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. The Salzburg Academy, a joint program of the Salzburg Global Seminar in Salzburg, Austria, and the University of Maryland's International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, brings together for three weeks every summer undergraduate and graduate students from a broad variety of top universities around the world. Faculty and deans of these universities participate in the Academy, giving lectures and acting as mentors to small teams of students. The premise of the Academy is to explore the media's role in global progress, pluralism, and citizenship. The Academy mission is to encourage collaboration across countries, continents and cultures. Students and faculty assemble to engage in debate, and construct curricular products that explore new understandings of global media systems and their influence on political and civil society.