Sir Gilbert Levine: In music is “where we are united”

by Emily Hoffman

In the 18^th century rococo Schloss Leopoldskron palace, a packed audience watched a recording of the 2004 Papal Concert of Reconciliation, introduced to us moments before by its conductor, Sir Gilbert Levine.

As the choir sang out and the instruments played, I was struck by the beauty of the event. The steady crescendo of the music was undeniably breathtaking to hear. Just listening to the concert was an amazing experience in itself, yet what moved me even more—and the other students and faculty at the Salzburg Academy—were the stories we were told about the context of the concert.  What also became clear to us was that the man sitting a few feet in front of us was a musician of incredible vision.

Sir Gilbert Levine speaking to students at the Salzburg Academy

Sir Gilbert Levine, the Pope’s Maestro, first gained international notice when he became conductor and artistic director of the Kraków Philharmonic in 1987. He was the first American chief conductor of an Eastern European orchestra—and a Jew in Catholic and Communist Poland. In 1988, while working in Kraków, Levine met Pope John Paul II, at the latter’s invitation. The Pope subsequently asked Levine to conduct the concert commemorating the 10th anniversary of his Pontificate.  In 1994, Levine conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the historic “Papal Concert to Commemorate the Shoah (Holocaust),” which marked the first official Vatican commemoration of the Nazi genocide of World War II.

Other Papal concerts at the Vatican directed by Levine included the first of two concerts celebrating the Catholic Church’s Grand Jubilee in 2000, and a 2003 televised musical celebration of the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s pontificate.

Pope John Paul II speaking at the Papal Concert of Reconciliation

In 2004, Levine conducted his last concert for Pope John Paul II, the “Papal Concert of Reconciliation”—the concert that we watched.   This concert brought together leaders from the three Abrahamic faiths, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. It strove for peace among the religious cultures through the message and medium of music.

Over the years of his relationship with John Paul II, Levine became known as “the Pope’s Maestro.” In 1994, for his services to the Pope and to the Vatican, he was invested as a Knight Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great, the highest Papal knighthood accorded to a non-ecclesiastical musician since Mozart.

As a guest of the Salzburg Global Seminal, Levine spoke to the Salzburg Academy students and staff on August 11 about Pope John Paul II’s hope for peace among different religious communities.

Levine related to us that it was the Pope’s goal to use classical music as a way of bringing people together.  “The whole idea was not to have music that was of a particular faith,” said Levine.  Read the rest of this entry »

by Shelley Thompson

WE’VE STRETCHED BEYOND OUR REGULAR ROUTINES. We’ve read news Web sites we might otherwise not read. We’ve considered stories and topics from different perspectives.

Throughout the last few weeks, the e-MONITOR project has nudged us to move away from the comfortable… The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times. And for me, The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Independent.

Surveying a variety of news sources, which include the above but go beyond that to include English-language sources from around the globe, has helped us test what we think about news on sustainability. Over the course of the last few weeks, we explored what sustainability means and how our perspectives influence what we decide is important news. We also considered how to weigh news from more than 30 news organizations to determine what’s most important and most important to whom. The process taught each of us:

E-monitor was a great experience, not only for learning what was going on all around the world, but for seeing how different news organizations covered stories. I noticed that while CNN paid little attention to sustainability, The Times of India was extremely concerned over the issue, with The Times doing well also. Does this have more to do with the countries than the media? Or does the media influence the people’s opinions? I think it’s a little of both. Discussing e-MONITOR with the seminar was very helpful in discovering how media interpreted events.
Patricia Stievo

I really enjoyed looking at seven different news websites every day that I would never have looked at otherwise. Comparing news coverage in the US to coverage in other countries was really enlightening and I always enjoyed my e-MONITOR mornings!
Sara Newman

In the sustainability e-MONITOR group, we researched stories from media outlets around the world about environmental issues, green businesses, and environmentally friendly activities. As a result, we learned a great deal about how sustainability related stories are covered differently in different parts of the world.
Josh Narotsky

What I liked the most about e-MONITOR was the fact that I was able to see more parts of news than what I was used to. At home, if I wanted to hear about the news I would just turn on the TV to our common news channels or read our local newspaper. This project forced me to broaden my horizons and see how other news outlets report and present news. I really enjoyed e-MONITOR because I was able to see more news outlets and their stories than I otherwise would have never seen.
Samantha Bolduc

I found the entire E-monitor process very interesting. Luckily, I was placed into the sustainability group and was able to focus on a topic that I was truly passionate about. I usually never have the time to sit down and force myself to go through current events but, because it was necessary, I feel that I will keep up with the ‘info-immersion’ process that I learned at the Salzburg Academy.
William Frohbose

