In the course of our research we have examined how games or game-like interactive
applications have been incorporated into some news outlets. But how do
all these experimentations from the media industry relate to the
training of future journalists and the research being done at
Journalism schools? Is there a space for videogames in J-school academia?Traditionally, journalism schools, at least in the United States, have been separated into broadcast and print departments. This division of teaching has been present for decades as these platforms were completely different worlds: different skill sets, different media companies, and so forth. Today, with the efforts in the industry to converge and the growing space of the web as a blender of the traditional media, the separated platform training has been challenged.
Another focus that can be seen in Journalism Schools is a more theoretical one where it is possible to find more media, culture and communication research. Around this perspective we can see videogames taken as a cultural and societal phenomenon. For example, schools would observe how the entertainment industry is creating brands that are deployed across different platforms, including videogames, or they would assess how games affect people and society.
In both cases it is difficult to see videogames more than as an observable phenomenon, and far beyond from the idea that videogames could be something that journalists could create as news-related product. However, if I would predict how games will knock on the door of the Journalism schools, I could see that news-gaming might be introduced in the same way as multimedia and online journalism was done some years ago.
With the introduction of web, Journalism schools
started exploring the areas of multimedia, digital media,
interactivity, and so forth. In the mid-90s these schools offered
courses about storytelling on the new medium. However, most of them
were focused more on the technical skills needed to create digital
pieces than an exploration of the challenges to storytelling that the
web was presenting. With some exceptions, the curricula from that time
and even the courses offered today share this same general approach,
although with different tools. In the beginning we saw courses that
trained students with software such as HotDog, Frontpage, Netscape, and
today we see they use Flash and Dreamweaver. This software-centric
training approach is a reasonable start, but it is certainly not enough.
Since most news-games that exist today on the web are created in Flash or Java, it would be understandable to see some journalism schools that want to quickly make the connection between news and games to take the same tool-centric / instrumental approach as with multimedia. Why? The basic answer is that they would see that the tools are similar so the transition would be quick, accompanied by the naïve idea that just by teaching the tools the games will be automatically created. This is mainly caused by the over-simplification of what many think is needed to create a game. As a result we would see videogame design classes to be mainly focused on how to locate visual assets on a Flash stage. To put this in a more extreme example: this would be the same as teaching only how to use a typewriter but never talking about how we should those skills to create a good story.
More deeply, I believe this instrumentalist approach is caused because many of them don't want or know how to answer the real questions and because teaching tools is easier. Answering what the role is of videogames, computation, multimedia, interactivity, and so forth in news is much harder.
If the Journalism schools make the same mistake as with the web, future journalists will be clueless when they arrive to the newsrooms and the editor tells them that they need to deal with games. If there is a real opportunity for games and news, at least some of that chance should be created in the classrooms and the labs.
On the bright side, I believe that academia has their solution in its roots: universities are a conglomerate of different disciplines that, aligned in the right way, can help Journalism schools to see the challenges presented by the games and the web. I believe that journalists cannot answer these questions alone, nor the designers, computer scientists, psychologists, and so forth. As with any medium, the technological, design, usability, etc. are parts of a whole that can only be achieved through multidisciplinary team work.
Around 2006, the University of Minnesota professors Nora Paul and Kathleen Hansen started experimenting with Neverwinter Nights as a platform to create a training game for journalists, a way to use games as a new educational tool: "We wanted to develop an educational game that would allow us to do some experimental work on the efficacy of computer simulations as education tools," says one of its creators. The project has evolved, and they are now using a more suitable platform based on Flash, but the biggest step made here is that they tried to experiment with the intersection of training and games.
More recently, at UC Berkeley, a group of journalism and architecture students under the guidance of professor Paul Grabowicz created 7Street. This is a game that allows the users to explore West Oakland after the Second World War. "We wanted people who remembered that world to feel like they'd gone back in time - and for players of all ages to enjoy exploring and learning about the music and history of 7th Street," they explain on the website. In this example we see that the teamwork between architects and journalists is an uncommon but interesting approach where both communities lend their knowledge for a collaborative product.
Finally, the J-Lab center of the American University' School of Communication had a workshop entitled "Playing the news" at the last Online News Association conference in Washington D.C. where they invited programmers and creators of numerous games published in news outlets. It is an important step to see people from outside the traditional journalism world speaking in a workshop organized by a university about how games should be designed.
It is revitalizing to see that some people in academia are trying not to avoid the real questions that new platforms, mediums, and technologies present, and at least experiment with them. We don't know if they will get the right answers, but is far better than reducing the education to an instrumental tool-based training.
Since most news-games that exist today on the web are created in Flash or Java, it would be understandable to see some journalism schools that want to quickly make the connection between news and games to take the same tool-centric / instrumental approach as with multimedia. Why? The basic answer is that they would see that the tools are similar so the transition would be quick, accompanied by the naïve idea that just by teaching the tools the games will be automatically created. This is mainly caused by the over-simplification of what many think is needed to create a game. As a result we would see videogame design classes to be mainly focused on how to locate visual assets on a Flash stage. To put this in a more extreme example: this would be the same as teaching only how to use a typewriter but never talking about how we should those skills to create a good story.
