Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture Journal
Co-Founding Editor
Sammye Johnson
Professor
Trinity University

Sammye Johnson is a professor in the Department of Communication at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where she holds the Carlos Augustus de Lozano Chair in Journalism. Prior to joining the faculty at Trinity, Johnson was an award-winning magazine editor and writer for more than a decade. She continues to freelance; since 1985 she has published more than 350 articles in a variety of magazines and newspapers and received 19 writing awards.

Johnson’s research focuses on magazine content and history, particularly the depiction of women on the covers and editorial pages of such magazines as Time, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Sassy, Glamour, and Vogue. Her work has been published in the top refereed journals in the journalism and mass communication field, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Journal of Magazine and New Media Research, and Journalism Studies. She has contributed 14 chapters to books about magazine publishing and presented more than 50 refereed research presentations at national and international conferences.

Johnson is the co-author of The Magazine from Cover to Cover, now in its second edition. The book, which has been praised by both educators and professionals, is used by more
than 70 journalism and mass communication schools and departments throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and China.

She has received many honors, including Headliner of the Year from the San Antonio Chapter of the Association for Women in Communications, Outstanding Educator of the Year from the Texas Public Relations Foundation, and Communicator of the Year from the International Association of Business Communicators in San Antonio. Her teaching awards are numerous and include the Educator Award from the City and Regional Magazine Association and the Magazine Educator of the Year Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. In 2005, Trinity University awarded her the Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship, its highest honor for excellence in teaching.

Johnson received both the Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism, cum laude,
and the Master of Science degree in Journalism, summa cum laude, from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Illinois. While at Northwestern, she was inducted into the journalism honorary Kappa Tau Alpha, and received the Harrington Award, Medill’s highest award for graduate students.