Amanda J. Crawford is a veteran political reporter and literary journalist who joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut in 2018.
Prof. Crawford’s research areas include journalism ethics, media law, misinformation, conspiracy theories, mass shooting denial, and the role of journalists in a democracy. As an investigative reporter, creative nonfiction writer and academic, her work lies at the intersection of literature and reportage and is informed by scholarly research.
Prof. Crawford is writing a book examining the role of the media in the dual crises of gun violence and misinformation. Her articles about the fight for truth after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School have been published by major media outlets including The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Conversation and CNN. “Truth for the Dead,” an almost 15,000-word narrative on a Sandy Hook family’s decade-long fight against hoaxers, was the cover story of Boston Globe Magazine in August 2022. It won first place for human interest feature reporting in the 2023 New England Newspaper & Press Association’s Better Newspaper contest and was nominated by the Globe for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting. Prof. Crawford was a 2020-21 fellow at the UConn Humanities Institute and has been awarded a SCHARP award and summer funding grants from the university in support of this research.
Prof. Crawford has a deep background covering gun policy and gun violence that informs her research and considerations of best practices for journalists. She has covered mass shootings and other gun violence, written about legislation in Congress and statehouses across the country, and once went undercover to buy assault weapons. She is a research affiliate of the UConn ARMS Center and the Rockefeller Institute for Government’s Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium and serves on the advisory board of the Supporting Mass Shooting Survivors research project.
Prof. Crawford serves on the board of directors of the Connecticut Foundation for Open Government and on the Connecticut committee of the New England First Amendment Coalition. She recently completed a term on the national board of directors of the Journalism & Women Symposium (JAWS), where she chaired the professional organization’s membership committee.
Prior to coming to UConn, Prof. Crawford held faculty appointments in the School of Journalism & Broadcasting at Western Kentucky University (assistant professor, 2014-18) and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication at Arizona State University (lecturer, 2008-10).
She previously worked as a reporter for Bloomberg News, The Arizona Republic, The Baltimore Sun and People Magazine. Her work has been published by many other publications including Businessweek, National Geographic, Talking Points Memo, Nieman Journalism Lab, Nieman Reports, The Miami Herald, The Hartford Courant, Ms. Magazine, Huffington Post, Phoenix Magazine and High Times. She has also published essays and prose poetry in literary journals including Creative Nonfiction, Hippocampus Magazine, Full Grown People and New Square. Prof. Crawford was a 2007 finalist for the national Livingston Award for Young Journalists and has won numerous regional journalism and FOI awards. In 2018, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in nonfiction.
Prof. Crawford holds a Master of Mass Communication degree from Arizona State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, where she studied journalism and creative writing and was named the Outstanding News-Editorial Graduate. Raised in Appalachian Maryland, Prof. Crawford was the first person in her family to attend college and wants to help other first-generation college students and those from underrepresented communities succeed in academia.
Recent work:
- “Journalists Can Do Better Covering Mass Shootings: New recommended best practices reflect the experiences and concerns of survivors, who often feel exploited,” Nieman Reports, July 12, 2024.
- “Truth is Dead. Long Live Truth.” UCONN Magazine, Spring 2023.
- “Opinion: Sandy Hook was the start of misinformation running amok,” CNN, Dec. 14, 2022.
- “10 years after the Sandy Hook shooting, Alex Jones is being held accountable for spreading conspiracy theories — but those sort of lies now plague the US,” The Conversation, updated Dec. 11, 2022.
- “The epic story of a Sandy Hook family fighting Alex Jones and the rise of conspiracy theories: When 26 people were murdered at the school in Newtown, Conn. in 2012, the ugliness of social media collided with parents’ grief in a way the world had never seen,” The Boston Globe, August 17, 2022.
- In print (PDF): “Truth for the Dead: A horrific mass shooting. A heinous conspiracy theory. And grieving parents’ 10-year quest after Sandy Hook,” Globe Magazine cover story, August 21, 2022.
- “Sarah Palin, The New York Times and the Limits of Political Messaging,” Nieman Reports (Nieman Foundation at Harvard), March 2022.
- “American support for conspiracy theories and armed rebellion isn’t new – we just didn’t believe it before the Capitol insurrection,” The Conversation, January 2022. Also published by Salon, Talking Points Memo, UPI and other outlets.
- “How Conspiracy theories in the US became more personal, more cruel, and more mainstream after the Sandy Hook shootings,” The Conversation, December 2021. Also published by Nieman Journalism Lab, The Miami Herald, Talking Points Memo and other outlets.
- “The Professor of Denial: How a prolific academic became an advocate for some of the most odious ideas of our time.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 2020.
- UConn Humanities Institute Fellow’s Talk: “Misinformation & The Media: Lessons from the Sandy Hook Shooting.”
Classes: Media Law, Journalism Ethics, Newswriting I, The Press in America,
Twitter: @amandajcrawford
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandacrawford