Janet Steele
Associate Professor of Media and Public Affairs

Phone – (202) 994-2004
Fax – (202) 994-5806
E-mail – jesteele@gwu.edu
Office – MPA 421
Office Hours – Fall: Tuesdays, 2-3:30 and by appointment

Expertise

The history, ideology and professional practices of journalism; journalism in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor); narrative journalism; media in the developing world

Education

Ph.D., American Cultural History, The Johns Hopkins University, 1986
M.A., History, The Johns Hopkins University, 1982
B.A., History, The College of William and Mary, 1979

Courses Taught

SMPA 2101 Journalism and Mass Communication Theory and Practice
SMPA 3244 Narrative Journalism
SMPA 3471 Media in the Developing World
SMPA 2177 Media History

Background

Janet Steele is an Associate Professor of Journalism at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. She received her Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University, and is especially interested in how culture is communicated through the mass media. She is a frequent visitor to Southeast Asia, where she lectures on topics ranging from the role of the press in a democratic society to specialized courses on narrative journalism. Her most recent book Wars Within: The Story of Tempo, an Independent Magazine in Soeharto’s Indonesia (Equinox Publishing and ISEAS, 2005) focuses on Tempo magazine and its relationship to the politics and culture of New Order Indonesia. She has published articles on media history and criticism in journals such as Journalism, International Journal of Press/Politics, Asian Studies Review, Indonesia, Foreign Policy, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Political Communication, Columbia Journalism Review, and The American Journalism Review, and lectured on the theory and practice of journalism as a State Department Speaker and Specialist in India, Malaysia, The Philippines, East Timor, Taiwan, Burma, Sudan, Egypt, and Bangladesh. A former Fulbright professor in the American Studies program at the University of Indonesia (1997-8), she was awarded a second Fulbright teaching and research grant to Jakarta’s Dr. Soetomo Press Institute in 2005-2006.

Fluent in Indonesian, she is currently working on a book on journalism and Islam in the Malay Archipelago.

Find her online at Janetsteele.net

Selected Works

“Journalism and ‘the call to Allah’: Teaching journalism in Indonesia’s Islamic Universities and State Institutes,” International Journal of Communication, Vol, 6 (2012):  pp. 2944–2961.

"The Making of the 1999 Indonesian Press Law," Indonesia, October 2012, 94:  pp. 1-22.

Justice and journalism: Islam and journalistic values in Indonesia and Malaysia, Journalism vol. 12, July 2011, pp. 533-549.

http://web.ccas.gwu.edu/dev/filehost/8/Journalism article Janet Steele.pdf Professionalism Online: How Malaysiakini Challenges Authoritarianism The International Journal of Press/Politics vol. 14, January 2009, pp. 91-111.

The Voice of East Timor: Ideology, and the Struggle for Independence, Asian Studies Review, Vol. 31, September 2007, pp. 261-282.

Wars Within: The Story of Tempo, an Independent Magazine in Soeharto's Indoesia. Equinox Publishing and the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 2005.

The Sun Shines for All: Journalism and Ideology in the Life of Charles A. Dana. Syracuse University Press, 1993.

Representations of The Nation in Tempo Magazine, Indonesia 76 (October 2003) pp. 127-145.

Suara Dari Dalam: Majalah TEMPO, 1971-2001, in TEMPO: 30 Tahun (1971-2001). PT Tempo Inti media TBK, 2001. pp. 7-18. [The Voice of Their Hearts: TEMPO Magazine (1971-2001).]

"Into the Brightness: Goenawan Mohamad and the Influence of TEMPO Magazine, 1994-1998," conference on "Media in the Asia Pacific World: Press and Politics in Economic Crisis," The Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College, Pomona, California, October, 1998.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Explain: Unofficial Sources and Television Coverage of the Dispute Over Gays in the Military, Political Communication, Spring 1997.

Experts and the Operational Bias of Television News: The Case of the Persian Gulf War, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 4, Winter 1995, pp. 799-812.