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The news? It has now become a game

aprile 4, 2013 in English, Journalism with 0 Comments

300px Logomolle The news? It has now become a game

Molleindustria (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The revolt in Syria.The cuts in public spending.The reconstruction of Haiti.All important issues transformed into videogames, to allow

 

readers-users to become more involved in the news.Some big communications companies are trying. Here’s how: a protester holds up a sign with “Assad, resign” written on it; a tank fires at him and the protest ends with a dead man lying in the dust. Up until the next round because this is a newsgame, a product to be used via the Web which mixes entertainment and recreational elements with references to current news.To educate, inform and involve the player, in a more engaging and interactive way than is possible with a normal journalistic investigation.

They can be simple animations in Flash format, such as “Syrian Revolt”, or much more ambitious projects such as “Inside Disaster” dedicated to the earthquake that devastated Haiti, where with a simulation composed by original movies, you can become an aid worker, a reporter or a survivor to relive the tragedy in a virtual manner.

The category, whose various facets have been described last year in a book written by MIT, “

” includes not only games in the strict sense, but also interactive infographics and puzzles proposed by newspapers like ‘The Guardian’ and the ‘New York Times’.It is the Anglo-Saxon world of journalism that is experimenting this kind of action, supporting and completing the news given by the reporter or editorial director with some kind of infotainment.

The example of greater success is “The world at seven billion”, a kind of interactive quiz produced by BBC that gives the reader the chance to delve into the topic of demographic expansion allowing him to understand where he/she lies in the great cycle of births:how many people came into this world before and after him and what is the demographic balance in his country.The quiz, according to data collected by Journalism.co.uk, was the “history” most commented and shared on Facebook from the internauts of the United Kingdom in 2011 and finished in fourth place among popular quizzes placed on Twitter.

In the US, an interesting case is that of “Fix the deficit,” a puzzle proposed by the ‘New York Times’ in which the player must try to balance between spending cuts and tax increases, to ensure essential services to fellow countrymen without overrunning the accounts.A concept very similar to that of ‘Budget Hero’, a newsgame produced by American Public Media public radio.

 And in Italy? “In our country this is not an easy thing to create:the newsgames cost more than a simple video game and require skills that are more difficult to find, together with an unconventional vision of information”, explains Paolo Pedercini, Molleindustria’s heart and soul, group of independent game developers. “It is not by pure chance that newsgames are tested by giants such as the ‘New York Times’, ‘Wired’ or BBC, who seek to compete in quality with the challenges of the digital information era”, continues Pedercini.

Also in Italy there was an attempt to introduce games dedicated to Italian current events:and the ‘Espresso’ site did it with a few games regarding such events as the Rubygate, the former Director of Tg1, Augusto Minzolini or with the world homophobia championships game.

And even Molleindustria has tried to do something:like Leaky World, one of its latest games, defined by the authors as “an interactive interpretation of the paper entitled “Conspirancy as governance” by Julian Assange, where the head of Wikileaks theorizes the total transparency as the strategy to revolutionize, at best, society”. In the past, the same Molleindustria has produced other highly controversial newsgames such as “Faith Fighter”, a parody of the hatred between believers (the slogan is “choose your belief and bust the ass of those who do not think like you”) designed to make players reflect upon how religions are often used to feed the conflicts between nations, or “Operation Pedopriest”, about the scandal of pedophile priests.

But don’t you run the risk of trivializing delicate and controversial issues with these newsgames? “It’s possible.” states Pedercini, “but trivializations, simplifications and distortions constantly occur in journalism. I do not think we have a lot to lose.”

 

This article first appeared on l’Espresso online

http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio/la-news-e-diventata-un-gioco/2169844

 

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The news? It has now become a game

Books: The Digitally Divided Self, by Ivo Quartiroli

marzo 23, 2013 in Digital awareness, English with 0 Comments

4456487678 ac5f9084e2 m Books: The Digitally Divided Self, by Ivo Quartiroli

MIT Museum: Kismet the AI robot smiles at you (Photo credit: Chris Devers)

I’m reading a very interesting book by Ivo Quartiroli (he’s Italian, though the book was written in English),
it’s called the Digitally Divided Self.

I think many of his views fit perfectly with the philosophy and scope of our recently launched Digital Awareness Project.

I’ll get back on this soon. Meanwhile, I gathered some interesting quotes from the book for you to read and reflect upon:

We don’t realize we have become servomechanisms of IT – precisely because IT has weakened the inner skills of self-understanding.

Uninterrupted conscious attention along with silent time to look into our inner world are exactly what is rendered arduous by the technological society which, to use a term dear to Mauro Magatti (2009), sequesters our attention.