The news organizations I tend to go to – The New York Times and The Guardian – frequently write about global warming and the human impacts on the Earth. I knew coverage was different in different publications and in different parts of the world, but never spent such a concentrated time looking at that in particular. The process highlighted how much US and UK media focus on the US and UK, which still presents a rather myopic view. So, I need to continue to expand the diversity of news sources that I consult.
Shelley Thompson

For me it was very interesting to talk with each group member about which news they considered important, their different points of view about what sustainability is, and what story they found to be more important each day. It was a great exercise discussing about how we chose the story to post and what is relevant to the rest of the world.
Andrea Ballocchi

by Lubica Bizikova, National Institute for Education, Bratislava, Slovakia

Lubica Bizakova / Photo by Daniel Reese

THE CONCEPT OF MEDIA LITERACY IS NEW FOR SLOVAKIA. So too is media education as a part of the curriculum in schools.

Yet media literacy has already become an important theme for the government–especially for those in charge of education and life-long learning.

How to insert media literacy into schools is, however, a challenge particularly for teachers and teacher trainers to deal with, because “To teach, one must first understand.”  Teachers must gain a deep, sophisticated understanding of media messages–as we know that it is no longer enough just to teach factual knowledge–in order to help students acquire the needed skills for the process of inquiry and expression.

additional challenge is that it is difficult to teach students how to understand media messages when media consumption takes place away from the school institutions.

In this context I was given a great opportunity to participate in the three-week summer course of the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change, where all the participants, faculty and students alike,  have debated, worked on and built the best methods of how to promote global media literacy. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jenaya Kendall McGowan

THE FUTURE OF THE JOURNALISM INDUSTRY appears to be bleak. Newspapers are becoming endangered, numerous media outlets are facing cutbacks and laying off their staffs, and corporate interests seem to dominate what is disseminated across the airwaves. Despite all of this, some of my faith has been restored for the future of journalism.

Working among a handful of other “Generation Y” students in our e-MONITOR group, I have found that we all share common ideals of what our news should look like. In particular, we all exhibit a desire for accuracy, impartiality, and a global scope to the news we take in each day.

Although our Millennial generation is often accused of being self-serving, there is in fact a keen interest in learning about others across the globe and reaching out to help. This was evident in the Justice and Rights e-MONITOR group as we poured over stories of human rights abuses each day, faced with the impossible task of trying to determine which was the “most newsworthy.” Read the rest of this entry »

by Pablo Martinez Zarate

As PART OF THIS YEAR’S ACADEMY eMONITOR–in tandem to the topical division followed by English speakers–two regional teams were formed: a Chinese and a Latin American group. Certainly, the main reason behind such organization was our linguistic heritage, which allowed a territorial dilation of the project’s media-scope. I would like to dedicate some paragraphs to reflect on what for many of you might already be evident.

Pablo Martinez Zarate

It is true, as German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk reminded us in his Frankfurt Lessons, that language is our ultimate “Mother land.” This implies that common horizons encircle speakers of the same tongue, even when born in fiefs distant from each other; our representations depart from a common framework; we name our dreams and fears with the same words.

Yet there is a fundamental difference between the Chinese and the Latin American group – namely, the Latin American team is composed by members of four different countries. It might seem irrelevant, but take a moment to ponder on the fact that Mexico City and Santiago de Chile, the home cities of several of our group are as far away from each other as Salzburg is from Washington, DC.  Ponder that there are around a dozen other countries sundering our Latin American frontiers.

What am I trying to say? Read the rest of this entry »

by Natasha Blahova, National Institute for Education, Slovakia

Natasha Blahova / Photo by Daniel Reese

Having the opportunity to participate in the Academy on Media & Global Change in Salzburg showed me new ways of looking at  media literacy via global issues, active citizenship (citizen journalism/social media), and creative and technological innovation (new multimedia communication).

Gradually, from the very beginning of the program, I realized that being media literate is not as easy as it may seem.

Learning the processes of media literacy requires the acquisition of many distinct skills such as technical, interactive and communicative skills.  Being media literate also means learning how to interpret various cultural and social contexts, and learning to develop problem solving and critical thinking skills.  Being media literate also means learning how to be creative.  These are media literacy competences necessary for everyone who wishes to be educated and to participate in the society of the 21st century.

Slovak education authorities have started systematically to focus on the quality implementation of a media education curriculum into the educational system of Slovakia. The main objective for me  these past weeks at the Academy, therefore, was to observe, monitor and transfer as many inspirations as possible from here into the reinforcement of research and education on media literacy in Slovakia.  Read the rest of this entry »

by Moses Shumow

NOT EVERYTHING IS LOVE AND LIGHT AT THE SALZBURG ACADEMY. Reading this blog, one might come away with the impression that the work being done here flows smoothly and that all of the ideas and insights come easily and apply universally.  This is not the case.

