First News Camp Neukölln: Publix and #UseTheNews strengthen students’ news literacy
On Local Journalism Day, 150 young people experienced firsthand at Publix how journalism works and how to recognize fake news
The public-interest media organization Publix and the dpa subsidiary #UseTheNews hosted the first News Camp Neukölln. On May 5, 2026—Germany’s nationwide Local Journalism Day—150 students from five Berlin schools explored how media content is produced and how its credibility can be assessed. Through interactive workshops and direct conversations with journalists and media professionals, they learned to question information critically, verify sources, and create their own content.
“Anyone who wants to navigate the flood of online content needs to understand, verify, and contextualize information. That’s exactly what the young people learned at the News Camp Neukölln at Publix,” said Maria Exner, Managing Director of Publix. “The strong response from schools and teachers shows how important this kind of program is.”
The program was designed by civil society organizations as well as professionals from journalism and media practice, giving participants a tangible sense of why independent journalism is essential for a democratic society.
About the program:
- The European organization Lie Detectors, together with journalist Katharina Kühn, showed how young people can verify information and how professional newsrooms operate.
- At Codetekt, participants developed a checklist to analyze social media content and systematically identify disinformation.
- CORRECTIV’s youth editorial team Salon5 worked with the students to develop ideas for their own podcast formats.
- The production company Tell Me Why demonstrated how investigative TV documentaries are made
- The organization Headliner explained how journalistic texts can be brought to the stage.
The workshops were complemented by an interactive activity course, including contributions from the Editorial Society Action Lab of the ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS. The association Journalismus macht Schule also took part in the action day with a hands-on station on fact-checking.
The News Camp Neukölln is a joint initiative by Publix und #UseTheNews, in collaboration with partner organizations from across Germany: Journalismus macht Schule, Lie Detectors, Salon5, Codetekt, ZEIT STIFTUNG BUCERIUS, Tell Me Why, Headliner, Believe, the Medienanstalt Berlin-Brandenburg, and the Wortwerkstatt Pipe Up!.
Photo credit: Karolina Granja
