My Narrative on Media
A Project for the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change
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I am a 23 years old student from Vienna studying Media Management for my second master’s degree. As a lecturer I teach at two Austrian Universities — media economics in a Bachelor’s programme and press relations as well as stakeholder communications in a Master’s programme. I am quite passionate about cooking, travelling, sports and culture as well as philosophy and creativity. I do not know what I’d like to do after I finished university. I do not really care about the specific type of work I am going to do in my future job although I want to work in a company with an open-minded and creative corporate culture. Migration and global change impact my life due to the fact that Austria faces a huge discussion about refugees and migration at the moment.
As the discussion on the topic of refugees and migration gets more and more xenophobic and racist in Austria, my colleagues at university as well as my circle of friends and I are talking a lot about the consequences which might result through such developments. It is quite frightening not to have answers while facing such problems although we are already a part of the academic elite in our country. The influence of media on the function of our community and such topics is almost based on the way how media works. Due to the fact that we are studying media it is even more frightening to see how different media uses framing, agenda setting and agenda surfing in a way of manipulating others. Many people, especially those who aren’t media-literate, including us at a time, are not aware of the huge power even a single journalist has as a gatekeeper.
This personal narrative was written at the 2016 Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. It exists as part of a digital publication which explores how personal stories and human connections can enable us and others to be more inclusive, responsive, and understanding of migrants and the socio-political-cultural impacts of migration.