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They didn’t even want to take a break in the two-hour workshop on journalism and newspapers. The 28 students of the 2A class of the BG/BRG Amstetten knew right up to the end questions that they wanted to ask OÖN editor Ulrike Rubasch – the best prerequisite for trying out journalism for yourself.
“Everyone was amazed that so much work went into a newspaper,” said Paula and Katharina afterwards. Charlotte was surprised at the high number of employees (650 at Wimmer Medien) that it takes to print a newspaper every day or have it published online. “That’s almost as many people as at our school.” The German teacher Melanie Reisinger got the class in the mood for the topic. The students had learned to write reports. But “experiencing and getting to know the work of an editor up close is an enormous added value for schoolchildren.” The insight into practice made it possible for the children to be “extremely enthusiastic about the job description of an editor and about the functioning logistics”, so that every household has a daily newspaper hot off the press on their doorstep every morning, she says a week after the visit.
Fake news and the question of how journalists get their information was also a common thread that ran through the statements. For Dan, it stuck: “It’s important to double-check information at least.” That’s what conscientious journalists do, too. Reisinger sees it as her task to “familiarize young people with the medium of the newspaper as early as possible in order to be able to talk about socially relevant topics”.
Source: Nachrichten
