Children and young people should regain their own self-efficacy in order to shape positive futures. Christian Schoon The news in recent years has been dominated by the pandemic, war, natural disasters, displacement and expulsion, as well as domestic and foreign policy conflicts. In addition, we are seeing increasing polarisation and a reduction in the substance of public debates on topics such as internal security. One consequence of this is the phenomenon of fear of the future among young people. This describes the feeling of not being able to actively shape the future. To do so, children and young people need two things above all: positive visions of the future and diversity of opinion and solutions.Together with #UseTheNews, we are developing exactly that: workshop formats on the topic of the future and shaping the future. Since the end of 2024, Jannis Lambert, Frauke Dornberg, Jakob Kuhn, Felizitas Janzen, Christian Schoon and Paulin Zahn have been involved in a collaborative project with #UseTheNews, in which they aim to contribute to strengthening educational and media literacy with the help of the concept of futures literacy (Futures Literacy & Foresight | UNESCO). Together with young peoplewe take a look at currently discussed development paths (differentiated media analysis),visualise individual desired scenarios (positive shaping of the future),aim to expand the scope of possibilities and open up new future worlds (constructive self-efficacy) andmake futures emotionally accessible in a scenario enactment (experiential interpretation of the future).Together, we want to help young people to recognise the different dimensions of future scenarios in a journalistic project. The aim is to question simple and polarising answers and opinions and to open up a range of solutions and possibilities that are underrepresented in public discourse.Who is #UseTheNews?#UseTheNews is a project of the dpa (German Press Agency). The dpa brings together almost all German news and publishing houses and, by processing and editing information, bears responsibility for maintaining our democracy. However, when disinformation and a lack of news literacy come together, this democratic mission is in danger. To achieve a lasting impact, #UseTheNews focuses its work on children and young people in order toestablish media and news literacy in a way that promotes democracy,enable democracy-oriented transformation and shaping of the future, andrebuild trust in the state and democratic institutions.To this end, #UseTheNews relies on cooperation with schools and experienced organisations from the school and education sector.Further information on #UseTheNews (in German)Last update: 13.02.2025 Do you have questions? Your contact at Prognos Christian Schoon Senior Project Manager View profile