We have been engulfed in an intensive three-week multi-cultural undertaking, and in many ways our brief time here can be seen as a microcosm of the ‘push and pull’ of globalization (an idea borrowed from media scholar James Lull).

Editorial cartoon by Ammer, Wiener Zeitung (Vienna)

The Salzburg Academy is an experience almost completely facilitated by globalizing phenomena: rapid transportation, global communication, international grant making organizations that believe in the goals and outcomes of the Academy, and universities that encourage and help sponsor study abroad programs.

But we have also been living through the inherent difficulties of globalization: the invasive and overwhelming prevalence of English; a skewed focus on Western media, whether overt or unintentional; cultural misunderstandings and fallacious preconceptions; resentment at the influence of dominant cultures over those with a lesser presence in the global media landscape.  These are issues that play out every day on a worldwide scale, and we have found them stubbornly recreated here at the seminar.

As the multiple facets of globalization are seemingly pulling us all closer together, both on a global scale and at the local level (for us, the “local” is the Schloss Leopoldskron, which almost as local as you can get!), they can also push us apart.

So, what can we do in the face of these complex and contrasting forces? Read the rest of this entry »

by Maegan Stephens

EACH e-MONITOR GROUP at the Salzburg Academy uses a different approach to get their leading news stories of the day. Some groups have links from stories emailed to a facilitator before the morning meeting while others engage in dialogue the entire hour and a half meeting time. The Global Health group also has a unique approach; one that tries to incorporate research, tactile interaction, and discussion into the session.

Upon entry into the seminar room, there is really no talking amongst the Global Health team, with the exception of a comment such as “ok, be ready at 9:55am.” From there, the team gets to work. Each student has a list of nine news sources with which they are expected to peruse in 20 minutes, jotting down any health stories she/he sees.

Grad student Maegan Stephens tracks the day's headlines

At the completion of the time limit, a facilitator stands up in front of an easel, rips off the previous day’s paper, and begins “the list.” One student rattles off all the topics from his/her sources, as well as the number of times it appears throughout the day’s coverage, and others join in if a given story was also in their headlines.

A common conversation would be:

Brandon: I got about five stories about Obama pushing his healthcare agenda.

Libby: Yeah, I had three too.

Kamilia: I have healthcare, but it is from the Republican angle.

Alyssa: Oh, I had that too. Was yours an AP source?

This type of exchange, with each student’s list, continues for about 10 minutes. After this point, the question becomes “what do we want to talk about today?” Read the rest of this entry »

By Patrick Cooper, Knight Fellow, USA Today

Academy students are presenting their lesson plans this morning, and I’m happy to see how the plans have developed. The concepts that began life weeks ago as rambles, agendas or overly broad theses are now two-minute elevator pitches.

"The start-up checklist" (click to enlarge)

“The start-up checklist” from Jessica Hagy’s stellar Indexed blog has the best diagram of qualities that students have applied to their projects.

Hagy penned her art about start-ups in the business world, but the students had operated similarly in their work. Through their initial visions, critical vetting, collaborative discussions, increasing focus, and concluding deadlines, their lesson plans had become products.

One challenge for the students: After finishing a product (or while finishing it), the next issue is always the next product. A question the students repeatedly didn’t answer well this morning was what lessons they had learned and what shifts they had made over the course of development.

Comparing their early rambling to their current concision, shifts certainly occurred. But vocalizing the changes today appeared harder.  As the students depart from this experience, they should look to bring scrutiny and find continued value in their work. Lessons learned here are going to be key — often unexpectedly so — in future plans and products.

by Jessica Roberts

James Baldwin / photo: Orange City Register

Last year I rediscovered this quotation from James Baldwin’s talk to teachers in 1963 titled “The Negro Child – His Self-Image” and shared it with the media literacy class I was teaching at the time. I think what Baldwin said more than 40 years ago remains true, and especially relevant for media literacy education:

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not. To ask questions of the universe, and then learn to live with those questions, is the way he achieves his own identity. But no society is really anxious to have that kind of person around. What societies really, ideally, want is a citizenry that will simply obey the rules of society. If a society succeeds in this, that society is about to perish.

The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it – at no matter what risk. This is the only hope society has. This is the only way societies change.

This is exactly what media literacy education strives to achieve: a student who examines their society, who looks at the world and makes his or her own decisions, and especially responsible citizens who examine society and try to change it and to fight it. During these three weeks at the Academy we have been reminded several times of the need to make changes, the need to fight, and ways we can fight. Read the rest of this entry »