This looks like a reverse inquisition. As the Church would condemn anything which wasn’t compatible with Holy Scripture, now it looks like nothing has value if it is not backed by hard scientific proof and plenty of data. With that premise, there can be no value in any inner, philosophical, or ethical quest. What’s not calculable, statistically coherent or scientifically demonstrable is categorized as mere “opinion” and far from truth. Welcome to Technopoly,

But we can just go offline, right? Again, true – but the Internet tends, like a gas, to expand in time and space. It follows us anywhere, through wireless connections and smartphones. With the immediacy of communication through the Net, there is a reciprocal pressure for answers to be fast.

we try to become free of it again by outsourcing it to a mechanical computer, so we can again look at reality without filters. But the very qualities of the mind which could free us from the illusion – sustained inner concentration, meditation and silence, feeling the body fully – are the first to be sequestered by IT.

 

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Bonus (Italian)

Risorse, Economia e Ambiente: Senza potersi fermare link Books: The Digitally Divided Self, by Ivo Quartiroli

http://aspoitalia.blogspot.com/

Riceviamo e pubblichiamo questo scritto di Ivo Quartiroli, che amplia un po’ le tematiche dei nostri post, il cui taglio è solitamente tecnico-scientifico e economico (a volte anche psicologico). In esso ci propone la sua visione filosofica …. Allo stesso tempo, mi sembra che gli imperativi contradditori di cui parla Quartitoli siano essenzialmente parte della natura umana, di chiunque non si rassegni passivamente a lasciarsi trasportare dagli eventi. Anche da chi vuole solo egoisticamente …

Books: The Digitally Divided Self, by Ivo Quartiroli

On journalism and content curation

marzo 23, 2013 in Curation, English, Journalism with 1 Comment

4331368942 3ab1bbf226 m On journalism and content curation

Sree Sreenivasan and Vadim Lavrusik (Photo credit: 92YTribeca)

I’m reading an old, but always valuable article from Niemen Lab by Vadim Lavrusik on curation and amplification.

Some insights: “The cycle no longer stops after a piece is written or a story is curated from the social web. The story is ever evolving, and the post-production is just as important“.

“Contributed reporting from the citizenry hasn’t replaced the work of journalists. In fact, it has made the work of journalists even more important, as there is much more verification and “making sense” of that content that needs to be done. And journalists’ role as amplifiers of information is becoming more crucial”.

“Whether it’s a written story or one curated from the citizenry using social media tools, we will see a growing emphasis placed on content amplification through distribution (…) at stake is the quality of the information that does the reaching. If content is king, distribution is queen“.

We’ve seen this trend throughout 2012, as Lavrusik predicted; in this field the Guardian keeps leading the way among European newspapers (La Stampa, in Italy, is doing a good job too) and across the ocean the Nyt began experimenting with new formats, for new audiences. What still seems to lack, is tailoring the same content in different ways for different audiences. But I bet in 2013 we’ll start to see some of it too.

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On journalism and content curation

The network of the M5S: How the followers of Beppe Grillo use the Web to attract and nurture consent

marzo 13, 2013 in English, social media with 0 Comments

300px Grillo Viareggio2 The network of the M5S: How the followers of Beppe Grillo use the Web to attract and nurture consent

English: Beppe Grillo in Viareggio Italiano: Beppe Grillo a Viareggio (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

(this is an article I wrote some time ago, before the “explosion” of the M5S in the political elections and after the administrative ones. Some figures may vary – but the ratio of followers between Grillo’s party and other ones is more or less the same, and Giovanni Favia was later expelled for what the comician considered to be excessive visibility – but the substance of the piece I think it’s still valid and interesting for all those who want to understand better the Grillo phenomenon. English may not be perfect as, having little time, I had to rely mainly on automatic translation services)

Accused of “indifference and sceptical behaviour” in a patronizing way from the left party, barely taken into consideration by the right party, the representatives of the movement called Movimento 5 Stelle, those people that someone calls”grillini” (or Beppe Grillo followers), hardly find any space on the big media, yet with each new election they gain subscribers. In the coming months sociologists and talk show hosts will fervently discuss the reasons, but there is one thing: these followers sure do know how to use the network better than their competitors who pay good spin doctors and social media consultants. After all, the followers of this movement come from the Web, from the Beppe Grillo.it site. Let’s have a look at their “secrets”.

Youth and attitude towards the use of new media
“Many of us are digital natives,” explains the mayor candidate in Turin, Vittorio Bertola, himself an Internet expert and consultant of many innovative projects. He continues with stating, “and others use the Network for years: everyone has his own blog and goes on social networks for which our political commitment represents the evolution of what we already did in first person.” On the contrary, the attitude of some political parties towards the Web is often distrust, if not real hostility. “Politicians of the old school, continues Bertola “often fear the network because they come from a world where information must be protected and guarded jealously. So, even when they choose to use this type of media they often do counterproductive things like censoring comments.

