Abstract
According to the RVP G, media education in secondary schools should, among other things, offer "basic knowledge about the role of the media in society and its history". It is very important for pupils to realise that the difficulties associated with evaluating third-party information were also experienced by people in past eras (albeit to an incomparably lesser extent) and that at least elementary 'media literacy' (and the associated literacy of reading) was necessary in the past in order to work properly with information and avoid manipulation and harmful propaganda.
Already in ancient Rome there were "newspapers" (so-called Acta - populi, diurna, etc.), newscasters and "social media" (e.g. the inscriptions in Pompeii, etc.). References to the need to think "with one's own head" and to examine news and information critically are then captured by a number of ancient Greek and Roman writers and thinkers.