[re]building trust, one person at a time

Often big problems beg for big solutions. We have crises of confidence in our public institutions. Our societies are fracturing under the erosion of trust, and exploitation of fear by political leaders. These problems seem so large and intractable, that often we look for easily explained reasons. We blame media. We find solace in placing responsibility on others. We feel empowered to be individually responsible to make smarter choices about our own media habits, but lament the overall problem as a lack of education in others.

This specific time is marked by fear and hope. We see increasingly reductionist and populist narratives gain traction and lead to potentially disastrous civic outcomes. We see hope in the ways that communities are responding to fracturing social fabrics by coming together to support causes that matter. To be present, attentive and engaged with each other.

This hope is what framed the 2019 Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change. We gathered over 120 students, educators, activists, scholars, and practitioners to explore the crisis of disbelief that is gripping our communities, and hurting the media systems we rely on for strong civic infrastructures.

At Salzburg this summer we asked this cohort of aspiring media makers, storytellers, and journalists to design interactive learning experiences, for their peers, that can combat this crisis of disbelief. Over three weeks, this group worked tirelessly to frame problems, explore and design creative interventions that would bring humans together to form the necessary connections need to support inclusive and equitable media and civic systems.

[re]build does not signify a need to rebuild our institutions from scratch, but rather to rebuild our civic fabric. We need to find creative ways to engage again on human levels, to prioritize the other, the marginalized, the dissenting. Only then can we find ways to re-establish positive engagement with our media institutions and public institutions at large.

The 6 workshops are meant to bring people together to engage in creative interventions focused on reclaiming media narratives that are supportive, honest, transparent, and generative. The workshops are designed to bring people together in exploration, imagination, care, and wonder. They critique media environments, but aim to use critique to focus on where we may go from here, and how.

These workshops signify a small intervention into the ways in which we are normalize narratives about media, trust, and participation. They aim to provoke new ideas, new collaborations, and new movements. They aim to inspire communities of hope and passion. And care.

The cohort that designed this work went through a rigorous three week experience that asked them to challenge their core identities, ideologies and beliefs. They used music, art, and creativity to come together.

They used music, in the form of a collaborative mixtape, to show how diverse cohorts of individuals can come together, across borders, across cultures, and across divides, to see where commonalities and meaningful engagements can lead to civic cohesion.

This group signifies a rebuilding of sorts. In support of social justice, equity, and inclusivity in our media systems, civic systems, and social systems in communities around the world.