MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

As the conference’s organisers, we were proud to welcome many regular
and new participants as well as renowned foreign guests coming mostly
from the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, Macedonia
and The Netherlands. We were especially honoured to welcome the
world-renowned scholar who attended our conference for the irst time
– Professor Diab M. Al-Badayneh from Jordan. Professor Al-Badayneh
was awarded the distinction of Doctor Honoris Causa for his lifetime
research accomplishments and devoted scholarly work.
Panel discussion, which is traditionally one of the most interesting
parts of the conference, dealt with the topic Man in the Mirror of Media
Creativity and involved both scholarly opinions and practical experience
of distinguished media professionals. The participants discussed mostly
the questions relecting on man as a creator, as a relevant agent who
creates the current cultural trends and directly takes part in all events
going on within the society of today.
The Brilliantt award ceremony was another important part of the
conference. The International Institute for Interdisciplinary Research
established by the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of
Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava had announced the award in 2014. The
goal of the award is to express public appreciation towards basic and
secondary educational institutions and universities in Slovakia which
signiicantly contribute to implementation of innovations in the sphere
education, aiming to raise the public awareness of such activities. The
award announcer’s ambition is to inform about, motivate, support and
appreciate unique activities of educational institutions dealing with
innovations in the ield of providing education. The Brilliantt award
was celebrated under the auspices of the Minister of Education, Science,
Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic.
Another highly signiicant award that is presented annually at the
conference Megatrends and Media is called Marián Matyáš’s Pomegranate.
Marián Matyáš (1978 – 2007), a media theorist and a highly successful
young scholar, was one of the irst graduates of the Faculty of Mass Media
Communication (2002), later a lecturer at the Faculty. He considerably
shaped the face of then-young FMK also as a students’ Senator. Later, as
one the Faculty’s Vice-Deans, he helped set our current ambitions and
principles we respect today. The Pomegranate has been awarded since
2008, honouring M. Matyáš’s scholarly accomplishments related to