Summer School: Advocacy, Activism and the Internet: Communication Policy for Social Change

Academic Program: CEU Summer University

Course Director(s):
Susan Abbott
Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Kate Coyer
Center for Media and Communication Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Monroe Price
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, US / Center for Media and Communication Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Course Coordinator(s):
Eva Bognar
Center for Media, Data and Society, Central European University, Hungary

Laura Schwartz-Henderson
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, USA

This intensive summer course is designed to help both researchers, activists and policy advocates gain new insights into the role civil society can play in advocating for a free and open internet. Through the course, participants will also learn digital tools for mobilizing and organizing constituencies and for enhancing their own online security and privacy, as well as that of activists and journalists.

The course will be organized with thematic sessions in the mornings and afternoon hands-on trainings and Internet Policy Lab. The sessions will, thus, feature a mix of lectures, group discussions, hands-on practicums, as well as a field trip within Budapest to meet with organizations engaged with work in this field at a local "hacktivist" space.

As part of the course, the organizers ask that all applicants apply with a case study on an internet policy issue that they are working on at their home institution/organization or as part of their academic research. All selected participants will be required to come prepared to give a 10 minute presentation about the internet policy issue of their choice at the start of the summer school. Based on these presentations, the class will break into small teams for an afternoon Internet Policy Lab and be tasked with creating a public policy advocacy campaign in conjunction with the selected case studies. Each team will be required to give a multi-media presentation to the group at the end of the course.

The course will focus heavily on hands-on trainings, including interesting and timely skills based opportunities to learn about the latest techniques in video advocacy, data visualization and infographics, social media campaigns, and other key tools needed to run effective internet policy advocacy campaigns and projects.

We will also allocate time to discuss global and international trends and actors in internet governance and media development such as the Internet Governance Forum and the International Telecommuncations Union involvement and interest in internet regulation.

Application Deadline: March 15