‘Online Games As The New Journalism’
Posted by anastasia on 06-10-2009
There’s been a lot of talk (and writing) about how to save journalism (and newspapers) of late, and I won’t be offering more suggestions in this post. But the topic of journalism and the headline, “Online Games as the New Journalism,” from a short video featuring New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof at the recent Games for a Change Festival, got me thinking…Kristof speaks about how MTV’s (or rather mtvU’s) game Darfur is Dying inspired him to create a game based on a new book he is writing with his wife on the oppression of third-world women.
At the Ypulse Mashup Kate Connally of Addicting Games spoke about a few “news games” on her site (.pdf) that have been extremely popular. While their mission is still entertainment, tying Flash games to big news stories like “Sully” Sullenberger’s water landing did very well on her site.
I think Kristof is on to something. With Pew reporting last year that virtually all teens are now playing some sort of video game (casual, Wii, Rockband, phones, etc.), we know they are fluent in the language and narrative structure of gaming. The challenge with attracting teens to any sort of “serious game,” is designing game play that doesn’t feel “lame.” I’m not a gamer, but I’ve heard enough teen gamers talk about what they want in a game to know that their standards are pretty high. (See highlights from our discussion on this at SXSW Interactive in 2008).
At the same time, context is everything. If the news topic is as big as “Sully’s” landing, I can see teens clicking to play the easy Flash newsgame on Addicting Games in their leisure time. But if it’s a choice between playing Darfur is Dying and Halo…I’d put my money on teens choosing Halo. If it’s a choice between listening to a teacher lecture about what’s happening in Darfur or playing Darfur is Dying in the classroom and then having a discussion about what happens in the game, the serious game wins hands down.
Instead of just giving classrooms free subscriptions to newspapers or even having students just watch youth-y news on Channel One, I believe educators should be embracing serious games as teaching tools in a big way. I know the folks in that community as well as funders like The MacArthur Foundation have been putting time, energy and money into this cause — it seems obvious to me that large companies in the gaming space should also be involved as well if they’re not already from a “double bottom line” perspective. Perhaps journalism organizations should join them.
Categorized under: Education, Gaming
June 10th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
While I agree that gaming can be used to introduce or reinforce a subject or topic as well as elicit positive responses from teens, I think we need to be careful with how we evaluate learning or check for understanding. If learning outcomes are imbedded within the constraints of the “game”, are children/tweens/teens/youth picking up on both messages – fun AND education.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
[...] Posted on June 11, 2009 by Tim Youth marketing website Ypulse hosts an article about using online games in place of journalism to engage young people. Anastasia argues that while teenagers may choose [...]
June 12th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
The majority of children will Not learn anything until their noses are rubbed in the neccessity of at sometime in their adult life of being able to at least attempt to be able to minimumly provide for themselves.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Why not use games in addition to journalism to teach young people? Provide the article filled with good writing and reporting – then add the game as you would any sidebar or infographic.