Convened by Professor Nikos Panagiotou in collaboration with a consortium of 15 partner universities, including Temple University, DW Akademie, Concordia University and Hong Kong Baptist University, THISAM 2026 brought together 71 participants from 19 countries. The academy attracted early-career journalists, scholars, media executives and non-governmental organization leaders, with participants representing locations from Hong Kong to Montreal. The programme followed the two-day "Global Media and Culture" conference held on July 1 and July 2 and continued its established format of keynote addresses, workshops and international collaborations while addressing emerging challenges confronting the global media industry.
The opening day began with introductory remarks by Christos Frangonikolopoulos, Dean of the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences at Aristotle University. The programme featured a keynote session on the future of media, a workshop on solutions journalism and rebuilding public trust led by Elira Canga of Arizona State University's Cronkite School, a collaborative project-building session with faculty members, and a two-hour workshop examining strategies for capturing audience attention in the digital media environment.
Artificial intelligence remained a central focus of the academy, continuing discussions that began in 2018. However, this year's programme shifted attention from technological novelty to its broader implications, examining the impact of generative artificial intelligence on automated reporting, fact verification, editorial judgment and the continuing necessity of human oversight in journalism. Organizers also highlighted journalist safety as an increasingly urgent concern, reflecting the growing risks faced by reporters working in dangerous environments across the world.
Alongside these discussions, the academy showcased a media literacy initiative implemented in 35 Greek schools in partnership with the country's Ministry of Education and the General Secretariat of Information. Recognized by UNESCO as an example of good practice, the programme aims to strengthen critical thinking among students and improve resilience against misinformation during adolescence.
One of the academy's most discussed sessions was the two-hour workshop titled "Winning Attention in the Digital Media Era," jointly led by Avinash Mudaliar, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HT Labs and Chief Executive Officer of OTTplay, and Jatin Malhotra, whose professional experience includes product strategy, innovation and market expansion roles at Oracle, Meta and Reliance Jio.
Drawing upon his experience with HT Media, OTTplay, Carvaan, Gaana and Slurrp, Mudaliar argued that content is no longer the industry's scarce resource and that audience attention has become the defining currency of modern media. He explained how algorithms, endless scrolling, streaming platforms and declining brand loyalty increasingly shape audience behaviour more than traditional editorial merit. As an example, he highlighted the development of an artificial intelligence-powered search layer built over Hindustan Times' digital archive, enabling nearly a century of reporting to become fully searchable. This perspective, however, was presented primarily through HT Labs' own account of the session, while independent confirmation of audience reactions remained limited.
According to that account, the workshop developed into an active exchange involving participants and faculty members from the United States, Europe and Asia. Discussions explored whether audience engagement models developed for streaming and digital entertainment platforms could effectively apply to journalism. Participants examined why technically superior products often fail against competitors that better understand human behaviour, whether audience attention can be earned without resorting to sensationalism, what journalism can learn from gaming and streaming platforms, how recommendation systems influence discovery, trust and audience choice, and why emotion, nostalgia, habit and cultural context frequently outweigh technological superiority.
These discussions ultimately returned to a fundamental question for journalists operating in an era of unlimited content: what persuades audiences to stop, engage, remember and return. For some participants, the question tested journalism's claim to seriousness, while for others it reinforced the continuing relevance of responsible reporting.
The attention economy debate formed only one part of the academy's broader examination of journalism's future. The programme's opening keynote on the future of media and communication was delivered by Shin D. Kim, Professor of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University, introducing many of the themes later explored during the workshop on audience attention.
On the second day, discussions expanded beyond audience engagement to include practical applications of emerging technologies. Ludovic Blecher, Chairman of WhiteBeard and Chief Executive Officer of IDation, presented a case study on artificial intelligence implementation and examined the broader state of the artificial intelligence ecosystem. Sherri Hope Culver of Temple University led sessions addressing popular culture, propaganda, media literacy, ethics and responsibility in an increasingly diverse digital environment, placing audience engagement within a broader historical and social framework.
Visual anthropologist and documentary filmmaker Dr. Dimitrios Bouras conducted sessions examining the representation of war, conflict and humanitarian crises, as well as the role of collective memory in conflict reporting. These discussions emphasized forms of journalism that extend beyond algorithm-driven engagement and require sustained reporting under complex and often dangerous conditions.
As the programme progressed, Niko Efstathiou, Editor in Chief of WIRED Greece, delivered a session examining misinformation during wildfires through practical case studies and lessons for journalists, demonstrating how media literacy directly affects public safety. Dejan Oblak of the University of Zagreb complemented earlier discussions with a session titled "Reimagining News for the Visual Generation," presenting an experimental approach to visual storytelling designed to meet changing audience consumption habits rather than merely adapting to algorithmic demands.
The academy concluded in Thessaloniki with sessions emphasizing journalism's democratic responsibilities and long-term public value. Journalist and Concordia University professor Aphrodite Salas conducted a workshop on oral history as documentary practice, extending the academy's emphasis on reporting skills developed throughout the programme. Faculty members including Silcock, Perišin, Culver and Panagiotou jointly led the session "Trust and Democracy from the Agora to AI: America 250 and Fulbright Voices," placing discussions about artificial intelligence within the wider context of democratic trust rather than technological innovation alone.
Professor Panagiotou concluded the academy with "The Future Is Yours: Global Media, Leadership, and the Careers Students Must Build Now," before leading the graduation ceremony for participants who had spent ten days examining the future of journalism through discussions spanning technology, ethics, media literacy, artificial intelligence and democratic responsibility.
Throughout the programme, Panagiotou consistently argued that public debate often places excessive emphasis on technological change while overlooking the journalists working in the field. He maintained that journalism extends beyond the rapid delivery of information to include the essential work of understanding events, interpreting their significance and providing meaningful context, responsibilities that remain beyond the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Set against broader discussions suggesting that audience attention increasingly determines which stories survive, THISAM 2026 concluded by presenting an ongoing debate rather than a definitive answer, reinforcing the academy's role as an international platform examining the future direction of global journalism.
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