Area of Expertise

Copyright, journalism, media criticism, U.S. and international telecommunication policy; press ethics, 1996 Telecommunications Act, telecommunication innovations, information access and equity, free speech, fair use, digital media

Additional Information

Patricia Aufderheide specializes in the social impact of mass media and communication policies. She is director of AU’s Center for Social Media, which analyzes and showcases media for social justice, civil society, and democracy. She co-authored, with Peter Jaszi, Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright (University of Chicago Press, 2011), and authored Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2007); The Daily Planet: A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat (University of Minnesota Press, 2000); and Communications Policy in the Public Interest (Guilford Press, 1999). With Peter Jaszi in the Washington College of Law, she has coordinated since 2004 the Fair Use and Free Speech Project, a project to expand access to the copyright doctrine of fair use. Focusing on independent and international work, Aufderheide is an award-winning film and video critic who has been a juror for the Sundance Film Festival. She has also served on the film advisory board of the National Gallery of Art, and on the board of directors of the Independent Television Service, an organization that produces television programming for underserved audiences. Aufderheide is on the board of directors of Kartemquin Films, a leading independent social documentary production company. She is a member of the editorial boards of numerous publications, including Communication and Law and Policy, and the newspaper In These Times. She has received several life-achievement awards, including in 2010 from Women in Film and Video (D.C.); in 2008 from the International Digital Media and Arts Association, and in 2006 from the International Documentary Association. Her current projects focus on social documentary and intellectual property.