Decentralised management, small teams and minimum costs
Each segment of the movement at a regional level organizes at its discretion, its presence on the network, even if for everyone the common reference point is the blog of Grillo. The operating costs are minimal and the staff reduced, also because it is almost always the candidate that speaks in person on the social networks.Regarding the campaign for Mayor of Turin, Bertola explains “the work group is composed of a person who is the webmaster and a couple of volunteers who follow Facebook.
Another person manages all emails. Finally we have someone in charge of the videos on YouTube. “In Emilia Romagna there is a person who deals with the Press Office of the regional councillor, Giovanni Favia, Alessandro Marchi, and a webmaster who deals with the maintenance and technical management of the blog. The moderation of the comments on social networks and forums is given in large part to the community. A horizontal control system that works, assures Marchi, because our members have a degree of civic sense that is beyond average”.

There’s Facebook, obviously. The official page of the movement has 123,000 fans (that of Pd (left party), for example, has 47,000 and Pdl (right party) 43,000)
Then there are the personal pages of individual members and the public. But the “social” site by far the most used is undoubtedly YouTube. “Since 2008, says Marchi, YouTube was a bit like our trademark. We did something like 300 videos in three years. We try to put videos about sessions of the Regional Council of Emilia Romagna, and to especially grasp those situations where other councillors.” contradict themselves”.

“YouTube is extremely important, confirms Bertola, our channel has had the major number of viewers than that of any other candidate. We also post very long videos, that give a degree of transparency, because they document an event in its entirety. Shorter clips are meant to be more viral”.

The Web and transparency
If sunlight is the best disinfectant, Internet is an extraordinary tool for disclosing information that those who sit in the seats of power do not want to let people know about. Pioneering in this sense, the experience of the movement from Emilia Romagna, that on the site, trasparenza.emiliaromagna5stelle.it, has put on line all the economic reports of the pentastelle in the Regional Council and the salaries of all Councillors, including those of other parties.Not only that, but the Councillor, Giovanni Favia also recorded the audio of the committees at work, where the real decisions are taken, which are then often simply ratified in Council. The files are then posted online. “We have also implemented a forum, explains Marchi, where the citizens themselves can make proposals on the instances to be pursued during the sessions; for the moment it is an experiment, we are trying to find a system to filter those interventions considered to provoke or are an end in themselves.”The Network also serves to respond to censorships. Recently, a member has sought to film a meeting of the Municipal Council of Bologna, but was prevented and received some sort of “warning” by three group leaders. The pentastelle reacted in a mocking manner: the incident was shown on YouTube in a hilarious video.

From the Web to the squares
The exchange between online and offline is constant. “Our program, says Bertola, was first discussed on the Web, then presented in public meetings and then corrected on the basis of the suggestions received and then re-posted on the Internet”. The candidate Mayor of Bologna, Massimo Bugani, held about 40 meetings in areas all over the city. To invoke people, the followers of Grillo relied, in addition to the good old word of mouth, to the mailing list of people who attended earlier meetings, to people who signed petitions or registered on Facebook.The whole thing was organized with zero costs.

 

The original article (in Italian) was published on La Stampa

 

 

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The network of the M5S: How the followers of Beppe Grillo use the Web to attract and nurture consent

Fear not: social media and user generated content will never replace journalists

marzo 13, 2013 in Curation, English, Journalism with 0 Comments

My report on Paul Lewis‘ seminar “Open Journalism, Social Media and the England Riots” at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

The complete article can be found on the RISJwebsite

300px Ian Tomlinson speaking to police Fear not: social media and user generated content will never replace journalists7:20 pm. Tomlinson moments before he was struck Lewis, Paul. The helper: Ian Tomlinson was obeying police orders, says G20 protester, The Guardian, 9 April 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Federico Guerrini writes:

 

Imagine a world without journalists.

For all the fears about the future of the profession, barely a decade ago just the thought of it would have caused a burst of laughter. How were people supposed to get their news, if not through the media?

Facebook was established only in 2004; Twitter a couple of years later: the power of social media had yet to show up.

“Now, the absence of professional journalists,” – explained Paul Lewis, award winning reporter of the Guardian, during a captivating seminar– “would of course cause major problems and disruptions, but the information could still find a way to flow and reach the audience”.

Does it mean that we have to prepare for a scenario of “News without journalists?” in accordance with the title of Paul’s speech?

Fear not. From what was said in the lecture, there’s still room for professionals, as long as they’re able to interpret their role in new ways that take advantage of the new tools available.

To all those still convinced that Twitter is just a fashion and a place for gossip, the Guardian’s use of the micro-blogging site to cover the England riots in 2011 – as depicted in the presentation given at RISJ -  will surely prove to be a mind opening experience. But in Lewis’ talk there was much more than that.

Debunking the official version

The use of Twitter by journalists, of course, didn’t start with the riots. The Guardian itself had used it before with positive results to aid its investigations, on at least a couple of occasions.

First, in the case of the mysterious death of English newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson during the 2009 G-20 summit protests. After the incident, most of the press stuck to the police account that Tomlinson had died of a heart attack while walking home from work.

Read the complete article on the RISJ website

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