student-run online news site that I co-supervise with Nancy Williams, won first place in the Mark of Excellence contest run by Region 9 of the Society of Professional Journalists. That means, in all of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, it is the best independent, student online college news source. HNC also was named one of the top three in the nation in 2002.

I was president of the American Journalism Historians Association from October 2004 to October 2005. In 2006, I became chair of the AJHA Research Committee. I serve as president of the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication for 2007-08.

I appeared in a satellite TV seminar in November 2000 with Walter Cronkite, Richard C. Hottelet and Williamson Murray. The broadcast, originating in New York City, examined wartime censorship.

Sweeney's Dream Dinner Party (You can play along: Which guests from all of human history would you invite? The rules: Four women, four men, no more and no less. Ignore language differences.)

Eleanor Roosevelt, J. Pierpont Morgan, Joni Mitchell, Albert Einstein, Dorothy Parker, T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), Ida B. Wells Barnett, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Sweeney's eclectic list of his favorite music:
1. Mozart's Requiem. Best death music of all time.
2. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Best affirmation-of-life music of all time.
3. Brick, Ben Folds Five.
4. Rosalita, Bruce Springsteen.
5. Roam, the B-52s.
6. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
7. China, Tori Amos.
8. The Blower's Daughter, Damien Rice.
9. Twist and Shout, the Beatles.
10. Mais Que Nada, Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66.

Also receiving votes: Riders on the Storm (Doors), Fire (Jimi Hendrix), Sympathy for the Devil (Rolling Stones), Heart of the Matter (Don Henley), Take Five (Dave Brubeck), Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan), The Circle Game (Joni Mitchell), I'm Still Remembering (Cranberries), I Can't Make You Love Me (Bonnie Raitt), Reach Out, I'll Be There (Four Tops), God Only Knows (Beach Boys), Smetana's Moldau, Night and Day (Django Reinhardt), Across the Universe (the Rufus Wainwright cover of the Beatles tune) and My Old School (Steely Dan).