We are back with another quick recap of the 24th Visegrad Summer School! As we dive deeper into our overarching theme - the Future of Information - Thursday and Friday brought intense, high-level discussions on media sustainability, digital power, and historical responsibility. Here is how the last two days unfolded:
Thursday, July 9th:
David Kardos kicked off the day with "No Reliable Information Without Sustainable Media: The Future of Journalism, Trust and Democracy". He highlighted that the lack of sustainable funding is a critical challenge for public interest media today. With up to 90% of people in some states not paying for reliable news, distorted social media narratives thrive. To counter this, frameworks like the Digital Services Act (DSA) are absolutely essential for keeping media functional.
Dominika Kasprowicz took the floor for a session on "Disinformation". She unpacked Poland’s battle against foreign cognitive warfare, exploring the legal realities tied to the 1997 Polish Constitution and the Penal Code. She also presented empirical sociological mapping that splits the Polish public into a resilient "blue" cluster, a volatile "green" middle, and a highly polarized "red" cluster.
Gürkan Özturan guided us through "Monitoring Media Freedom in the Digital Age - European Centre for Press and Media Freedom". He presented the work of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR), which tracks threats against the press across Europe and has documented over 6,000 alerts. The MFRR provides vital legal, practical, and training support to journalists.
We wrapped up the afternoon offline, exploring the rich history of our home base during a Guided Tour around Villa Decius led by Mariia Hershova.
Friday, July 10th:
Vaclav Stetka explored "Who Informs Democracy? Media and Power in the Digital Age". He discussed the rise of algorithmic platform power and the shift toward video-based online political influencers. This new class of "newsfluencers" is blurring the boundaries between journalism, entertainment, and activism, creating clear risks for modern democracy.
Martin Ehl delivered a sharp lecture on "The Geopolitics of Truth: Speed, Power, and the Human Vulnerability". He emphasized that while superpowers fight strategic wars using compute, energy, and AI models, humans remain the weakest link in processing information. Because passive consumption makes lies feel true, he argued that short media-literacy training fails, demanding instead a radical cultural shift and continuous verification.
We also took a profound look at historical morality in the session "Chasing Echoes of the Holocaust: Wartime Morality and the Weight of Modern Choice" offered by Katarzyna Suszkiewicz. By re-examining the complex realities of wartime choices and moving beyond the classic triad of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders, the lecture challenged us to confront our own daily responsibility in shaping a better present.
#VSS2026 #VisegradSummerSchool #FutureOfInformation #VillaDecius #Krakow #MediaLiteracy #Democracy #Journalism
