Research Training Fund Travel Report – Sage Goodwin

With the very generous award from the Univ Research Training Fund I was able to travel to Boston, New York and Austin in January this year. This was the first major research trip of my DPhil and was crucial for ascertaining the direction of my thesis project which looks at contemporary television news coverage of the civil rights movement.

In Boston I visited the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University to look at the papers of CBS News correspondent, Dan Rather and Tufts University to view collection of CBS News Executive Producer and anchorman Edward R. Murrow.

In New York I visited the Paley Media Center to view some of their collection of archived news footage and the papers of former CBS presidents Fred Friendly and Louis Cowan at Columbia University. While in New York I also had meetings with communications scholars in the school of journalism at Columbia University.

I then finished with a trip to the Briscoe Center for American History in Austin, Texas which houses the collections of leading evening news anchorman and producer, Walter Cronkite, and various other CBS newsmen as well as the CBS Evening News (Paper) archive.

The research I was able to conduct confirmed the viability of my project and was central to the success of my Transfer of Status. I am currently using this material to write an article which I will be submitting to historical journals for publication. This will also form a key component of the evidence for my thesis.

The picture above is of me at the Paley Media Center in Chief Executive of CBS, William Paley’s office sitting at the desk where he signed the contract for I Love Lucy, holding his Emmy. On the table is an autographed copy of Coretta Scott King’s autobiography.

I am very grateful for the support from the Research Training Fund.

Find out more about the range of travel grants and scholarships available to assist Univ students on our Travel Grants page or read further travel reports.

Published: 29 May 2018

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