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2016 Salzburg Academy on Media & Change creates digital publication focused on mass migration

The 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change culminated the work of their three week-long program on the multi-media platform, Medium. Their videos, articles, and multi-media content are displayed in MOVE: Media, Migration, and the Civic Imagination. It can be found here. 

How do we effectively utilize media and social technologies to tell the stories of migrants around the world? How do we change the narratives surrounding migration, from ones perpetuated by fear, to journalistic efforts built upon better frames, less bias and emphasis of universal human values?

These were but two of the questions posed during the three week-long Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change: Migration, Media & Global Uncertainty. This year's program marked the tenth anniversary of the Academy, and convened 70 students from around the world, whose work culminated in the digital publication, MOVE. It aims to educate its readers on the social, cultural and political impacts of mass migration. 

Academy Program Director and MOVE Editor, Paul Mihailidis, attests to the relevance of young journalist and media students' publications as part of MOVE:

Despite today’s advances in multi-platform storytelling tools, media and news organizations are struggling to tell deep stories of migration that meaningfully elaborate on how both home and away communities are impacted. Not all the news stories of migration are narratives that address key concerns of inclusion and diversity — or that call readers, listeners and viewers to critical reflection. Too often coverage trafficks in generalizations and faceless data, emphasizes stereotypes, and perpetuates the notion of migrants and refugees as being “different” from — and threatening to — those in the media’s audience. This Salzburg Academy project is a call to students who are media, news and digitally literate to consider how inadequate narratives about migration can be reconsidered. From these explorations we published multimedia essays that articulate how we believe our personal stories and human connections to those around us can enable us and others to be more inclusive, responsive, and understanding of migrants and the socio-political-cultural impacts of migration.

MOVE includes student articles, interactive content and videos. The students worked in small groups throughout the Academy to create work that highlights the challenges faced by migrants in both leaving their home nations and in integrating, as well as the powerful role of the media in drafting migrant narratives. 

Migration and Integration, a video created by Sandra Zawaideh, along with an article written by Zawaideh, Connie Chan, Eliana Azar and Jeremiah Kipainoi, focuses on migrant integration across a number of European countries. They were able to meet with Matin, a sixteen year-old refugee from Afghanistan who is being hosted by a local Austrian family. The below video features Matin, Edward Mortimer, a Senior Program Advisor to Salzburg Global and Mike Mackenzie, who has been working with Matin at the Minerva program in Salzburg. View the full article here. 

Students, Nora Sakabedoian and Kaylee Largay created an article and accompanying video titled, The Silenced, which uses motion graphics of a young girl to discuss migrant worker exploitation and the importance of ethical consumerism. Read their article here.

Another group of students, Julianna Barbara, Nicole Lipp and Rafael Diaz Ceballos, shared the stories of two migrants living in Austria. Nicole Lipp, whose mother has been working with two young refugees in Graz, Austria, arranged for a meeting with the students at Schloss Leopoldskron, providing them with the opportunity to speak with people who have have faced the arduous journey of migration and subsequently, integration. The video below is of Kadour, an eighteen year-old Syrian refugee, discussing leaving his home country. Visit here to read their full article and view additional videos. 

Serving Up a Better Life, created by Sophocles Geroulis and Madison Gallup, tells the stories of refugees from around the world, who used their own cultural traditions and cuisine to connect with each other as well as their new communities. See the photos and read the article here. 

These are just a few of the many videos, articles and interactive content that were produced during the program. The MOVE homepage which displays all student groups' work throughout the academy, can be found here. 

To learn more about the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change, including a comprehensive list of faculty and visiting scholars, key questions and participating universities, visit: http://www.salzburgglobal.org/go/sac10