In the summer of 2007, the Salzburg Global Seminar and the the University of Maryland's International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) launched the inaugural Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. The Program is based on the premise that 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. Since it is increasingly critical for students to have an understanding and awareness of the relationship between the media and the global issues which exist, the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change is dedicated to creating and disseminating teaching modules, course materials and a new curriculum on global media literacy.

In 2007, fifty-two students from five continents and a dozen faculty and deans from 12 universities came together at the Salzburg Global Seminar to create a global media literacy curriculum and accompanying teaching modules focusing on climate change and terrorism. The curriculum and teaching modules are being used by educational institutions in several countries.

The 2008 Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change is set to launch for a second year this summer at Schloss Leopoldskron in Austria. The session will run from 29 July - 18 August.

Over fifty students from across the globe will join a dozen faculty members for three weeks of intense study, deep conversations, fabulous meals, beautiful walks into town, and late-night, hard-fought matches of ping pong and tabletop fussball.

Building off the successful inaugural 2007 Academy, this summer students will further explore media's role in global communities and civil society.

The Salzburg Academy is conceived to answer two of the most pressing questions of our time:

"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?"

MORE DETAILS

• For more information on the 2007 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change and to see the curricular tools that the students created, CLICK HERE.
• For more information about the 2008 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, CLICK HERE
• Students, universities, foundations, and other organizations interested in learning more about how they can become involved in the Program should contact Paul Mihailidis