James L. Baughman (January 10, 1952 - March 26, 2016) was an American mass communication historian, and the Fetzer-Bascom Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Early life and education James L. Baughman was born in Warren, Ohio on January 10, 1952, the son of Lewis E. and Ann B. Baughman. Baughman grew up in Warren and attended the Warren City Schools. He was a lifelong and passionate fan of the Cleveland Indians. Baughman received his BA in history from Harvard University in 1974. He attended graduate school at Columbia University, where he obtained his M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D. degrees, all in history. His doctoral adviser at Columbia was the renowned historian William E. Leuchtenburg. Academic career James Baughman taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1979 until 2016. He served as Director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication from 2003 to 2009. An exceptionally popular professor with students, he won the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003. He looked the part of a professor, always wearing a jacket and tie to class. He smoked a pipe and liked to tell funny stories or do impressions of historical figures over a glass of scotch. He believed deeply in the power of the written word. When students or friends experienced major life challenges or traumatic events, he always encouraged them to "write about it." During his long career at the University of Wisconsin, he authored four books on the history of mass communication in the United States. His 1992 book The Republic of Mass Culture: Journalism, Filmmaking, and Broadcasting in America since 1941 explained how the advent of television transformed mass culture in the United States. Baughman argued that television had a greater impact on its rivals—such as newspapers, radio broadcasters, and the film industry—than it did on society as a whole. As he put it: "Indeed, the effects [of television] that can be demonstrated are institutional, not social. Some of TV's rivals adjusted quickly to the challenge of the home screen; others showed what in retrospect appears to have been an almost self-destructive indifference. But nearly all came to adopt a common anti-TV strategy. Recognizing television's capture of the mass audience, most began cultivating the subgroup, segments of the audience denoted by such factors as class, education or age." Baughman's 2007 book Same Time, Same Station: Creating American Television, 1948-1961 described