The Salzburg Media Academy is the result of a post-war initiative for world peace, science and culture – the Salzburg Global Seminar was described by its founders as a kind of ‘Marshall Plan for the Mind’. There, we had the opportunity to share how we work on media literacy with the schools and educators of the MigratED project – as an essential tool for Global Citizenship education. And to attend a week of brilliant workshops and conferences.

The setting couldn’t be more impressive: a small lakeside palace where Julie Andrews filmed the rowing boat scene in ‘Music in the Heart’, with the Alps as the backdrop. Built in the 17th century by the archbishops who ruled Austria, the Rococo style palace then passed from hand to hand until it came to near ruin in the hands of the playwright, artist and libertarian Max Reinhardt in 1918.

Transformed into a residence for artists, a dramaturgical laboratory and a space for culture and art, it was completely renovated by the playwright over a period of 20 years. The paintings, the furniture, the wonderful library where we presented ‘MigratED’, the rooms that inspired the sets for ‘Música no Coração’ – each one housed artists and creators until the tragic end. We can almost imagine the Nazi flag flying on the façade when it was transformed into the gestapo headquarters for the region and, apart from Max Reinhardt, who sat in the same chairs. It’s only when you get to Lisbon that you realize you can see Hitler’s ‘Eagles Nest’ from there on clear days…

In order to cleanse these dark days in human history, the founders of the Salzburg Seminar created this non-profit organization with the support of actress Helen Thimig, Reinhardt’s widow – an initiative that has grown since 1947 and to which many people from all over the world have access: all the surroundings are elitist and fairytale-like, but in reality most of the students who take part have scholarships and the teachers are invited.

15 years ago, the Salzburg Media Academy was born in this universalist spirit, as a learning opportunity for students, but also an exchange of experiences between the team of teachers and speakers – the team, led by Paul Mihailidis from Emerson College, made us feel at home and the program, tough for the students, was inspiring and democratic.

Shahidul Alam, the Bangladeshi photographer and founder of Drik, one of the first agencies to be able to place images by photographers from the South in international agencies, going against the colonial vision of the international media. He told the conference that ‘giving up is a luxury we can’t afford: I can’t distinguish between activism and art’, which puts this social justice activist, released less than a year ago by the Bangladeshi regime, at the forefront of the international art scene (after anthropology, situated and activist art).

It was a privilege to hear another voice that bridges the gap between North and South: Sangita Sheresthova is one of those people who grew up between worlds – she was born on the other side of the Iron Curtain, in Prague, but her father is from India – and manages to give body and creativity to the idea of Global Citizenship. A natural facilitator, she investigates new methods of fostering intercultural dialog and currently runs the research project ‘@CivicPaths’, at the University of Southern California. The project embodies the concept of ‘Civic Imagination’ or how to ‘imagine a collective vision for a better future’ to support diverse communities in channeling their collective energy towards real change in the world. We look forward to his forthcoming book: ‘Practicing Futures – a guide to taming civic imagination’.

On the other side of the world, while the streets of Hong Kong teem with social protest, Alan Au, a professor at Stanford and the University of Hong Kong, brought his analysis of the David and Goliath situation vis-à-vis China. A brilliant new form of leaderless collaboration, a truly shared civic initiative, protects activists on the streets today from what happened in 2013 when protest organizers were arrested and students tortured. Localized and collaborative activism, transversal to society rather than focused on student leaders, has made the movement a success so far. You can feel the swell of emotion that runs counter to the phlegm of an Asian, you can guess the fear of reality for little David facing his powerful neighbor (‘Time is the greatest weapon for China’) and pessimism does not escape those who research the phenomena of tacit censorship and self-censorship in newsrooms – but the use that Hong Kong activists make of the media and truly social networks, technologically very simple, is inspiring in Alan’s presentation.

And when we talk about media literacy, activism and weapons to fight tyranny, we couldn’t help but listen to a lady of this great stature: Elisa Lees MunozElisa Lees Munoz, an American with origins here in neighboring Andalusia, is the director of the IWMF – The International Foundation for Women and the Media runs support and training programs for women journalists around the world, so that they can do their work and have a voice, as safely as possible. The bot, the fake news and online harassment and defamation make the foundation’s activity increasingly necessary to protect women journalists, not just in dictatorial regimes but right here beside us – and the work has been so useful that they are now adapting the training to work with women in politics, who suffer exactly the same kind of digital harassment and persecution.

Another word for Meg Fromman educator who knows the formal education system well and is also an excellent co-facilitator of the Academia mano-a-mano with Paul Mihailidis – and the brilliant Claudia Kuzmanfrom the American University of Beitut, Lebanon, who asked: “How can facts fight emotions?”. Citizen journalism, collaborative and including the voices of the south: the project coordinator NewsScoopCamila Warrender brought all these issues to Salzburg for discussion. The photographer Karah Shaffer, of the project ‘Faces of Change: Documenting America’ which portrays economic and social changes in various cities – started with the project ‘Documenting Detroit. Chris Harris who came to talk about the power of music, and especially rap, to bring people together and educate them through the media. And the generous and creative Pablo Martinez-Zaratewho came to offer us digital tools and free software to work with the students and teachers at MigratED – thank you very much!