How to gamify your investigative reporting
How to gamify your investigative reporting
How to gamify your investigative reporting
By Katarina Sabados
July 19, 2023
Summary
From the old-school puzzles and crosswords in daily papers to modern games like Wordle, these news-adjacent games have been used for decades to increase engagement and reach younger audiences.
The Uber Game by the Financial Times and its accompanying digital feature was one of the most read - and played - stories by the paper the year it was published.
On top of reporting all the essentials for the story, the FT team made sure to collect relevant data like average rides per hour, cost of fuel and cleaning, and average fares per hour to code into the game later, said Kwong.
The most effective way to incorporate gaming into your reporting is to choose one message or theme that is central to the story's narrative, and explain it in more detail through gamification.
Though the Al Jazeera pirate fishing game was fairly simple - the game didn't have multiple, different outcomes - it still took nearly 10 months to execute from idea to publication.
Its investigation, Game of Votes, recently won a Sigma Award for putting Colombian voters in a medieval universe where they could explore how present-day political families seize and hold on to power in the country ahead of its 2022 parliamentary elections.
Thulin, the author of the LSE study, offered numerous recommendations for newsrooms contemplating the use of games to enhance their reporting.
Reference
Sabados, K. (2023, July 19). How to gamify your investigative reporting. International Journalists’ Network. https://ijnet.org/en/story/how-gamify-your-investigative-reporting