Randall S. Sumpter (CV) is Director of Journalism Studies at Texas A&M University, College Station, and administers the interdisciplinary minor in journalism. His research interests include late 19th-century news practices and the sociology of contemporary media. Sumpter has published research in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, American Journalist, Communication Law & Policy, Journalism History, Newspaper Research Journal, and Critical Studies in Mass Communication. He also co-authored a chapter for the recently published Handbook of Media Studies. At Texas A&M, he has taught courses in media history, editing, public opinion, computer-assisted reporting, and research methods for graduate students.  Sumpter’s media experience includes five years as a reporter and editor with daily newspapers, five years as a writer and Houston bureau chief for the Oil & Gas Journal, and six years as an assistant managing editor for an international newsletter.  He has participated in fellowship programs at the Freedom Forum, Poynter Institute, and American Society of Newspaper Editors. In 1996, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and joined the Texas A&M faculty the same year. 

Edward L. Walraven is a Senior Lecturer in the Journalism Studies Program. His research interests include the military, media and wartime censorship; journalism history; Spanish-language newspapers in Texas; and mass media’s impact on the folklore narrative. Walraven has published essays in military history publications, the academic journal Western Folklore, the Texas Almanac, and in a number of technical publications. At Texas A&M, he has taught courses in writing, editing, mass media and culture, information-gathering, media law, as well as on mass media and minorities. Walraven’s media experience includes four years as a reporter and editor with the San Angelo Standard-Times and more than 10 years as a science writer working directly with mass media while a member of Texas A&M’s public relations office. He joined the Texas A&M journalism faculty in 1991. Walraven earned a Ph.D. in History from Texas A&M in 1999, and has also completed a master’s degree in English and doctoral work in English literature, rhetoric and folklore narrative.