If the media changes, society changes, said German philosopher Walter Benjamin at the beginning of the twentieth century. In almost no other area are the impacts of the technological revolution being felt as clearly as in the media. Arianna Huffington, President and Chief Editor of The Huffington Post, is well placed to talk about the results of this changing media landscape. Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of the Telekom Austria Group, has invited the influential media manager to speak at future.talk 2014. Huffington will be joined for the discussion on 23 September at the Studio Building of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (formerly the Semperdepot) by Germany's most feared media watchdog, Stefan Niggemeier.

Within only nine years The Huffington Post, founded by Arianna Huffington, has revolutionised the global media landscape. The news platform represents one of today's new successful media concepts and is one of the most widely-read and frequently-cited global media brands. The Huffington Post reaches 85.5 million desktop users* throughout the world. Its integrated global newsroom has hundreds of editors across 12 countries, who collaborate in real time to create content in eight languages, as well as tens of thousands of bloggers who contribute their own views. In 2012 HuffPost became the first commercial news site to win the Pulitzer Prize. Spiegel Online has described The Huffington Post as the USA's "most influential alternative medium".

Arianna Huffington's influential columns have earned the Athens-born writer the title "Queen of Bloggers". She has been included in Time Magazine's list of the 'World's 100 Most Influential People' and for years has been ranked on the list of Forbes 'Most Powerful Women'. Huffington is the author of 14 books, including this year's #1 New York Times Bestseller, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder. Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of the Telekom Austria Group and A1, is proud to welcome Huffington to this year's future.talk. "Having Arianna Huffington at this year's event will put us in the company of one of the most successful and influential media managers of our time," he said.

Brave News World. Why newsmakers and newstakers change.

Under the motto "Brave News World. Why newsmakers and newstakers change." the Telekom Austria Group, together with Arianna Huffington, will look ahead to what the future holds for the media.

The media industry has been feeling the consequences of the technological revolution more strongly than most other industries. Information can currently be spread around the globe in a few seconds and is more cost-effective than ever before, with users actively participating in evaluating and disseminating news stories via social media. 'Opinion making' is no longer the prerogative of journalists. In addition, the huge amount of freely available content is jeopardising the traditional business models of renowned media companies. Print products have been most severely affected by this development and undergoing fare reaching change. And even those that are going 'online' have huge difficulties in financing journalistic quality.

The role and self-image of media consumers is also undergoing a radical change. While in the past, the 'media mix' was relatively static, news is now obtained from a variety of sources. What is actually read is only partly decided by the individual. The social environment, contacts on Facebook or Twitter, is just as responsible for the content that appears on the screen as complex filtering algorithms. Not so long ago journalists still functioned as knowledge gatekeepers and people who explained the world, yet today they are increasingly confronted with a new generation of bright readers, who demand authenticity, interaction and communication as equals.

Have journalism and independent reporting become obsolete? Can the media continue to play its role as the fourth estate? And what does it mean for our society? "These are the questions we want to discuss with our high-calibre guests", says Hannes Ametsreiter. Arianna Huffington and the German journalist Stefan Niggemeier will outline the media landscape of the future, from two different perspectives.

On the Podium: Stefan Niggemeier - Germany's most feared media watch dog

Arianna Huffington, will be joined on the panel at future.talk 2014 by the German journalist, Stefan Niggemeier. He is the founder and publisher of BILDblog, a media-critical watchblog, which works to detect and uncover the mistakes of Germany's largest daily newspaper Bild whilst also keeping a watch on other media. Niggemeier, a former Spiegel journalist, was named 'Journalist of the Year' in 2007 by Medien Magazin and has also received the Grimme-Online-Award for his BILDblog. He is the founder of the Krautreporter project, which aims to finance an advertising-free platform for independent journalism via crowdfunding. According to Niggemeier, the problem of online journalism lies in the difficulty of obtaining funding. At present, online journalism is way too dependent on clicks and advertising. Journalists do not have enough time to research, follow-up or even think.

This year's future.talk will be moderated by Michael Fleischhacker, who joined the editorial office of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in March 2014 and is currently developing an Austrian product for this newspaper. In addition to working as a journalist, he is also a presenter on the ServusTV television station and is the author of several books. In February 2014, his latest book, Die Zeitung. Ein Nachruf (The newspaper. An obituary), was published by the Brandstätter-Verlag.

Arianna Huffington via Livestream - Win Tickets for future.talk on Twitter

The key note speech by Arianna Huffington and the panel discussion at future.talk 2014 will be streamed live. Starting today, the Telekom Austria Group invites you to tweet a headline on the following questions: "What will the media landscape of the future look like? Will the good old newspaper still be around in 15 years' time and will we still be posting comments on Facebook? Tweet your entry using the hashtag #ftalk14. The three most interesting entries will be awarded tickets for future.talk and will be used in the discussion on 23 September.

Detailed information about future.talk 2014 can be found at www.futuretalk.comor follow us on Twitter.

Photographic materialon the experts at future.talk 2014 can be found here.

*Source: comScore, July 2014, desktop users only

About future.talk

The Telekom Austria Group's future.talk 2014 is taking place for the 14th time. The aim of the event is to search for new trends and discuss current and future social developments. Guests at previous future.talk events have included the pioneer and visionary thinker Sir Richard Branson, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, WWW-inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, the former Secretary-General of the UN Kofi Annan and former US Vice President Al Gore. For the third time in a row, the entire event has been organised in compliance with the criteria for The Austrian Eco Label for Green Meetings/Green Events.

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