2012 Summer university course on online free expression and communication policy advocacy comes to an end
The CMCS hosted an intensive two-week summer course, Online Free Expression and Communication Policy Advocacy: a Toolkit for Media Development, which brought together over 30 students from 28 countries to address the most pressing challenges and debates around internet governance, freedom of expression, privacy and copyright in both their own countries and the global arena.
The CMCS organized the course in cooperation with Internews, the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Participants from academia, government and the not-for-profit sector as well as journalists and activists explored a wide range of practical and theoretical views related to communication policies, strategic advocacy, and online tools and tactics that can be used for mobilizing constituencies and enhancing the security of advocates. On a broader level, the group discussed what strategies and policies would help ensure a free and open internet in the 21st century, and what the role of research can be in identifying and evaluating them.
The participants heard presentations and asked questions from a range of academics and practitioners. Leslie Harris from the Center for Media and Technology presented the internet policy landscape and introduced the main actors and debates surrounding internet governance. Joan Barata Mir from the Blanquerna Communications School at the Universitat Ramon Llull in Spain presented cases studies on internet regulation practice in Tunisia and Spain, and Eric King from Privacy International introduced issues of online privacy and the role of corporations in facilitating human rights abuses. Sam Gregory from Witness led students in several sessions on using video in human rights advocacy. Other presenters included former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Miklos Haraszti and Andrei Richter, director and founder of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute.
Complementing the summer course program, Henry Jenkins, Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, presented a public lecture titled How Content Gains Meaning and Value in the Era of Spreadable Media.
In addition to interactive presentations from international experts, summer school participants also presented their own research projects and expertise. A case study on Iran’s internet and the challenges associated with ensuring the free flow of information in the country was presented by Briar Smith from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and Collin Anderson, an independent cybersecurity researcher based in Washington, D.C. Other case studies included a presentation by Aleksandar Blagojevic, founder of Serbia’s Pirate Party, and a presentation on the use of Ushahidi and other crowdsourcing mapping tools by Gregory Asmolov, doctoral student at the London School of Economics. Mir Abdul Wahed Hashimi spoke about the challenges of media development in Afghanistan, and Yared Legesse Mengistu, who teaches at the Law Faculty of Addis Ababa University, spoke about the challenges and regulation of hate speech.
During the two weeks, students also visited various venues in Budapest, including the Open Society Archives, the local community radio station Civil Radio, the FabLab Budapest and the hackerspace H.A.C.K. On the final afternoon of the course, the participants retreated to the Margaret Island, where they created a very analogue word cloud about the themes of the course – with pen and paper, in the grass.
The course directors for this two-week summer course were Susan Abbott (Internews), Kate Coyer (CMCS), Leslie Harris (CDT), and Prof. Monroe Price (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania; CMCS). More information on the course is available on the CEU Summer University website.