Salzburg seminar reimagines media

Students and faculty members from the School of Communication participated in the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. Photo: Courtesy of Liana Barros

By Barbara Gutierrez
bgutierrez@miami.edu
08-16-2024

The scenic Schloss Leopoldskron villa in Salzburg, Austria, immortalized in the film “The Sound of Music,” served as the venue for this year’s Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, which drew about 70 students from across the world to discuss the future of communication under the theme “Belonging in the Age of Machines: Reimagining the Role of Media.”

Five University of Miami students from the School of Communication took part in the seminar, which ran from July 15-30. The students listened to lectures and presentations from college professors and communication managers. They were later divided into groups and were tasked with imagining the world of communication in 2074.

Faculty members Sanjeev Chatterjee, Sallie Hughes, and Boriana Treadwell were among the presenters in this year’s academy. The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change was founded in 2007 with the mission of convening emerging leaders across media industries to build networks of innovation and leadership in media. Participants collaborate to address social problems and design media-based solutions.

“I like to call it a transformative experience that makes you aware as a communicator that you need to look into the motivations and the history and background of other people so that you can understand them better,” said Chatterjee, who has been on the Salzburg Academy faculty since 2008. “The motivations that create different narratives makes one a better storyteller.”

Interacting with students from other cultures, religions, and life experiences broadens participants views, said Chatterjee.

“You may have a view on the war in Gaza, but when your roommate is from Lebanon, you may hear a different view,” he said.

That was one of the takeaways for graduate student Liana Barros, who is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in documentary work.

“The most valuable thing was to be surrounded by people from so many different countries,” she said. “I really enjoyed learning how people are raised differently, what is politically different in their country, how the situation in their country may change their views on media.”

Working with 10 other students in a workshop, she explored the future of advertising in 2074. They envisioned a world that, rattled by a worldwide rebellion, had eschewed large corporations and instead relied on smaller, diverse companies that did not emphasize overconsumption but rather were respectful of consumers’s privacy and promoted programs for the public good.

“We envisioned advertising as more for the public service and not just corporations taking your money,” she said. “It would be educational advertising and not just consumerism.”

In this world, and as a result of increased artificial intelligence, there are humanoids (beings that are half human, half machine). These new beings needed and were provided with advertising that helped them develop more human emotions, she said. In this world, everyone would have access to technology.

For Caitlin Coote, a graduate student studying journalism, the seminar was eye-opening because of her interaction with so many international students who had different views and experiences from her own.

In her project, her group—which included students from Austria, Mexico, and Angola—had to imagine “The Future of AI” in the year 2074. They looked at incorporating AI into a news medium, so they came up with a magazine called Current.

In this imagined world, due to the ravages of climate change, certain parts of the world are swallowed by water, but one island emerges named Shanglulu, which becomes one of the world’s most influential cities.

“Our professors told us to be aspirational and not dystopian,” she said. With that in mind, they made Shanglulu’s society egalitarian, and economic classes were eliminated, said Coote.

A new species of kelp is discovered that is found to have regenerative with shapeshifting properties. This material shapes itself around each human’s form, thus eliminating clothing sizes, Coote said. Combined with Drop, a device that connects to a user’s brain to read waves and interact with the modern world, citizens of Shanglulu save money on clothing and can have access to the internet. People now see articles and almost all media through holograms projected from the Drop.

Current, the magazine, which would be offered at discounted prices, focuses on culture, issues of sustainability, and highlights styles that are eco-friendly, said Coote. The magazine seeks to find a healthy balance between humanity, nature, and technology, promoting mental health and inclusivity, the students wrote in their final report.

Imagining the future took hard work and long, tense discussions, said Coote. But ultimately, the results were well worth it.

“This type of program definitely will make us better communicators,” said Coote.