{"title":"The Surgeon-Journalist: Thomas Revel Johnson, Australian Sports Press Pioneer","authors":"Caron Eastgate Dann","doi":"10.1080/14443058.2023.2266818","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Thomas Revel Johnson was a pioneering Australian sports journalist in the mid-19th century who also conducted a professional career as a surgeon. This article aims to examine Johnson’s achievements in Australian sports reporting as an emerging genre before it was taken seriously by the mainstream press. It also examines his place in a watershed libel case that cast him as a scapegoat and resulted in an unduly harsh two-year jail sentence. The article situates Johnson as part of a pre-Federation commercial media that attempted to establish a distinctly “Australian” voice, championing the underdog and working to undermine imported societal hierarchies.","PeriodicalId":51817,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Australian Studies","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Australian Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14443058.2023.2266818","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"AREA STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Thomas Revel Johnson was a pioneering Australian sports journalist in the mid-19th century who also conducted a professional career as a surgeon. This article aims to examine Johnson’s achievements in Australian sports reporting as an emerging genre before it was taken seriously by the mainstream press. It also examines his place in a watershed libel case that cast him as a scapegoat and resulted in an unduly harsh two-year jail sentence. The article situates Johnson as part of a pre-Federation commercial media that attempted to establish a distinctly “Australian” voice, championing the underdog and working to undermine imported societal hierarchies.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Australian Studies (JAS) is the journal of the International Australian Studies Association (InASA). In print since the mid-1970s, in the last few decades JAS has been involved in some of the most important discussion about the past, present and future of Australia. The Journal of Australian Studies is a fully refereed, international quarterly journal which publishes scholarly articles and reviews on Australian culture, society, politics, history and literature. The editorial practice is to promote and include multi- and interdisciplinary work.