The Center for Media, Communication & Global Change

We conduct and connect: 

interdisciplinary scholarly research within and beyond the university;

pedagogical initiatives, curricular innovation, and student-faculty collaboration;

creative research projects in the areas of technology, art, and at their intersection;

collaborations with civil society actors globally;

conversations with policy advocates.

The Center for Media, Communication, and Global Change hosts and supports talks, events, conferences, and interdisciplinary research. It supports pedagogical initiatives, curricular innovation, and student-faculty collaboration. It promotes creative work at the intersection of art, media technologies, and research. And it fosters dialogue and collaboration between researchers, and social justice advocates.

Featured Event

In 2016, the United Nation’s General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution regarding ‘The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet’. At the heart of this resolution is the UN’s concern that “rights that people have offline must also be protected online.” While the UN thus recognises the importance of the Internet, it does so problematically selectively by focusing on protecting existing offline rights online. I argue instead that Internet access is itself a moral human right that requires that everyone has unmonitored and uncensored access to this global medium, which should be publicly provided free of charge for those unable to afford it. Rather than being a mere luxury, Internet access should be considered a universal entitlement because it is necessary for people to be able to lead minimally decent lives. Accepting this claim transforms our conception of the Internet from a technology to that of a basic right. Register for the event.