Texas Tech University

Lyombe Eko

William S. Morris Professor in Innovation, Journalism, and Information
Journalism & Creative Media Industries

Email: leo.eko@ttu.edu

Phone: +1.806.834.0677

Research: Comparative and international communication law and ethics, New Media law and policy, Collective Memory and Visual Communication

Office:
 603

Ph.D. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

View CV

Leo Eko

Biography

  • Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication
  • Director of African Studies, University of Iowa
  • Assistant Professor & Student Media Adviser, Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Maine, Orono
  • Documentary producer, translator and editor (English/French), African Union of Broadcasting, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Journalist, Cameroon Radio and Television Corporation

Research

Comparative and international communication law and ethics, New Media law and policy, Collective Memory and Visual Communication

Books

Selected Publications

Books

Eko, L. (forthcoming). The Anglophone Question and Post-Colonial Hegemony in Cameroon: The Past That Did Not Pass (Spears Media).

Eko, L. (2019). The Charlie Hebdo Affair and Comparative Journalistic Cultures: Human Rights Versus Religious Rites. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
-Winner, International Book Awards, Los Angeles, CA (2020), Multicultural Non-Fiction Category.
-Winner Texas Tech University President's Faculty Book Award 2021.

Eko, L. (2017). The Regulation of Sex-themed Visual Imagery: From Clay Tablets to Tablet Computers. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Eko, L. (2013). American Exceptionalism, the French Exception and Digital Media Law. Lanham, MD. Lexington Books.

Kierans, K., Vergara, G. & Eko., L. (Eds. 2013). Water, Water, Everywhere...Agua, Liquido Esencial de la Vida. Iowa City, Iowa, FIPSE VITAL. Edited book on FIPSE VITAL Project.

Eko, L (2012). New Media, Old Regimes: Case Studies in Comparative Communication Law and Policy, Lanham, MD.: Lexington Books.
(Paperback edition published 2014).

Gold Medal Winner, Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2014.
http://www.independentpublisher.com/article.php?page=1791

Law Review and Other Journal Articles (Refereed)

Eko, L. (2020). Mimicking the Sacred: Advertising Parody, Religion, and Freedom of Expression in the United States and France. Communication Law and Policy 25 (2) (AEJMC Law Journal).

Eko, L. & Koerber, A. (2020). Profiting from the Paradigm Shift in Scholarly Journal Publishing: The Case of Predatory Publishers. The Southwest Respiratory and Critical Care Chronicles, 35 (61-64). DOI: 10.12746/swrccc.v8i35.715

Koerber, A., Starkey, J., Ardon-Dryer, K.,Cummins, G. Eko, L & Kee, K (2020). A qualitative content analysis of watchlists vs safelists: How do they address the issue of predatory publishing? The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46 (6). Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133320301270 

Eko, L. & Hellmueller, L. (2020). One Meta-Media Event, Two forms of Censorship: The Charlie Hebdo Affair in the United Kingdom and Turkey (Global Media and Communication).

Eko, L. (2018). The Legal Interpretation of Freedom of Expression and Blasphemy, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication (Oxford University Press). DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.193

Eko, L. & Hellmueller, L (2018). To Republish or Not to Republish: The "Je Suis Charlie" Mohammed Cartoon and Journalistic Paradigms in a Global Context. International Communication Gazette, 80 (3), pp: 207-229

Eko, L. (2017). "Globalization and the Diffusion of Media Policy in Africa: The Case of Defamation of Public Officials" Harvard Africa Policy Journal (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University). 3rd Quarter/Summer.

Eko, L. & Mielczarek, N. (2015). When Memory "Sees Signs" and "Plays Games": An Analysis of Two Sports Shoe Controversies. Visual Communication Quarterly, 22 (2), pp 160-173.

Eko, L (2015). The Art of Satirical Deterritorialization: Shifting Cartoons from Real Space to Cyberspace in Sub-Saharan Africa. International Communication Gazette, 77 (3) 248-266.

Eko, L. (2013). Putting African Accents in United Nations Internet for Development Policies. Journal of Information Technology and Politics, 10 (3), 341-356.

Eko, L. Kumar, A., & Yao, Q. (2012). To Google or Not to Google: The Google Digital Books Initiative and the Exceptionalist Intellectual Property Law Regimes of the United States and France. Journal of Internet Law 15 (7) 12-30.

Eko, L. Kumar, A., & Yao, Q. (2011). Google This: The Great Firewall of China, The IT Wheel of India, Google, Inc., and Internet Regulation. Journal of Internet Law 15 (3), 3-14.

