At GMF25, exploring how media literacy education can link newsrooms and audiences

When was the last time you spoke about the news with a teenager?

At this week’s 2025 Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, our team posed this question to journalists — and used it to kick off a lively session on why media literacy matters more than ever.

Even as journalism faces systemic and technical challenges, our breakout workshop explored how newsrooms big and small can invest in conversations with young audiences — not just as a public service, but as a way to strengthen journalism itself.

Colleagues from the Philippines, Turkey, and Indonesia joined us for a conversation about how reporters can bring real-world newsroom experience into media-literacy training in classrooms — and how doing so can build societal resilience, public trust, and sharper newsrooms that are more connected to their audiences.

Our panel, moderated by Lie Detectors’ Sinem Sahin, featured Philipp Maschl, journalist at Austria’s ORF and longtime Lie Detectors trainer, as well as Emilie De Schaetzen of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

We covered everything from budgeting and planning to how these programmes are run on the ground and why they’re worth the investment. Interested in how Lie Detectors can support your newsroom’s media literacy efforts — even with limited staff or time?

Let's connect.

Many thanks to Deutsche Welle and its Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) for making this workshop happen.