Center for Media, Data and Society


The Center for Media, Data and Society is a research center at Central European University that focuses on media, communication and information policy. Located in Budapest, Hungary, CMDS produces scholarly and practice-oriented research about journalism, media freedom, and internet policy.

History and Network

The Center was founded over a decade ago as the Center for Media and Communication Studies. It began in 2004, and was designed to serve as a focal point an international network of acclaimed scholars and academic institutions, whose research ranges from media and communications policy, fundamental communications rights through media and civil society and new media and digital technology to media in transition. In September 2014 it was relaunched as the Center for Media, Data and Society to represent new interests in technology policy, and big data. The Center has been led since September 2016 by Marius Dragomir, a media expert, journalist and scholar.

Projects and Mission

The Center’s research projects focus on identifying trends and challenges in the use of information technologies and advancing policy discussions about the regulation of data and media. The Center has an annual summer school on activism and digital media that draws democracy advocates, media activists, and civil rights campaigners from around the world to discuss policy and strategy. Current projects of CMDS include , , , , .
Recent projects include a study of privacy violations in Europe called the "European Privacy Report", which found that the most significant source of data breaches are security lapses in the workplace. The Center is also known for its monitoring work on media policy in Central and Eastern Europe and Hungary in particular.