Eko, L. (2010). American Exceptionalism, The French Exception, Intellectual Property Law, and Peer-to-Peer File sharing on the Internet. The John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law, 10 (1), pp. 95-153

Eko, L. (2010). The Art of Criticism: How African Cartoons Discursively Constructed African Media Realities in the Post-Cold War Era. Critical African Studies 4 (1) (University of Edinburgh)

Eko, L. (2010). "New Technologies, Ancient Archetypes: The Boston Globe's Discursive Construction of Internet Connectivity in Africa." Howard Journal of Communications 21(2), 182-198.

Eko, L. (2009). Suffer the Virtual Little Children: The European Union, the United States, and International Regulation of Online Child Pornography. Journal of Media Law and Ethics 1 (1/2) 107-149.

Eko, L. & Berkowitz, D. (2009) "Le Monde, French Secular Republicanism and the Mohammad Cartoons Affair: Journalistic "Re-presentation" of the Sacred Right to Offend." The International Communication Gazette, 47 (3), 181-202.

Eko, L. (2007). It's a Political Jungle Out There: How Four African Newspaper Cartoons Dehumanized and 'Deterritorialized' African Political Leaders in the Post-Cold War Era, International Communication Gazette, 69 (3), 219-238.

Berkowitz, D. & Eko, L. (2007). "Blasphemy As Sacred Rite/Right: 'The Mohammed Cartoons Affair' and Maintenance of Journalistic Ideology." Journalism Studies, 8 (5), 779-797 (19).

Eko, L. (2006). New Media, Old Regimes: The Historical and Ideological Foundations of French & American Regulation of Bias-motivated Speech and Expression on the Internet. Loyola International & Comparative Law Review, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 69-127.

Eko, L. & Tolstikova, N. (2005). The United States, the Russian Federation, and International Electronic Signature Policy. International Journal of Law and Policy. Issue 10, Online Journal of Yale University, the University of Münster, Oxford University, and Warwick University. Available at http://www.digital-law.net/IJCLP/

Eko, L. (2005). Beasts of No Nation: Re-presentation of African Presidents in the Post-Cold War African Satirical Press. International Journal of Comic Art (Temple University) 7 (1) Spring/Summer.

Eko, L. (2003). The English-Language Press and the 'Anglophone Problem' In Cameroon: Group identity, Culture, and the Politics of Nostalgia. Journal of Third World Studies

Eko, L. (2002). Bombs and bombast in the NATO/Yugoslav War of 1999: the attack on Radio Television Serbia and the Laws of War. Communications and the Law, 24 (3), 1-45.

Eko, L. (2001). Many Spiders, one World Wide Web: Towards a Typology of Internet Regulation. Communication Law and Policy (AEJMC), 6, 445-484.

Eko, L. (2000). Public Broadcasting in a changing regulatory environment: The case of Africa. Ecquid Novi, South African Journal for Journalism Research, 21, 82-97.

Book Chapters

Eko, L. (2019). African Television in the Age of Globalization, Digitization, and Media Convergence. In The Routledge Companion to Global Television (pp. 421-435) Shawn Shimpach (ed.). London: Routledge

Eko, L. (2019). Legal Contexts in Reporting Scandal in the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia. In Routledge Companion to Media and Scandal (pp. 193-201). Howard Tumber and Silvio Waisbord (eds.). London: UK: Routledge.

Eko, L. (2019). Couching Political Criticism in Humor: The Case of Musical Parodies of the Military in Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville. In Uche Onyebadi (ed). Music and Messaging in the African Political Arena, pp, 87-107. Hershey, PD: IGL Global.

Eko, L. (2018). The Argument of Force versus the Force of Argument: The Charlie Hebdo terrorist Attack as a Global Meta Event. In Spiritual News: Reporting Religion Around the World (Yoel Cohen, ed.) pp. 237-264. New York: Polity.

Eko, L. & Hetherington, Christopher (2017). Taking Sides: WikiLeaks, the "Podesta Emails," and the Media. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books

Eko, L (2016). Teletext and Videotex in France: From innovative social media to objects of cultural memory. In Hallvard Moe and Hilde Van den Bulck (eds.) Teletext in Europe: From the Analogue to the Digital Era, Gothenburg: Nordicom.

Eko, L. (2006). Life in the Margins of Globalization: Media Liberalization, Commercialization and hegemony in Africa. In Lee Artz & Yahya Kamalimpour (eds)., The Media Globe: Trends in International Mass Media, pp 1-20. Albany: SUNY Press.

Eko, L. (2004). Internet Connectivity and Development in Africa: Look before you "leapfrog!" In J. M. Mbaku and S.C. Saxena (Eds.). Africa at the Crossroads. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press (pp. 211–231).

