In this newsletter, we spend a lot of time highlighting how misinformation is a global problem. To that end, fact-checkers and others are trying to promote more media literacy worldwide — and some of those efforts are quite fun.
In the past few years, several games aimed at teaching people fact-checking skills and how to spot misinformation have launched. They range from putting users in the shoes of fake news generators to simulating what it’s like to be a broadcast reporter deciding which sources to trust.
Why games? Kathleen Hall Jamieson, co-founder of Factcheck.org and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania — which came out with its own media literacy game in October — told Daniel at the time that it comes down to how students learn.
“If what you’re trying to do is increase the agency of students, the interactivity of an online game is educationally or pedagogically useful,” she said. “The assumption was that it was a better way to engage them and do something important.”
Here are seven games we think anyone interested in media literacy should try.
1. Bad News
In this game developed by DROG, a Netherlands-based organization aimed at fighting misinformation, users play the role of a fake news writer. The goal: Get as many followers as you can while building up bogus credibility. You lose if you tell “obvious lies or disappoint your supporters.” A recent study from the University of Cambridge found that playing Bad News increases “psychological resistance” to misinformation.
2. BBC iReporter
The BBC launched this game in 2018 in a bid to help children ages 11-18 identify misinformation online. The choose-your-own-adventure game puts users in the shoes of a BBC journalist who has to decide which social media posts, political claims and photos they can trust. Tips on how to spot online fakery are included.
3. Fakey
Developed by a master’s student at Indiana University, Fakey is a game similar to iReporter. It simulates a social media news feed, where users are asked which posts they’d like to share, like or fact-check. Users score points by sharing content from credible news outlets and fact-checking questionable sources.
4. NewsFeed Defenders
This online simulation from the Annenberg Public Policy Center and iCivics, an education nonprofit, aims to teach people how to evaluate sources online. Users pick their own avatar and are tasked with choosing which posts to curate on their website and which to investigate.
5. Interland: Reality River
This game was developed by Google’s Be Internet Awesome Initiative, which aims to teach children the “fundamentals of digital citizenship,” and it shows. The top-notch graphics take users on a journey across a river guarded by a “phisher.” Users must answer questions about bogus phishing attempts to cross and win the game.
6. Factitious
Having made a splash with its debut in 2018, this game, developed by American University, clocked about 1.6 million articles played in the first three days of its existence. What does that mean? In Factitious, users have to read short news stories and swipe right if they think they’re real and swipe left if they think they’re fake.
7. Fact-Check It!
Finally, we’re partial to this role-playing card game developed by the IFCN for International Fact-Checking Day on April 2. It takes place in a fictional country where players have to operate a newsroom and verify 25 different news items that will inform editorials published on the day of an election.
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