Research Specializations:
- Theories of Press Freedom
- Global Media and Communication Studies
- Gender and Sexuality
- Digital Journalism Studies
- Media Ethics
- Cultural Studies
Lindsay Palmer is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UW–Madison. She studies human rights media from a qualitative, humanist perspective, especially focusing on the complicated concept of press freedom. In her work, Palmer seeks to answer three questions: 1) How should we define press freedom in a globalized, digital age? 2) What are the economic, political, cultural, and technological forces that can hinder media workers’ efforts at informing the world’s diverse media publics? 3) How do global inequalities contribute to press freedom violations, as well as shaping the advocacy work that combats those violations?
These questions have led Palmer to pursue research on digital war reporting, local translators and guides, and virtual reality news stories that focus on international human rights issues. Palmer’s first book is called Becoming the Story: War Correspondents since 9/11 (University of Illinois Press 2018). Her second book is called The Fixers: Local News Workers and the Underground Labor of International Reporting (Oxford University Press 2019). Palmer is currently working on two new book projects: one of these conducts a cultural history of the Committee to Protect Journalists. The other analyzes the digital advocacy of major press freedom groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters without Borders, and the International Press Institute.
Palmer teaches courses on global news networks, gender and sexuality in the media, theories of global communication, and cultural studies. Before her life in academia, she worked as a television news producer.