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Emery (Mike) Collection
TBC.MEC
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & Archives
Title: Mike Emery Collection
Creator:
Emery, Michael C. (1940-1995)
Identifier/Call Number: TBC.MEC
Physical Description:
8.83 linear feet
Date (inclusive): 1801-1996
Abstract: Michael "Mike"
Emery was a journalist, author, and professor of journalism at California State University,
Northridge. The collection consists of photographs, audiovisual materials, papers, and mass
media reporting of conflicts, politics, and the press in several geographic areas,
specifically locations in Central America, the Middle East, the Balkans, Asia, and the
United States. Emery's teaching resources and publication records on the history of
newspapers, media criticism, and other journalism topics are also present. Dates of
materials span from 1801 to 1996, with bulk dates of 1970 to 1992.
Language of Material:
English, Spanish;
Castilian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean.
Michael "Mike" Emery was born in 1940 and grew up in Minneapolis. His father, Edwin Emery,
was a journalism professor at the University of Minnesota. Mike Emery earned his BA and MA
at the University of Minnesota. He first worked for United Press International before
joining University of Wisconsin as professor. He became faculty at Cal State Northridge in
the Department of Journalism in 1968. He also taught classes at USC, UC Berkeley, and South
Australian College of Advanced Education in Adelaide.
Emery authored
On the Front Lines: Following America's Foreign
Correspondents Across the Twentieth Century
in 1995 and co-authored several
editions of
The Press and America: An Interpretive History of the
Mass Media
with Edwin Emery. He contributed to editorials in the
Los Angeles Times Sunday Opinion Section, the
Village Voice, and several other publications. He also assisted in
reporting broadcast news on international stories for Los Angeles radio stations such as KNX
and KFWB and for CBS News. He received the following recognition: the Mencken Award from the
Free Press Association for best investigative report for "The War That Didn't Have to
Happen: How U.S. Scuttled the Arab Peace Plan" in 1990; outstanding journalism educator by
California Newspaper Publishers Association in 1977; and the national outstanding chapter
advisor award from Society of Professional Journalists in 1986. One of his career highlights
was an interview with King Hussein of Jordan in 1991.
He married Lulu Calnan, a Palestinian American, and had three children and three
stepchildren. He died from cancer in 1995 in Woodland Hills, California.
The Mike Emery Collection consists of photographs, audiovisual materials, papers, and mass
media reporting of conflicts, politics, and the press in several geographic areas,
specifically locations in Central America, the Middle East, the Balkans, Asia, and the
United States. Conflicts documented include civil war in Nicaragua involving the Sandinista
government and the US-supported Contras, the Israel-Palestine conflict and the plight of
Palestinians, and former Yugoslavia and the Bosnian War. People documented include President
Slobodan Milošević of Serbia and Yugoslavia, King Hussein of Jordan, President Óscar Arias
Sánchez of Costa Rica, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, President Jimmy Carter, and
talk show host Bill Press. Emery's teaching resources and publication records on the history
of newspapers, media criticism, and other journalism topics are also present. The collection
is arranged into three series:
Audiovisual Materials
(1973-1994),
Photographs (1936-1996), and
Professional Papers (1801-1994).
Series I,
Audiovisual Materials (1973-1994), consists of
audiocassettes, microcassettes, videocassettes, magnetic tape, and a phonograph recording.
The series contains interviews with political figures, journalists, and civilians of
conflict-ridden areas; recordings from elections, press conferences, symposiums,
conferences, talks, and political rallies and activities; broadcast news segments; and field
notes from international assignments. Locations where recordings were created or discussed
in the recordings include Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Israel, and Palestine. People recorded
include Slobodan Milošević, King Hussein, Óscar Arias Sánchez, Daniel Ortega, and Bill
Press.
Series II,
Photographs (1936-1996), consists of slides,
prints, and negatives. The images' bulk dates are from 1980s to the 1990s and document
political and cultural events, such as presidential elections, political rallies, and
protests; armed conflicts; press events; and urban and rural landscapes from Emery's
professional and personal travels. The series contains proofs of the front pages of
newspapers and other mass media that headline major events and political figures from a
variety of U.S. and international newspapers, dating from the 1750s to the 1990s. Teaching
resources, publication proofs, and visual references on such topics as newspaper history,
the ethics of journalism, newspaper design and technology, newsroom operations, and media
criticism are also present and have bulk dates from the 1970s to the 1980s. Not all images
are created by Emery; some images come from Vis-Com, Inc., which supplied visual educational
resources, and other companies or tourism industries. The images capture several
international locations, such as China, South Korea, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Bahrain,
Dubai, the former Yugoslavia, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, England, Italy; Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, Peru, and Chile. People documented include Daniel Ortega, Jimmy Carter, and
Slobodan Milošević.
Series III,
Professional Papers (1801-1994), consists of
newspaper and magazine clippings, full newspaper issues, publication correspondence and
permissions, source copies, press and political materials, news releases, newsletters,
tourist publications, notes, pamphlets, ephemera, and a scrapbook. Clippings represent the
bulk of Emery's research files, which are typically categorized by country or geographic
region and refer to conflicts and politics during the 1980s and the 1990s. Emery gathered
clippings from multiple sources to also critique mass media's treatment of the international
conflicts and political situations with concern for propaganda and disinformation. During
assignments and travels, Emery collected full newspaper issues from different countries,
such as Nicaragua, Israel, and South Korea. Several files contain publishing records for
multiple editions of
Readings in Mass Communication: Concepts and
Issues in the Mass Media,
a compilation edited by Mike Emery and Ted Curtis
Smythe. The series also contains materials likely used as teaching resources for Emery's
journalism classes. Subjects found in this series include the following: Central America,
specifically Nicaragua regarding the Sandinista government, the US-supported Contras, the
civil war, and CIA involvement, and Costa Rica; the Israel-Palestine conflict; the former
Yugoslavia and civil war within the Balkans; China; South Korea; the assassination of John
F. Kennedy; Christic Institute (the public interest law firm) and their case regarding the
La Penca bombing of 1984; and the United Farmworkers Movement.
Collection folders are arranged alphabetically by title.
Content warning: Graphic images of civil unrest and war are present in Series II.
Series I: Audiovisual Materials, 1973-1994
Series II: Photographs, 1936-1996
Series III: Professional Papers, 1801-1994
The collection is open for research use.
Copyright status for materials in this collection is unknown.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Lulu Emery, 1996
For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual,
or see the
Citing Archival
Materials
guide.
Elizabeth Peattie, 2023
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Photographs
Audiovisual materials
Documents
Ephemera