Aimee Edmondson, PhD, is professor and director of graduate studies at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. She is author of “In Sullivan’s Shadow: The Use and Abuse of Libel Law During the Long Civil Rights Struggle.”
Edmondson grew up in a small farming community in northeast Louisiana. She describes her book on libel as the product of 30 years of rumination on race and journalism.
Edmondson is first Vice President of the American Journalism Historians Association. She is an expert in communication and media law, libel and state sunshine laws. Her focus is on the changes in state sunshine laws and the evolution of libel law during the U.S. civil rights movement. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University (1990), her masters from the University of Memphis (1999) and her doctorate in journalism from the University of Missouri (2008).
Prior to joining the faculty at Ohio University, Edmondson covered politics, poverty and education mostly while reporting for the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee, and the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia. National reporting awards include Green Eyeshade Excellence in Journalism, Society of Professional Journalists, and the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. She also won 10 Best of Scripps awards for work at the Commercial Appeal. State reporting awards include Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors, first place, non-deadline reporting and Malcolm Law Investigative reporting award; and multiple Georgia Associated Press awards.
Through her research and courses, veteran journalist Edmondson helps future journalists combine writing skills with technology-assisted reporting and media law. Her mantra to journalism students: “People are racing to be first,” she said. “You don’t want to get beat, but you don’t want to get it wrong. [High-speed journalism] has to be right.”
