Patrick
File
Graduate Director, Associate Professor of Media Law
He, him
pfile@unr.edu
(775) 784-4894
Reynolds School of Journalism
<p><span>Built in 1992, the building was named for Donald W. Reynolds, journalist and businessman, whose interest and contributions helped transform the university's journalism program from a department to a school. RSJ, with its distinctive atrium, is home to a faculty that has helped produce six Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists. The Travis Linn Reading Room, named in honor of the late Reynolds School dean Travis Linn and located on the first floor of the building, plays host to the school’s annual “Lighting of the Hearth” event each fall semester, where students, faculty, alumni and friends gather to celebrate the accomplishments of the past year. The building also houses the Rollan Melton Conference Room and the Clarence & Martha Jones Network Center.</span></p>
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RSJ
39.5412239387057
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Publications
Journalism, faculty, media studies
<p>Patrick File’s research, public engagement, and teaching focus on helping us better understand how we define and regulate journalism at the intersection of law, technology, and professional practices. In the classroom, Patrick strives to help his students develop a critical curiosity about the evolving and dynamic legal, social, and historical background of today’s media environment.</p>
<p>Patrick's research in media law and history is published in journals like Communication Law & Policy, American Journalism, and the Journal of Media Law and Ethics. His book, published in January 2019 by the University of Massachusetts Press, is titled “Bad News Travels Fast: The Telegraph, Libel, and Press Freedom in the Progressive Era.”</p>
<p>Prior to his academic career, Patrick won national awards as a student journalist, worked for his hometown newspaper in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and reported for publications in Iowa and upstate New York. He interned with the Student Press Law Center, in Washington D.C., and spent two years in South Korea as an ESL instructor. </p>
<h3>Courses taught</h3>
<ul>
<li>JOUR 401/601: The First Amendment and Society</li>
<li>JOUR 409/609: How to Use Public Records Laws for Accountability Reporting</li>
</ul>
<h3>Recent work</h3>
<ul>
<li>File, P. C. (Under Review). “Pictures and Press Freedom: How the News Industry Legalized Photographic Copyright Infringement, 1890-1910.”</li>
<li>File, P. C. (2024) “Picturing Privacy: Journalism’s Strategic Legal Discourse about Photography, 1890-1920,” <em>Journalism Studies</em> <em>26</em>(3), 333–350.</li>
<li>Pason, A. and File, P. C. (2021). “Protesting with guns and conflating the First and Second Amendments: The case of the Bundys.” <em>First Amendment Studies</em> 55(2).</li>
<li>File, P. C. (2019). <em>Bad news travels fast: The telegraph, libel, and press freedom in the progressive age</em>. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. </li>
<li>File, P. C. and Wigren, L. (2019). “SLAPP-ing back: Are government lawsuits against records requesters strategic lawsuits against public participation?” <em>The Journal of Civic Information</em>, 1(2), 1-16.</li>
<li>File, P. C. (2019). “Journalism, public, policy: An institutional view of the press’s legal discourse at the end of the nineteenth century.” <em>Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly</em>, 96(3), 830-847. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Selected service</h3>
<ul style="font-weight: 400;">
<li>Reynolds School First Amendment Forum, annual event organizer</li>
<li>Kappa Tau Alpha journalism and mass communication honor society, Reynolds School chapter adviser</li>
<li><em>Journal of Civic Informatio</em>n, editorial board</li>
<li>Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Law & Policy and History divisions</li>
<li><em>Communication Law & Policy</em>, <em>American Journalism</em>, <em>Journalism History</em>, <em>Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly</em>, Manuscript reviewer</li>
<li>Nevada Open Government Coalition, founding president, board member, 2020-2024</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Ph.D., University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication</li>
<li>Master's Degree, University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication</li>
</ul>