Apr 21, 2009
April 21st, 2009 by Paul Bradshaw
Last week the OJB published a roundup piece on how games were being used in journalism. The discussion around the post at Slashdot concerning journalism in general is so good it’s worth highlighting in its own right. I would republish the best ones here, but that would be a disservice to the range of discussion taking place. Take a look here*
*if you’re not familiar with Slashdot, comments get rated so you’ll only see the most ‘interesting’ ones expanded at first – another lesson for news organisations.
Apr 16, 2009
April 16th, 2009 by Paul Bradshaw
Karthika Muthukumaraswamy looks at how games have been used in online journalism.
BlackBerrys, iPods and Kindles are not enough anymore. Let’s add a joystick to the expanding repertoire of tools available to news consumers.
Gaming is often overlooked as a tool for disseminating news. Online games are attempting to explain the economy through the politics of oil, educate users on disaster readiness in the context of Hurricane Katrina and, perhaps more in line with traditional video games, some are exploring the various military operations implemented in the Iraq war. In a strange likeness to fantasy sports, one game allowed people to draft their own cabinet picks for Obama’s then-new administration.
Nick Diakopoulos, a researcher at the Georgia Tech Journalism and Games Project, gives one compelling reason for the media to turn to online games: they offer a format that would wean away from the current emphasis on unusual and inopportune events, focusing instead on more process-oriented journalism. How many times do you hear about a specific incident or event that killed troops or civilians in Iraq, without any knowledge whatsoever of the military operation that caused it? [Read more]
Nov 29, 2007
November 29th, 2007 by Paul Bradshaw
Two stories from TechCrunch this week highlight how the internet has the potential to bring the dryest subject matter to life. [Read more]
News as a game: the view from Slashdot