SXSW 2012

Assoc Professor
Bowling Green State University
Victoria (Tori) Smith Ekstrand is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Public Relations at Bowling Green State University. She is an affiliate faculty member of BGSU’s American Cultural Studies department. A former senior executive for The Associated Press, Ekstrand’s research began as an investigation into the hot news doctrine, a part of unfair competition law that protects the facts of news for a limited period. That research resulted in the publication of her book, News Piracy and the Hot News Doctrine: Origins in Law and Implications for the Digital Age (LFB Scholarly, 2005). With another hot news case before the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Ekstrand’s work has been the subject of panels and discussions about the continued viability of the doctrine. Increasingly, her research examines regulation and policy from the critical legal perspective – and how grassroots activism is challenging intellectual property regimes. Ekstrand has published in Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly and Communication Law & Policy. She has worked with the Ohio State Bar Association on the publication of their Media Law Handbook. In 2008, she was awarded BGSU’s Outstanding Young Scholar Award, and in 2009, she was named a Scholar in Residence at BGSU’s Institute for Culture & Society.