If Albert Einstein could say “Life is just like a game”, who am I to say we shouldn’t treat the news like a game, too?

Traditionalists will say the news is no game. It is a serious matter of fact gathering, verification, and presentation that is not be treated lightly.

However, two pieces I read last week gave me pause for thought: Does gaming have a significant role to play in the future of journalism?

The first piece was an interview that Liam Dann conducted with Dame Wendy Pye for the New Zealand Herald. In it the highly successful educational book publisher said: “I’m really interested in the power of the gaming industry. [Gaming] seems to be occupying a lot of children so what my dream is to have really good educational games … not just something about a giraffe running around with the letter G on the screen or something. Imagine if we can use gaming’s magic and we can marry that with solid education.” She is working with a large Chinese company to develop her idea. If education, I thought, why not journalism?

The second piece was a research report by NZ on Air on Māori audiences. It found that rangitahi (which it characterised as 15 to 24-year-olds), like their Pakeha counterparts, are less likely to engage with television, radio or newspapers and express little interest in traditional news content.They are more likely to consume global online media than New Zealand content. They are arguably harder to reach than other sections of the wider community so present the toughest challenge. However, the same report notes that a third of Māori game online and spend an average of two hours a day doing so. Rangitahi are unsurprisingly the largest gaming group among Māori. That, I thought, could be the key to exposing them to the news. Continue reading “Play the game to spread the news” →