Aimee Edmondson

Dr. Aimee Edmondson is a professor in media law and journalism history with a particular focus on civil-rights related libel law, critical race theory and free expression. She also teaches data journalism using the techniques of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and has traveled to Kenya, China, Kazakhstan, India and Germany to lead workshops for journalists and journalism educators.

She considers herself a third generation newspaperman. Her grandfather published and edited the Terrebonne Press back home in Louisiana and her uncle was a journalist. In the dozen years she worked in newsrooms around the country, she’s covered just about every beat – cops, courts, politics, education, poverty, features, sports and special projects. She continues her journalism in her research and writing about media and is honored to educate the next generation of truth tellers.

Her book, In Sullivan’s Shadow, The Use and Abuse of Libel Law During the Long Civil Rights Struggle, was published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2019. The book was a finalist for the Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for the best book on journalism and mass communication based on original research. It also was runner up for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication History Division Book Award.

She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri School of Journalism (2008), Master of Arts from the University of Memphis (1999) and her Bachelor of Arts from Louisiana State University Manship School of Journalism (1990).

When she is not committing journalism or traveling to teach data journalism, she is working on her farm in the Appalachian foothills. She is interested in local food economies and sustainability. You can find her in her vegetable garden and hanging out with a herd of goats, two cattle dogs and a flock of chickens.

Selected Publications:

• Aimee Edmondson, “Pure Caucasian Blood: Libel by Racial Misidentification in American Newspapers (1900-1957),” American Journalism, forthcoming Winter 2021.
• Ken Ward and Aimee Edmondson, “The Espionage Conviction of Kansas City Editor Jacob Frohwerk: ‘A Clear and Present Danger’ to the United States,” Journal of Media Law & Ethics (Summer/Fall, 2017).
• Aimee Edmondson, “Rearticulating New York Times v. Sullivan as a Social Duty to Journalists,” Journalism Studies (Fall 2016).
• Aimee Edmondson, “A Pulitzer from the North, a Libel Suit from the South: Southern Editors’ Civil Rights Writings, 1954-1968,” First Amendment Law Review, 12 (Winter 2014).
• Aimee Edmondson, “Tool of Empowerment: The Rhetorical Vision of Title Nine,” Lodz Papers in Pragmatics 7:1 (Fall 2011): 135-154.
• Molly Yanity and Aimee Edmondson, “Ethics and the Online Coverage of Recruiting High School Athletes,” International Journal of Sports Communication, 4 (Winter 2011): 403-421.
• Aimee Edmondson and Charles N. Davis, “Prisoners of Private Industry: Economic Development and State Sunshine Laws,” Communication Law & Policy, 16: 317 (Summer 2011): 317-348.
• Aimee Edmondson, “In Sullivan’s Shadow: The Use and Abuse of Libel Law Arising from the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1989,” Journalism History 37:1 (April 2011): 27-38.
• Aimee Edmondson and Earnest L. Perry, “‘To the detriment of the institution’: The Missouri Student’s Fight to Desegregate the University of Missouri.” American Journalism 27:4 (Fall 2010): 105-131.
• Aimee Edmondson, “Packing Heat: A Gun Battle between Privacy and Access,” Journal of Media Law & Ethics, 1:4 (Summer/Fall 2009): 217-240.
• Aimee Edmondson and Earnest L. Perry, “Objectivity and The Journalist’s Creed: Local coverage of Lucile Bluford’s fight to enter the Missouri School of Journalism.” Journalism History 33: 4 (Winter 2008): 233-240.
• Elinor Kelley Grusin and Aimee Edmondson, “Taking it to the Web: Youth News Moves Online.” Newspaper Research Journal 24: 3 (Summer 2003): 91-96.