By: Audrey Dayton
Audrey Dayton is an Honors College student from West Covina, California, majoring in journalism through the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Her study abroad as a Mowbray Scholar was sponsored by Honors College donors.
Austria is the last place I was expecting to spend last summer. Last July, I attended the Salzburg Seminar on Media and Global Change. I spent three weeks discussing solutions to journalistic issues, such as local journalism’s sustainability.
My experience was characterized by 75 strangers from around the world, and what I learned from them. I remember sitting down at my table and realizing that each person around me was from a different country, with a different lived experience. What a privilege it was to be a part of that.
Not only was I challenged to consider media issues from a global perspective, my whole definition of media was challenged. Alongside my peers, I realized that media is more than print and broadcast news. Media is however people tell stories.
As someone pursuing sports journalism, my peers reminded me this: Journalism changes lives, and the world needs people willing to tell untold, remote stories. It’s not glamorous and it doesn’t pay well, but storytelling gives people a voice, and that’s worth more than money.
When I wasn’t studying, I was biking through towns and boarding trains. I walked through Germany in the pouring rain and watched couples of young and old dance to music. I couldn’t understand the words, but I felt it.
For me, Salzburg was proof that no matter where you go, you will find people who share something with you.
