Gamifying Fake News: Playful Approaches to News Literacy Education for Middle School Students

• In Event: 35.079 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Five - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 35.079-6 - Media, Bias, and New(s) Literacies

Abstract

In line with the conference theme of leveraging educational research in a post-truth era, this paper addresses the potential of games to tackle fake news and stimulate youth news literacy. Specifically, we reflect on the process of designing a news literacy game for middle school students, where we adopted a multilevel game design framework to articulate learning objectives, consider suitable mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, and integrate relevant instructional principles along multiple learning dimensions. Positioning this work at the nexus of game design and media literacy interventions, we discuss the opportunities and challenges related to the adoption of a game-based approach to news literacy education in the current political climate.

Authors

• Ioana Literat, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Yoo Kyung Chang, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Daniel Ahn, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Man Su, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Weiying Zhu, Teachers College, Columbia University