The late Don Pember, a leading scholar in media law, shaped generations of great journalists
Professor Don Pember was a favorite of communication students. On the UW faculty from 1969 until the early 2000s, he taught media law and reporting.
Nearly 50 years ago, Don Pember wrote the book that remains a gold standard in the field of journalism, “Mass Media in America.” Says Jerry Baldasty, ’72, ’78, former UW communication chair and former provost, “It was one of the first [works] that really took a critical/analytical view of the media—Don was a huge supporter of the free press but no apologist for its errors.”
Pember joined the UW faculty in 1969 and quickly earned a reputation for his rigorous and compassionate teaching, along with his expertise in mass media, privacy and the press, and the First Amendment.
Only four years later, Pember became the first communication faculty member to receive the UW’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Two years after that, he was recognized for his excellence in teaching by the Carnegie Foundation. Many of his students went on to become influential scholars, journalists and communications professionals. What made him such a great teacher? “His passionate sincerity,” Baldasty says in an obituary on the Communication Department website. “He really cared about the media, about the law and ethics. And the students. He wasn’t an easy grader! He encouraged his undergrads to take things seriously, too—because he saw media as central to democracy.”
A second edition cover of Pember’s Mass Media in America, considered the gold standard in journalism.
Of her time as a student of Pember’s, Betty Winfield, Curators’ Professor Emeritus at the Missouri School of Journalism, says that “if ever a professor impacted a student, Don Pember certainly did; not just as an excellent teacher and a scholar but as a decent, sensitive human being.”
Teaching Professor Caley Cook recalls using Pember’s book as an undergraduate “and being struck by the humor, wit and curiosity with which he approached the study of legal issues within the media. And then I met him in person and realized his humor and love for the subject wasn’t isolated just to the written word.”
After he retired in the early 2000s, his students and colleagues created the Don Pember Journalism Endowed Scholarship. He died June 22 at the age of 84.