Eko. L. (2004). Hear all evil, see all evil, rail against all evil: Le Messager and the "Journalism of Resistance" in Cameroon. In Joseph Takougang & John Mukum Mbaku (Eds.). The Challenge of Leadership in Africa: Cameroon Under Paul Biya. Cresskill, N.J: Africa World Press (pp. 123-151).

Eko, L. (2003). Between globalization and democratization: Governmental Public Broadcasting in Africa. In Michael McCauley, Lee Artz, DeeDee Halleck & Eric Peterson (Eds.). Public Broadcasting in the Public Interest. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe (pp.175-191).

Eko, L. (2003). Globalization, Political liberalization, Cultural Hegemony and the Mass Media in Africa. In Lee Artz (Ed.). Globalization and Corporate Media Hegemony. New York: SUNY Press ( pp.195-211).

Encyclopedia Entries 

Eko, L. (2021). Deterritorialization. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (George Ritzer & Chris Rojek (eds.). Boston, MA., John Wiley & Sons. DOI:10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos1786 

Eko, L. (2017). The Legal Interpretation of Freedom of Expression and Blasphemy. Invited by: The Oxford Research Encyclopedia, Oxford University Press

Eko, L. (2015). Freedom of Expression and Professional Status, in International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication & Society. Peng Hwa Ang & Roboin Mansell (eds.). Boston, MA.,Wiley/Blackwell.

Eko, L. (2014). Communication Law and Policy: Africa In W. Donsbach (Ed.), Concise Encyclopedia of Communication, (pp. 288). Boston: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Eko, L. (2014). Internet Law and Regulation. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), Concise Encyclopedia of Communication, (pp. 288). Boston: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Eko, L. (2008). Internet Law and Policy. In International Encyclopedia of Communication, Wolfgang Donsbach (ed.). Malden, MA.: Blackwell.

Eko, L. (2008). Communication Law and Policy in Africa. In International Encyclopedia of Communication, Wolfgang Donsbach (ed.). Malden, MA.: Blackwell.

Eko, L. (2003) Freedom of the Press in Africa, Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications: Donald Johnston, (ed.)

Eko, L. (2003). Africa No. One Encyclopedia of Radio. Christopher H. Sterling & Michael Keith (eds.). Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn.

Refereed Conference Presentations (selected) 

Eko, L. & Kumar, A (2021). “New Technologies, Old Ideological Rivalries: The “Tik Tok Affair” and the Digital Cold War the United States, China and India,”* in Communication Law and Policy Top Paper Session (Communication Law & Policy Division, *Top Faculty Paper)

Kerk Kee, Glenn Cummins, Karin Ardon-Dryer, Lyombe Eko, Jesse Starkey, & Amy Koerber (2021). “Safeguarding the Open Science Movement From Predatory Journals: Academic Publishing Towards Global Communication and Social Change,”* in Hybridity, Cultural Change, and Theory (Global Communication and Social Change Division) (*Top Faculty Paper Award)

Eko, L. & Hayes, C. (2020). Circling the Paradigmatic Wagons: A Comparative Analysis of Journalistic Resistance to Perceived Violations of Freedom of Expression. Paper presented at the AEJMC International Communication Division.

Eko, (2019). "Prowling Tiger, Hidden Cultural Imperialist? Chinese Media 'Diplomacy and Soft Power' in Africa" Paper Presented at the African Studies Association Conference in Boston, MA.

Eko, (2019). Videogame Technology and the News. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Toronto, Ontario, CA.

Eko, (2019). The Memory Games: Black Alterity and Symbolic Dissent. Paper presented at Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Washington DC (May).

Eko, (2018). Couching Political Criticism in Humor: The Case of Musical Parodies of the Military in Cameroon and Congo Brazzaville. Paper presented at African Studies Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Eko, (2018). Regulation of Islamic Veils as Symbolic Politico-Religious Expressions: The Case of the United States and France. Annual Conference of the International Communication Association in Prague, Czech Republic, May.

Eko, (2018). Raping Europa Again?: Discursive Constructions of the European Refugee Crisis in Four German and Polish News Magazine Covers. Paper presented at Annual Conference of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (Washington DC).

Eko, (2017). From Physical Space to Cyberspace: Discursive Constructions of "The Great Firewall of China" in Select Newspaper Cartoons. Paper presented at Annual Conference of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago, May.

Eko, (2017). One Meta-Media Event, Two Forms of Censorship: The Charlie Hebdo Affair in the United Kingdom and Turkey. Paper presented at Annual Conference of International Communication Conference, San Diego, CA, May.

Eko, L. (2016). A Tale of Two Journalistic Cultures: Republication of Charlie Hebdo's Mohammed Cartoon Cover and Journalistic Paradigms in Canada. Paper presented at the Global Communication and Social Change Division, Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Fukuoka, Japan, June.

