Prosumers !

Paul- Beth- Tomás- Noël- Nour- Kelsey- Denisa- Rubina- Rhys - Rukhsana- Liwei

We are a team of eleven individuals that have come together from different parts of the world to the Salzburg Academy to discuss Social Media.

United States, Chile, Argentina, Lebanon, Slovakia, Pakistan, China and Nepal are our home countries and this project has become our common ground. 

Hope you enjoy it !

Liwei Ma

Biography:

Liwei Ma is a graduate student at Tsinghua University, majoring in Global journalism and Communication. She graduated with a B.A. in Mass Communications at Communication University of China. Liwei has a fascination with Public Relations studies and wishes to become a proffesional PR practitioner after graduation.

Facebook Virginity story:

I started to use Facebook when I was exchange studying at Missouri State University in 2008. Actually, the first thing I did when I arrived at my dorm was to open my laptop and join Facebook; because otherwise I would miss parties and orientation announcements for new arrival internationals. To me is like omnipotent when you want to orient yourself to campus life, as well as social life. You can make new friends and watch as your friends grow in your profile. You can play games with friends and keep up to date on your favourite TV show. Besides I was obssessed to "Chinese Facebook"/Renren, when I was back to my home university. The basic functions are similar, while I spend more time on Renren than on Facebook , since most of my friends are on it.  

Denisa Kraľovičová

Biography: 

Denisa Kraľovičová comes from Slovakia, Trnava.  She works as a lecturer at the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Faculty of Mass Media Communication, Department of Linguistic Communication. Her working responsibilities are as follows: translating, teaching English, interpreting.  She has been attending PhD. program – marketing communication at the Faculty of Mass Media Communication.  She also co-operates in various projects and supervises the international exchange program LLP/Erasmus at the university. She is fond of travelling, swimming, cycling, dancing and loves nature.  Family and good relationships is what she finds to be the most important in life. The quotation she fancies recently is: “Walker, there is no path in life, the path is made by walking.”

Facebook Virginity story: 

Well, the first time I did it was half a year ago.Surprise? The reason why I hesitated for such a long time was loosing my privacy. It finally got me,  because all my friends were sharing their opinions about it. I did not have a clue what they were talking about.

Paul Mihailidis

Biography:

Paul Mihailidis is an assistant professor of Journalism, Media & PR at Hofstra University in New York. Mihailidis is the Director of the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change, where he is also faculty member. His current research concerns the effectiveness of media education in teaching about media’s roles and responsibilities in civil society.

Most recently, Mihailidis has created MakeMediaMatter with the Independent Film Channel (www.ifc.com/makemediamatter), a pro-social media literacy initiative aimed at empower young media makers.

Mihailidis serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), and is the director of Media Education Initiatives for the International Center for Media & the Public Agenda at the University of Maryland.

Paul, whose parents came to the United States on a boat from Greece in the 1960s, has lived in Scotland, Sweden, Boston, Washington DC and currently resides in New York.

Facebook Virginity story:

I lost my facebook virginity at the 2007 Salzburg Academy. My account was made for me by students of the Academy....so it's an interesting story.

Rubina Dewan

 Biography:

Hello, my name is Rubina Dewan and I am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University, U.K.

It has been a fairly intensive year at the University and I feel like I have learnt a lot of necessary skills to go out into the world as a confident journalist. Besides fulfilling the academic requirements of the course, I also actively follow the developments in the technical aspect of media creation.

Having worked as a producer/anchor at Nepal’s biggest commercial channel, Kantipur Television, I identify with television as my most preferred mode of journalism. However, learning radio and online journalism at university has been an eye-opening experience and I am much more open to multi-platform journalism now.

I am interested in a wide range of issues including politics, environment, entertainment and sports.

I look forward to attending the Salzburg Academy to further my horizons and meeting a lot of interesting people from all over the world.

Facebook Virginity story: 

I was flirting witha couple of other social media websites before facebook came along.I had profiles in a lot of sites like Myspace, Bebo, Hi5 and  Orkut. Some friends were on some websites while some were on others - it was slightly difficult to get them all to agree on which one was best.Then one day in 2006, my friend Mark sent me an invitation to facebook. I let it sit on my inbox for days, unclicked. I eventually gave in and signed up, not knowing what to expect. Filled oout the mandatory details and sent out invitations to other friends. As more and more friends signed up, I began to quite like the layout and the accesability of the website. It was a lot easier to stay in touch with long-lost friends after that. I liked it so much that I actively advocated signing up to facebook to my friends and became a facebooker for life!