More deeply, I believe this instrumentalist approach is caused because many of them don't want or know how to answer the real questions and because teaching tools is easier. Answering what the role is of videogames, computation, multimedia, interactivity, and so forth in news is much harder.
If the Journalism schools make the same mistake as with the web, future journalists will be clueless when they arrive to the newsrooms and the editor tells them that they need to deal with games. If there is a real opportunity for games and news, at least some of that chance should be created in the classrooms and the labs.
On the bright side, I believe that academia has their solution in its roots: universities are a conglomerate of different disciplines that, aligned in the right way, can help Journalism schools to see the challenges presented by the games and the web. I believe that journalists cannot answer these questions alone, nor the designers, computer scientists, psychologists, and so forth. As with any medium, the technological, design, usability, etc. are parts of a whole that can only be achieved through multidisciplinary team work.
Around 2006, the University of Minnesota professors Nora Paul and Kathleen Hansen started experimenting with Neverwinter Nights as a platform to create a training game for journalists, a way to use games as a new educational tool: "We wanted to develop an educational game that would allow us to do some experimental work on the efficacy of computer simulations as education tools," says one of its creators. The project has evolved, and they are now using a more suitable platform based on Flash, but the biggest step made here is that they tried to experiment with the intersection of training and games.
More recently, at UC Berkeley, a group of journalism and architecture students under the guidance of professor Paul Grabowicz created 7Street. This is a game that allows the users to explore West Oakland after the Second World War. "We wanted people who remembered that world to feel like they'd gone back in time - and for players of all ages to enjoy exploring and learning about the music and history of 7th Street," they explain on the website. In this example we see that the teamwork between architects and journalists is an uncommon but interesting approach where both communities lend their knowledge for a collaborative product.
Finally, the J-Lab center of the American University' School of Communication had a workshop entitled "Playing the news" at the last Online News Association conference in Washington D.C. where they invited programmers and creators of numerous games published in news outlets. It is an important step to see people from outside the traditional journalism world speaking in a workshop organized by a university about how games should be designed.
It is revitalizing to see that some people in academia are trying not to avoid the real questions that new platforms, mediums, and technologies present, and at least experiment with them. We don't know if they will get the right answers, but is far better than reducing the education to an instrumental tool-based training.
What are you thinking? This is like Let's Make a Deal meets Nightline.
The power of the pen can be mightier than the sword. Why jeopardize this by dabbling or curbing NEWS and trying to make it entertainment. Seems frivolous and foolish.
Why turn something that has been built on the foundation of truth and honesty, to keep power brokers honest, and turn it into a huge joke that nobody holds as credible.
Maybe journalist take themselves too seriously... after all they have brought change and uncovered great and terrible secrets throughout modern history.
Truth, integrity and honor holds great power ... politicians know this, as do the CEOs of large companies.
To have a written or featured good story about your company adds great value. To have a hidden gem revealed creates great trust. To hear something reported that a company or politician has done that was greedy, unfair and dishonest, is a weapon that many who have gained power through devious means and naturally fear having the truth told.
What a waste.
GAMES are GAMES
Dear Nopi,
Games are not necessarily entertainment. They are voluntarily-engaged systems of rules in which agents achieve predetermined or self-determined goals through inefficient means. Nowhere in the definition will you find the word "fun." Games can be more than those that you're used to playing. That is the purpose of this blog. You can slay kings with games.
Thanks for reading.
Dear Nopi,
I could not disagree more with GAMES are GAMES. We are only beginning to explore the educational value of gaming. I am just starting my journey into understanding game design, but the connection that I have made to journalism -- I was in the newspaper business for 30 years before being laid off last year -- is that great games and great journalism deliver an experience. Games, however, must do that in a nonlinear way. Journalism can be interactive but is much more linear.
At this point in my exploration, I can't see that gaming would bring much value to breaking news. But I do see great potential for both educational journalism and greater involvement in "opinion" pages online.
I can see the day when a multimedia news organization uses its resources to covering a big news event on a minute-by-minute basis and also has a team of flash designers, graphic artists, photographers, videographers and writers who, instead of (or in addition to) pulling together a contextual piece for the Sunday paper and Website, feed their reporting, photography, artwork into an interactive game that engages a whole new level of "reader".
Well, dear Nopi, I could not agree more with the two answers that have been brought to you above.
In the beginning of the 20th century, cinema was merely considered a purpose-free entertainment, only to be displayed in fairs on villages marketplaces. History has shown us how new media can gain momentum and widen ther action spectrum. Why would this not apply to videogames ?
On a side note, considering the situation of journalism schools here (in France), i would not be as optimistic as Mr Goldenberg about the integration of news-purposed videogames design in the list of standard lessons - at least, not in the next couple of years. I get the feeling that most school officers are probably not enough used to considering the possibilities offered by videogames.
Well, I hope the future will prove me wrong.
Florent Maurin
Ps : Please excuse my poor english skills.
I think it's interesting to see the integration of games over the recent years. It is estimated that over 65% of internet users have played or play a game on the internet. Now, considering that news outlets are turning to the web as a main source for distribution, I would it to be foolish not to consider 'games' as a feature of journalism. I put games in '' because although someone is playing something, doesn't necessarily degrade the event to something meaningless. Many new abilities of games have come about with the web and what they can achieve. My answer would bet that is definitely has a place in journalism, even if it is just tailoring a game to have a specific message.