Daystar University: 6 years of fruitful partnership with Salzburg Global Seminar
For the last six years, Daystar University ‘s School of Communication has been represented at the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change in Austria. The University-based in Nairobi, Kenya-is the only partner institution of the Academy in the African continent. This year’s representative to the global seminar is yours truly, a postgraduate student and Features Editor of Involvement, a student-driven monthly newspaper that showcases excellence in student journalism.
I am accompanied by Dr Rosemary Nyaole-Kowuor, Chair of the Communication Department. While briefing me on the nature of the program, Rosemary told me that it is enriching and good for exposure. Last year’s representative was Jeremiah Kipainoi, the immediate former Station Manager of Shine FM 103.1-our university’s radio station. “The seminar was a life-changing experience for me,” he told me when I contacted him to give me a feel of the event. I can’t agree more. After experiencing the program, I can confess that I made the best choice in my academic life. I have been able to network with faculty and students from diverse cultures; made friends and useful contacts and learnt a lot in the process. My cultural fluency has soared considerably. Perhaps it would be a good idea if the Salzburg Global Seminar gave my university more scholarships to open the space for other students instead of granting only one per year. Food for thought…
The Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change is an exceptional three-week research-based seminar that brings young media makers, experts and scholars together from around the globe to critique and create civic media for civic engagement that prompts social change. The 2017 summer session has attracted 83 undergraduate and postgraduate students; and about 30 faculty and experts from over 25 countries and 17 universities. The Academy is permanently hosted at the iconic Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg City, Austria. The current cohort will brainstorm on and create case studies and narratives on global populism and extremism. This year’s theme is, Voices Against Extremism: Media Responses to Global Populism.
In this era of information overflow, objectivity in journalism has nosedived. Instead, there has emerged a post-modern relativism at the expense of fact-based reporting. We are living in a post-truth era where anything goes and populist leaders use the media to sway the masses for self-seeking agenda. Increasingly, there is a sense in which the news media slants stories of people in extremist situations. This scenario makes the media an accomplice in the global populist and extremist agenda.
Following the effects of World War II, the founders of Salzburg Global Seminar envisioned a world where great minds could congregate in a neutral environment and share ideas on how to make the world a better place to live in. The first sitting of the seminar took place in 1947, though the media segment has been held for the last 11 years. Dr Paul Mihailidis, the Director of the Media Academy, says the programme allow fellows, “to discuss critical and important social issues of our time.” At the end of the session, students and faculty will have produced an interactive Playbook that students, clubs and organizations across the globe will use to bolster their media literacy and civic engagement.
A statement posted on the Academy’s website reads in part: “In today’s volatile, interconnected world, what Salzburg Global Seminar offers is more important than ever. Its relevance to global problem-solving and development of tomorrow’s leaders, and its growing base of individual and institutional supporters, ensures its prominence as a place where “thoughtful, committed citizens” can continue to shape a better world.”
As I write this, the six alumni of the Academy from Daystar University have started a community of change makers to establish a local affiliate to see how we can effect some meaningful civic engagement within and without the campus environment. This community is an initiative of Rosemary. In her message to us, she outlined the mandate of the group: “The goal of this forum is to bring together the great minds who participated at Salzburg Global Seminar. We need to create a symposium where you can share your experiences with Communication staff and students. We also need to document a feature article and if possible a video documentary of your experiences and exploits as change agents.” In the meantime, we are exchanging ideas through a WhatApp group but we will soon have a face-to-face encounter to chart a way forward. We are counting on individual and institutional support for this noble venture.
The populist rhetoric may seem far-fetched and alien but it has finally caught up with the Kenyan Press as well. With the General Elections just a few days away, the public trust in the mainstream media continues to decline considerably. The media appears to have abdicated its traditional role of informing, educating and settled on merely entertaining the public (arguably the least important of its functions). The latest spectacle that the Kenyan media fell for and blew out of proportion was the alleged gun attack of Deputy President William Ruto’s rural home; only for it to turn out to be a machete-wielding intruder! Sounds a bit like theatre of the absurd. When will Kenya and other countries where populism is the norm get out of this quagmire? Watch this space for more insights on media literacy, fake news, populism and extremism.
The writer is a Fellow of the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change 2017. He is completing his graduate studies at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya.
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