Nour Attieh

Biography:

Hello! My name is Nour, a Master’s student in Financial Economics at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. I’m an energetic person who always tries to find positive aspects in every situation and make the best of it.  I have interests in various fields other than my major, to name a few: political science, media, social work, environmental issues… I’m involved with many organizations that deal with children and youth which allows me to spread the word and improve conditions for the community.

My tasks in these organizations include an activity which I adore: Directing and acting in plays. It also helps me meet more people and therefore form a clearer vision of life. I love classical music, hiking, and camping.

Being an economist is never an easy task since it deals with human behavior which cannot predicted like exact sciences. I therefore aim at constructing a significant set of skills and knowledge as well as social connections around the world during my stay in Salzburg in order to broaden my horizons and vividly interact with students and faculty members from different backgrounds and cultures, sharing thoughts on stimulating topics.

Facebook Virginity story:

By 2007, I was getting all those invitations to several social media websites and I had tried several and found them all the same so I stopped creating new ones. Then a friend travelling outside invited me to facebook saying this is different, this is the next hot thing catching up in Lebanon and everyone is using it to stay in touch. Thus I created a profile which didn’t even have a picture at the beginning. Now I’m a regular user. Facebook invaded me.

Noël Salviolo

Biography:

I’m Noël Salviolo, un upcoming senior in the Catholic University of Argentina (UCA), studying journalism and planning on doing a Masters on Latin American literature and another in sociology after I finish. My main interests, besides journalism, are literature, anthropology and sociology. Cultural diversity is something that fascinates and inspires me, and that is why in the future I would love to participate in a T.V. or radio program where I could discuss those issues, as well as matters related to discrimination. On the side I would also enjoy giving classes and maybe even writing a book. Therefore I am very excited in being able to participate in the Salzburg Academy Program for Media and Global Change, since I consider that it will be a very enriching experience to have the opportunity to meet and relate with people from different countries and discuss a variety of issues with them, taking into account different points of views.

Facebook Virginity story: 

I lost my facebook virginity in my last year of highschool, a friend made it for me. At the beginning I had no idea what it was about and thought it wasn't going to be a popular thing. But I was wrong, now that I've learnt how to use it I really enjoy it and realize that it has become one of the most popular things to have.

Kelsey Miller

Biography:

My name is Kelsey and I am a journalism major at the University of Maryland. I love to hang out with my friends, go to the beach and travel. I’ve been to many countries including Costa Rica and England and want to one day go to every continent.

I grew up in Salisbury, Md., have one younger sister and two dogs. I enjoy listening to music and going to concerts and want to become a music journalist.

I am also a huge fan of the Sound of Music and am excited to check “sing Edelweiss in Salzburg” off my bucket list.

Facebook Virginity story:

My first time getting a facebook was when I was in 9th grade. I heard my friends talking about this new website that allowed us to share pictures with each other and create a profile. I definitely jumped on the bandwagon and got one and haven't looked back since!

Elizabeth Schwatrz

Biography:

Hi, my name is Beth Schwartz and I am a rising senior Broadcast Journalism major at Maryland. I spent last summer interning at WSYR in Syracuse, New York, where I am from.

I have no idea what I am going to do after I graduate but I would like to go into journalism and/or travel. Aside from school, I am very involved in the band here at Maryland and I am a member of Tau Beta Sigma. I love to take trips, read, talk to my friends and just relax.

I have been telling everyone who will listen that I am staying in the Sound of Music house this summer and I can’t wait to get there and meet everyone!

Facebook Virginity story:

Ok, so my facebook virginity story is pretty simple...I had a myspace in high school (although I was a lot more reluctant to get a myspace because I didn't understand the idea of it) and then kind of transitioned to facebook towards the end of my senior year. I liked it because you could upload a lot more pictures. A lot of my friends were already on it by the time I joined so it wasn't too hard to make the transition.

Tomás Jara

Biography:

My name is Thomas Jara and I study journalism. I’m from a long and thin country at the south of Latin America called Chile.

My passion is the music, I play the guitar and I love the blues. So, why am I studying journalism? Because I enjoy to travel and meet new people, new places and new cultures.

Journalism is a career that brings me a lot of tools that would help me to communicate with anyone (a president, an artist, etc.). The communication is essential to people, and our work is to make them understand that.

Facebook Virginity story:

I did it because a lot of my friends already had done it, I felt a lot of pressure. At the begin it was strange and a little bit confused, but then I used a lot. Now I have a small adicction for it, but only for five minutes every two hours... is that wrong? I think is very useful, but you have to watch out who you accept. It's a nice tool and you can get connected with friends from alll over the world.