The Berkeley China Internet Project (BCIP) is a participatory media and research network, with a focus on how the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a ''internetworking, network of networks'' that consists ...

affects China's

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

and

politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

. Based at the

Graduate School of Journalism Graduate may refer to: Education * The subject of a graduation, i.e. someone awarded an academic degree ** Alumnus, a former student who has either attended or graduated from an institution * High school graduate, someone who has completed high ...

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, the activities of BCIP are centered on the development of a set of participatory media projects, including

China Digital Times China Digital Times (CDT; ) is a US-based 501(c)(3) organization that runs a bilingual news website covering China. The site focuses on news items which are blocked, deleted or suppressed by China's state censors. History The website was start ...

(CDT) which explore cutting edge

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...

applications to cover China. Its current director is

Xiao Qiang Xiao Qiang (, born November 19, 1961) is the Director and Research Scientist of the Counter-Power Lab, an interdisciplinary faculty-student research group focusing on digital rights and internet freedom, based in the School of Information, Uni ...

. Together with an

interdisciplinary Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...

class and online knowledge base on

Participatory Media Participatory media is communication media where the audience can play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating content.Bowman, S., Willis, C.We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Info ...

, research projects on

information and communication technology Information and communications technology (ICT) is an extensional term for information technology (IT) that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals) and computers ...

and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

, BCIP aims to provide both a new lens on the complex and rapidly changing society and a locus of influence on events: enhancements of the effectiveness and

civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: General * Civics, the science of comparative government *Civic engagement, the connection one feels with their larger community * Civic center, a co ...

impact of participatory media could accelerate the growth of citizen-engaged

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.public sphere The public sphere (german: Öffentlichkeit) is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action. A "Public" is "of or concerning the ...

. It will also help develop critical knowledge and insight into how the

digital communication Data transmission and data reception or, more broadly, data communication or digital communications is the transfer and reception of data in the form of a digital bitstream or a digitized analog signal transmitted over a point-to-point or p ...

revolution is interacting with China's society, media and politics and transforming China's future.

External links

Official website
Internet in China University of California, Berkeley