Connect with us

Future of journalism: News games

Gaming

Future of journalism: News games

Technological advancements are seeing more and more of us using digital devices to access the news.  According to Reuters research, more than half of us now access the news on our smartphones.  One new development which exploits this new technology is the growing world of news games, but what are they and who uses them?

News games is a genre of games that attempt to apply journalism principles to their creation. The idea of these games is to try to get the news across to the audience through the interaction between the person and the game . It allows the individual to take part in the event and get a better insight of current affairs and how they affect others.

One popular example of a news game is The Guardian’s ‘Christmas on the high street: retail winners and losers’. The game is based on an interactive monopoly board and by clicking on each retailer you find out how each business fared on previous Christmas.

According to Ian Bogost, Simon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer 2010 book, Newsgames: Journalism at Play- there are several types of News Games available. These are editorial games, tabloid games, reportage games, infographic games, documentary news games, puzzle news games and literacy games. Each of these games offer different aspects and ways of using the news in game form.

News games are proving a popular way of acquiring the news with young people. In an interview with JLDN, student Orlagh Daly said she “would rather play a news games than watch the news on TV”.

As the news moves further towards the digital age, it looks like the future of telling the news and engaging the audience will be using the method of making the news into a interactive game.

More in Gaming

To Top