Benedetta Brevini

Benedetta Brevini is an Italian academic, author, journalist, and media and technology reformer. Brevini is currently an associate professor of political economy of communication at The University of Sydney and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Brevini later obtained a Master of Laws and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she studied Communication Policy and Regulation. She was employed by CNBC in Milan, Italy; RAI in New York City, United States; and The Guardian in London, United Kingdom. Brevini has also consulted for GetUp!, the Open Society Foundations Media Program and Access Info Europe.

In addition to her academic pursuits, Brevini writes for The Guardian’s Comment is Free. She also contributes to numerous web and print publications, including openDemocracy, South China Morning Post, The Conversation, and MediaReform.co.uk. She authored Public Service Broadcasting Online (2013) and edited Beyond WikiLeaks (2013) in accordance with the political economy framework, and examined Amazon through the same intellectual lens in Amazon: Understanding a Global Communication Giant (2020). Brevini also lists sustainable communication, communications systems and climate change, and media reforms in comparative perspective amongst her research interests. Brevini considers this issue with reference to Denmark, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, where Public Service broadcasting has incurred major reforms that have altered its legal and policy-related frameworks. Brevini posits that Amazon has built a "digital estate" in its 25 years of operation. She argues that, while AI is frequently presented as a "magic wand" that will liberate humanity from the climate crisis, Accordingly, Brevini highlights four ways in which technologies, machines and infrastructures that use AI can exacerbate global warming.

Algorithms require significant computational power to be developed and trained to analyse and categorise data.

Selected bibliography

Brevini, B. (2021) Is AI good for the planet? (Cambridge: Polity Press) Brevini, B and Swiatek, L. (2020) Amazon: Understanding a Global Communication Giant (New York: Routledge). Brevini, B. and Lewis. (eds) (2018) Climate Change and the Media (New York: Peter Lang). Brevini, B., Murdock, G. (eds) (2017) Carbon Capitalism and Communication: Confronting Climate Crisis (New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan). Brevini, B. (2013). Public Service Broadcasting Online: A Comparative European Policy Study of PSB 2.0. (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan). Brevini, B., Hintz, A., McCurdy, P. (eds) (2013). Beyond WikiLeaks: Implications for the Future of Communications, Journalism and Society (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).