When talking about news, many people might first think of chat messages or push messages. But this is supposed to be about the news that we know from TV or radio. Messages that bring us information from all over the world. For some people, watching the news every evening is an integral part of everyday life. Others hear the news by chance or read the headlines as they walk past a magazine shelf.

What we take for granted

Today we take it for granted that we have access to independent news anytime, anywhere. But that has not always been the case and in many countries around the world it still looks very different. The fact that all kinds of information are always accessible with us has many advantages and it is worthwhile to use them.

You can understand the world better

There’s a demo and people are wearing posters with globes on them? What does the abbreviation BLM actually mean in the bio of your TikTok-Crush? And why are so many people suddenly wearing masks? A lot happens around us and to understand it we have to be able to classify it. For example, you can use messages to find out about Fridays For Future demos and then recognize them when you pass one.

That police officers in the USA pulled the trigger on George Floyd until he died, you would surely have heard from messages and then you would also have known what BLM stands for. Even before the mask requirement came about and Corona became a real problem in Europe, you could already hear about the new virus in the news. So being informed helps quite simply to understand many things and to be able to sort them.

You can have a say

Whether in the schoolyard, in class or in the afternoon with friends: We humans are concerned with big events and we often feel the need to talk about them. In order not to always have friends explain everything to you and to be able to really have a say, you have to have at least a rough plan yourself what it is about.

You can do something

Stand up for or against something, get loud yourself and be an active part of our society – first you have to know what’s going on. As an informed person, you have many more opportunities to take action yourself. How? It can look very different. Do you hear of a new law that some parties want to implement? Then you can team up with others, protest against them, or vote for a different party in the next election.

If you find out about famine or natural disasters in the news, then maybe you and your family can donate something to those affected to help. Instead of being caught off guard by events and feeling powerless, news also helps you to take something into your own hands!