Past Program

The global pandemic has exposed the risks of media ecosystems designed to obscure facts, promote false information, and elevate polarizing political networks. Media industries are challenged with providing information for people to make informed and engaged decisions about health and safety during a catastrophic health crisis. News organizations, media ngos, tech companies, and platforms are all faced with challenges of providing reliable information, and space for dialog and engagement, within a time of deep distrust of public institutions, political polarization, and disinformation that spreads wider and faster than ever before.

In 2022, The Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change asks, “After the Pandemic: How Can Media Advance Equitable and Just Civic Futures?” Faced with increasingly fractured communities  across the globe, the Media Academy will explore  how media organizations can critically reflect on and reimagine their roles and responsibilities  in societies today. To combat the current state of disinformation, distrust and polarization, we must not only bring media literacy practice to individuals, but also see media literacy as a tool that media organizations and civil society groups can use to promote healthy and vibrant information infrastructures. The 2022 Salzburg Media Academy will work to nurture networks of support and bring together media stakeholders to seed and cultivate agile and dynamic media literacy initiatives around the world.

We will specifically focus on how media organizations can aspire to a transformational future, where they are able to care for their communities, help communities imagine alternative futures, and cultivate greater abilities for communities to participate meaningfully in media and daily life.

Participants will have an opportunity to network with each other, and with the faculty of the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change. Partner organizations in 2022 will pose challenges to their work that are emerging after the pandemic. Participants will explore problem areas, undertake deep field scans, and offer dynamic media-based responses to the challenges facing media organizations post-pandemic.

Since 2007, the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change has been gathering aspiring media makers, journalists and storytellers to engage in an immersive experience meant to build networks of emerging leaders in media and related fields. The program's success is built on the premise that bringing together groups of committed and driven people to learn, collaborate, and engage in dynamic media creation projects can build and sustain committed leaders in media fields. Since 2007, over 1000 young people and 200 faculty have come through the media academy, and moved on to careers in industry and academia. Our outcomes have been implemented in over 100 countries around the world, into schools, governments, news organizations and other sectors.