Salzburg Academy's Global Media Literacy (GML)

The Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change uses in-person educational exchange and information and communication technology (ICT) to engage undergraduate and graduate students in GML thinking and dialogue. The in-person element happens each summer for a 3-week period, when selected students from around the world gather in Salzburg, Austria, with an international faculty from more than a dozen different universities, who give lectures and act as mentors to small teams of students. Each year, organisers conduct a global comparative content analysis that is structured around comparing news coverage on a global scale. This exercise is designed to provide the students with an understanding of perspective, frames, and cultural dispositions. Past guest speakers have included Richard Ford, Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Stoppard, Sir Gilbert Levine, and a host of journalists and media practitioners.

Each year, the Academy focuses on specific topics, such as climate Change, terrorism, public health, and religion. For instance, in Summer 2010 (the fourth annual programme), the guiding theme will be: "There is no global issue, no political arena, no academic discipline in which the statement of problems and the framing of possible solutions are not influenced by media coverage." For 3 weeks, participants will explore issues related to media and global understanding and awareness. The focus will be on encouraging cross-cultural thinking about the roles media play in global affairs and public policy and helping students and faculty evaluate distinctive international media and policy models and consider their advantages and limitations.

Specifically, students work in groups to create case studies around topics that are seen across borders, across cultures, and across divides. They build frameworks for analysis, critique, and exploration. This process is included in the 2-part GML curriculum: The first half teaches basic media literacy skills - comprehension, analysis, evaluation - for students to use while engaged with media. The goal is to build their capacity to: identify what "news" is, and how media, as well as other actors, decide what information matters; monitor, analyse, and compare media coverage of people and events; and understand media's role in shaping global issues. The second half of the curriculum highlights the connections between media literacy and civil society and informs individuals about the importance of exercising their human right to freedom of expression. Part Two of the curriculum teaches individuals to: defend media in their oversight of good government, corporate accountability, and economic development; promote civil society by themselves becoming a responsible part of the communication chain; and motivate media to better cover news by communicating to media their expectations for accuracy, fairness, and transparency.

The educational lesson plans that emerge each year are then edited and published online, available for free download around the world. For instance, the 2009 seminar participants created e-MONITOR, a learning guide to teach news evaluation and curation. Key questions addressed through this learning process include: What events and issues are news? (e-MONITOR directs users to examine the content of individual media outlets.) Do all news outlets select the same events and issues to feature? (e-MONITOR asks users to compare news content in one outlet to that produced - in the same news cycle - by other news organisations in the same region and across the world.) What news stories should be emphasised in one's own media outlet? (e-MONITOR challenges users to make their own choices of what news to feature for their own audiences.)

The use of ICTs is also reflected the GML shorts that emerge from the programme each year. With the help of a production crew, students create stylised videos that help tell stories about media for global audiences. They are done with flip cams, basic audio devices, and editing tools. The students learn multimedia storytelling for global audiences. A sample of one of the shorts, titled "Hide & Seek Hanyong" may be viewed below; the accompanying lesson plan will be published shortly on the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change website.

Also, e-Media is a blog conceived to advance dialogue around issues in media, citizenship, and culture worldwide. e-Media features regular commentary from journalists, scholars, educators, policy officials, and aspiring media practitioners on topics that range from conflict and justice to the environment, poverty, and migration. The issues discussed may be local in content but are meant to address issues in global contexts, for a global audience. e-Media also invites regular participation from readers, and solicits submissions from its readership on a rolling basis.

The Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change website features other multimedia elements as well, such as a graphic one may click on to hear 6 journalists and professors from around the world share their insights on many of the core issues facing today's news media. "Listen too as these journalists talk about how media literacy can help news rooms come to grips with journalism's challenges in the digital era."

Media Literacy.

GML connects critical analysis and critical thought with freedom of expression to elicit a heightened understanding of global media's role in ensuring civil society. It asks the following types of questions: "How do news media affect our understanding of ourselves, our cultures, our politics?" and "How can we use media to better cover global problems and to better report on possible solutions?"

Salzburg participants are selected each year via a competitive process, detailed here. In email correspondence with The Communication Initiative, the Director of the Academy, Dr. Paul Mihailidis, states that the true takeaway from the yearly sessions is the networks built for the students and faculty: "the students manage to build career colleagues on a global level. Many define the experience as 'life-changing.' We take trips to Dachau, into the Austrian Alps, and into Munich/Salzburg. Students live, eat, and work together, with faculty at the Schloss Leopoldskron, the site where parts of the Sound of Music were filmed. This atmosphere creates an energy around the program that turns to high engagement and production...and fun."