Author Profile

Patricia Aufderheide

Patricia Aufderheide, a professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, was culture editor of In These Times from 1978 to 1986. Now a senior editor of the magazine, her most recent book is Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright, co-authored with Peter Jaszi.

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Dr. Patricia Aufderheide is a well-known cultural journalist, policy analyst, and editor on topics related to media and society, and has received numerous journalism and scholarly awards. Her relationship as a senior editor and columnist dates back to her tenure as culture editor for In These Times from 1978 to 1982.

Dr. Aufderheide is a professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington, DC and the director of the university’s Center for Social Media, which “showcases and analyzes strategies to use media as creative tools for public knowledge and action.” Aufderheide is also director of the Independent Television Service, which produces innovative television programming for underserved audiences under the umbrella of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She serves on the film advisory board of the National Gallery of Art, and on the editorial boards of a variety of publications, including Communication Law and Policy.

Aufderheide is the author of The Daily Planet: A Critic on the Capitalist Culture Beat (University of Minnesota Press, 2000), and Communications Policy in the Public Interest: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Guilford Press, 1999) and the editor of Beyond PC: Toward a Politics of Understanding (Graywolf Press). She has been a Fulbright and John Simon Guggenheim fellow and has served as a juror at the Sundance Film Festival.

Most Recent Articles

  • 17 Feb 06

  • Features

    Sundance Docs 2006

    Have the marketplace successes of Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11) and Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low more »

  • 21 Apr 05

  • Features

    Too Much Media

    Our media environment is very noisy, abundant, even polluted. Columbia journalism professor Todd Gitlin calls it “media unlimited.” more »

  • 28 Jan 05

  • Culture

    Docs Rock Sundance

    “We’re 21, which is usually thought of as the age of consent,” Robert Redford said at the opening more »

  • 25 Jan 05

  • Culture

    Copywrongs

    Budding filmmaker Jonathan Caouette spent$218 to make a movie on his Macintosh about his dysfunc-tional family, Tarnation. It more »

  • 14 Jun 04

  • Culture

    Farmingville Lessons

    When Carlos Sandoval—a Manhattan lawyer of Latino heritage—read while vacationing in Long Island about violence against more »

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