Eko, L (2016). Teletext and Videotex in France: From innovative social media to objects of cultural memory. Paper presented at the Global Communication and Social Change Division, Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Fukuoka, Japan, June.

Eko, L. 2016. Internationalization of Media law and Policy. Presentation at International Communication and Media Law panel, Annual Conference, Association for Journalism and Mass Communication, Minneapolis, August.

Eko, L. (2015). Freedom of Expression and the Problem of Blasphemy under American and Russian Law. Paper presented at the Law and Policy Division during the Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Puerto Rico, June 2015.

Eko, L. (2014). "The Art of Visual Punning: African Cartoon Re-presentation of Selected African First Ladies. Paper presented at the International Communication Division, during the Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Montreal, 2014.

Eko, L. "New York Times v. Sullivan at 50: Diffusion of Sullivan Principles to Select African Common Law Jurisdictions." Paper presented at the Law and Policy Division during the Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Seattle, May 2014.

Eko, L. "Intellectual Property Law and the Transfer of Collective Journalistic Works from Real Space to Cyberspace: The Case of the United States and France." Paper presented at the Law and Policy Division, during the Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Washington D.C. 2013.

Eko, L. & Haman, J., (2013). "The Internet, State Hegemony versus Corporate Hegemony in the North African Arab Spring." (Paper presented at the International Communication Division during the Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, London, June 2013.

Eko, L. "The 'Arab Spring' in North Africa and the Typological Validity of the Gateway Model of Internet Regulation. (Paper presented at the Law and Policy Division during the Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, London, June 2013.

Eko, L. "The Politics of Counter-diffusion: The Mohammed Controversies and the New International Entitle(mentality) of "Respect for Religion" Paper Presented at the Law Section of the International Studies Association, San Francisco, 2013.

Eko, L. "To Digitize or Not to Digitize: The Google Digital Books Universal Library Initiative and the Exceptionalist Intellectual Property Law Regimes of the United States and France." (Paper presented at the Communication Law and Policy Division during the Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, Phoenix, AZ, May 2012).

Eko, L. "The Art of Criticism: How African Cartoons Discursively Constructed African Media Realities in the Post-Cold War Era." Paper presented at the 94th National Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Convention (AEJMC), Denver, 2010.

Eko, L. "American Exceptionalism, The French Exception and Peer-to-peer file-sharing on the Internet." Paper presented at the 60th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) Singapore, June 2010.

Teaching Focus

  • RR 1000 Raider Ready First Year Seminar
  • CMI 3358 International Creative Media Industries
  • MCOM 3300 Mass Communication Theory MCOM
  • 3320 Media and Communication Law
  • MCOM 5347 Studies in International Communication
  • MCOM 5366 Seminar in Mass Communication Theory (Graduate)
  • COMC 6310 Contemporary Issues in Communication and Technology
  • JOUR 4301 Social Media and the Law
  • JOUR 4301 Comparative Media Ethics

Leadership & Awards 

  • Texas Tech University President's Leadership Institute (2022-2023)
    Eko President's Leadership Institute 2022 - 2023
  • Texas Tech University President's Faculty Book Award (2021) 
    President's Faculty Book Award 2021
  • Top Paper: Global Media and Social Change Division, 71st Annual ICA Conference 71st Annual ICA Conference International Communication Association (ICA) (May, 2021).
  • Winner, International Book Awards (Los Angeles, CA., 2020), Multicultural Non-Fiction Category
    Eko Hebdo International Book Award 2020

  • TTU Black Men in the Academy Award, 2022

    TTU Black Men in the Academy Award, 2022

  • Photographs Featured in Texas Tech University Office of International Affairs, “Structures of the World: Works on Paper Photo Exhibition
    Structures of the world display, 2022
  • Raider Ready Teaching Fellow Award, 2019
  • Humanities Fellowship Award, TTU Humanities Center, 2017

  • Gold Medal Winner, Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2014
    Gold Medal Winner, Independent Publisher Book Awards

  • Best Poster Award, Law and Policy Division, Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Washington D.C. 2013

  • Best Poster Award, Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Denver, Colorado, 2010

  • Faculty of the Year Award, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 2008

  • 2nd Place Paper Competition Winner, Broadcast Education Association Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada. April 2006. 

  • Mortar Board and Omicron Delta Kappa Faculty Recognition Award, TTU
  • Director of Graduate Studies, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa
  • Director, African Studies Program, University of Iowa
  • Member, AEJMC Internationalization Committee
  • Member, AEJMC Emerging Scholars Committee
  • Project Director, FIPSE VITAL Project (federally-funded environmental journalism student exchange project between seven universities in Canada, Mexico & the United States).