Leo Van Audenhove

My student and professional life largely coincide with the development and uptake of the Internet and its gradual maturation. I have always closely followed these technological development and been highly surprised by the naiveté of the discourses in relation to resulting social change and economic development. In the policy field we have always criticized the overoptimistic discourses and have tried to inform policy on the basis of evidence based policy research. We have done this in diverse fields of digital inequality, ICTs and development and media literacy.

I am professor and head of department at the Department of Communication Studies of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is a researcher at iMEC-SMIT – Studies on Media, Innovation and Technology at the same university. At this point, I am also extra-ordinary professor at the University of the Western Cape. In 2013, I was instrumental in setting up the Knowledge Centre for Media Literacy in Flanders, of which I subsequently became the director. The centre was established by government as an independent centre to promote media literacy in Flanders. My research focuses on Internet governance, media literacy, e-inclusion and ICT for development.