The Backbone of Digital Life

The dominance of submarine cables

99% of international data are transported via undersea internet cables. From emails and social media to financial transactions and streaming services, these cables ensure seamless global connectivity.

In our datafied lives, where almost every aspect of our daily activities is digitized and shared online, the importance of these cables is immense. Despite their significance, the physical infrastructure of communication, such as submarine cables, has not obtained much focus within communication studies. Understanding their significance is essential not only for understanding the complexity of global communication networks but also for addressing issues related to political economy, ownership and control of important resources and geopolitical dynamics.

Bio

Dwayne Winseck is Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University, with a cross appointment at the Institute of Political Economy. His research interests include the political economy of telecommunications, the Internet and media as well as communications and media history, theory, policy and regulation. He is also the Director of the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project, a project funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant. 

Dwayne’s research, data and views on media concentration and communication, media and Internet industry and policy issues are well known and have been solicited or cited widely in the scholarly literature and by the Parliament of Canada, Canadian Senate, Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Committee, World Trade Organization, the International Telecommunications Union, amongst others. Dwayne also writes regular op-eds on these topics for the press and other outlets, including as a regular columnist for the Globe and Mail.

Programme

09:00

Stine Lomborg, Professor and Head of Center for Tracking and Society, Department of Communication (University of Copenhagen)

Welcome

09:10

Dwayne Winseck, Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University

Keynote: The Global Political Economy of Internet Infrastructure

09:55

Break

10:10

Kristian Sick, Research Assistant, Department of Communication (University of Copenhagen)

Research presentation: Concentration of Ownership of Submarine Cable

10:35

Sofie Flensburg and Signe Sophus Lai, Tenure Track Assistant Professors, Center for Tracking and Society, Department of Communication (University of Copenhagen)

Research presentation:
What Ghost Cables Tell Us about the Change in Power Dynamics

11:00

Questions and debate

11:30

Break and a sandwich

12:00

Tobias Liebetrau, Researcher, Department of Political Science (University of Copenhagen)

Research presentation:

Submarine Cables as Security Politics

12:25

Signe Ravn-Højgaard, Postdoc, Department of Communication (University of Copenhagen)

Research presentation:

When there is no business case for cables. The case of submarine cables in the North Atlantic Arctic

12:45

Questions and debate

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Funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark grant 0132-00080B Datafied Living.