Nicole Starosielski on UC Berkeley News: Why Subsea Cables and Internet Infrastructure Deserve Your Attention

UC Berkeley professor Nicole Starosielski didn’t expect to become a leading expert on subsea internet cables, but now she’s at the forefront of making the internet’s hidden infrastructure visible and understood. In her feature on UC Berkeley News, she breaks down why these undersea fiber optic cables matter far more than you might think.

From the article:

“All of this affects how you get the media that you get, how fast it is, where it circulates, how you can communicate with your friends — and yet, it’s invisible,” she explains. “If you can’t know about it, you can’t change it. You can’t have a say in it. So you should probably care.”

Read more here, and check out the full video here!

Nicokle is also launching the Berkeley Center for New Media's Certificate in Global Digital Infrastructure, the first program of its kind, which explores how internet infrastructure shapes media, technology, and geopolitics today. It is available to students from UC Berkeley and universities around the world. Learn more about the certificate here, and find out how to get involved this Summer 2025!