The task is fictional and the immunity is real.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “All Media” (ID:quanmeipai), the author of Tencent Media.
Fake news has always been a hot topic in the field of news communication. How to identify and resist fake news has attracted the attention of policy makers, technology companies, media reporters, scholars and think tanks.
In this regard, the whole media has repeatedly focused on fake news issues and conducted a multi-angle review and discussion:
Reject “Information April Fool’s Day”: A list of the global sniper fake news “Armed Law”
False News killer: how international media organizations put on a mission-driven CPU”
“Fake news storms! New York think tank D&S authoritative research, combing four coping strategies”
This issue of the whole media (ID: quanmeipai) once again slammed fake news, intended to open up new perspectives, answering in the current harsh communication environment, ordinary netizens can find easy and interesting ways to enhance self-immunity.
Can games help generate fake news antibodies?
Researcher: I am not wrong
It is well known that vaccination can effectively prevent the spread of the disease. If fake news is the evil of the current communication environment, experts and scholars who are part of the “medical team” have found a cure.
The so-called “vaccine against fake news” is an online role-playing game called Bad News. This game, which was born in 2018, helps players play the role of journalist in the game. The main task is to use the water force, fake facts and other means to compile fake news and provoke the reader’s hatred. Through the empathy game experience, players can get to know the production logic behind fake news.
Bad News Game Home Screenshot
The game was developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, and they also published a paper titled “Fake News Game Triggers False News Resistance.” “MIT research shows that fake news and rumors spread faster than the facts, and can reach more people and penetrate deeper. Therefore, it is undoubtedly a frustrating battle to crack down on fake news afterwards.” Paper co-author Sander van der Linden Explain: “We hope to help people understand how fake news is formed and how to blind the public by helping people to access ways and methods of creating and disseminating fake news.”
This strategy is called “vaccination theory” by psychologists. The essence of it is that when you try to convince a person, let them touch in advanceThe weaker, counter-mechanical view of stimulating defense, and the establishment of a strong defense system, is very similar to the principle of vaccination.
The paper reads: “It is important to expand the ‘immunization’ metaphor in the press to inoculate the public with a ‘vaccine’ that recognizes and opposes fake news… Common strategies for news, not fake news content with persuasive intent.”
The game simulates the environment of social media, providing players with commonly used fake news tools, such as Twitter bot, Photoshop, etc., to help them build a virtual platform that spreads fear, hatred and anger. The game system scores players based on the extent of the fake news and the intensity of the emotions. This kind of gameplay helps players understand the normal operation of fake news.
Bad News Game Screenshots
How effective is this practice? The research team asked participants to evaluate the reliability of a series of articles with different titles and content before and after the game. The results showed that after playing the game, the individual’s ability to recognize fake news increased by 21%. For reference, the experiment involved a total of 15,000 test data, the game time is 15 minutes.
In other words, a game that simulates fake news dissemination not only cultivates players’ skepticism about fake news, but also trains them to be sensitive to fraudulent strategies. The results of the experiment show that those who are more likely to believe in fake news have more resolving power after playing the game.
Linden added: “If you consider the tens of thousands of people around the world and establish a social resistance to fake news, this effect is not a general, but a far-reaching practical impact.” Span>
However, the experiment is also flawed. For example, since the experimenters participating in the game are all voluntarily registered, the experimental results have the defects of sample autonomy and cannot represent the masses. For another example, this study did not set up a traditional control group for comparison.
The Cambridge researchers firmly opposed this criticism in the face of criticism that “fake news games may contribute to the spread of fake news.” They believe that this game will not breed fake news. Because the motivation for the spread of fake news is usually political or economic, and the game has nothing to do with the two. In addition, they also believe that all people who are immersed in the Internet know the skills behind fake news. This is not a secret, and it is even less likely to become an infectious disease.
Jon Roozenbeek, another co-author of the research report, said: “We are turning our goals from ideas to tactics… We are not fighting specific lies, conspiracy, but we want to create a kind of anti-fake news. Qualability ‘vaccine’.”
At present, the game has been translated into multiple languages with the support of the British Foreign Office, and will be distributed to countries and regions outside the UK for future use.
Game-linked media literacy?
Developer: You didn’t get it wrong
Can you cultivate media literacy by playing games? The University of Cambridge study confirms to some extent that the game (Bad News) helps players to be psychologically resistant to fake news. Some game developers have also added their own “testimonies.”
Mihai Avram is a Ph.D. student in information science at the University of Illinois and a member of the development team for fake news game Facey. He said: “I believe that games like Fakey can improve the media literacy of the public.”
Under Bad News, Fakey’s focus is on information flow. In the game environment, players log in to their Facebook or Twitter accounts to share, like, check facts and other responses to posts in the stream. After the player makes one of the above actions, the interface displays whether the article “marked” is a fake news or not. According to the player’s ability to judge fake news, the skill score is added and subtracted accordingly.
Fakey game interface
Mihai said that the inspiration for developing Fakey comes from discussing and researching solutions to fake news problems in social media. “I have thought about imitating the dating platform, such as Tinder’s ability to read the introduction and then slide it around. In fact, this idea comes from my counselor FilippoMenczer, I just turned this idea into reality.”
Because the entire game wanted to mimic the social media experience, it was decided later to focus the game on the information flow. He explained: “We want users to naturally interact with news and fake news, just as they do on social platforms.”
In the development process, developers need to define fake news to distinguish between fake news and real news. This is no small challenge. First, although fake news is defined as news stories fabricated for political or commercial interests, in practice, fake news is much more than that. In addition, since the judgment of the fake news in the game is grasped by the algorithm, the developer needs to provide a judgment method that can be programmed.
The research team finally decided to use the source of the article as a standard for classification. Specifically, the research team has established two types of domain name libraries to help the algorithm determine whether the fake news is or not by defining a website for mainstream news and a website that frequently publishes fake news.
Although there is no definitive statistics to show the popularity of the game, Mihai said that there are tens of thousands of people who have played and also proposed their own improvements. “Like everything I did before, I hope this game can have some impact. Although we didn’t consider the audience when designing this game, there is no demographic data for the player, but I think it’s a promotion of this game. Very good in the classroom and studentssignificance.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, co-founder of the fact-finding website Factcheck.org, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annaberg Public Policy Center, also launched his own media literacy game, saying that “games are a way to engage students and attract them. A good way to do big things.”
In order to get higher scores, people will look at the content of the article more carefully before making reactions such as sharing, praising, verifying facts, etc., and thinking more independently. This is a behavioral change. Mobile phone holders who often slide their mobile phone screens without purpose will grow up into more media literate owners under the unexpected score attack, carefully reading the news behavior.
“Immunity Gain” Game Release
IFCN (International Facts Checklist) lists a number of fake news games. Each game takes a different approach. For example, Bad News spreads the fake news mechanism to cultivate the audience’s resistance. Fakey judges the true and false news to help the audience to get a good eye. Although the names are different, the gameplay is different, the path is different, but they are all running. Going to the goal of “fake news”.
BBC iReporter
In 2018, the BBC launched the game to help children aged 11-18 identify online fake news and foster media literacy.
In the game, the player’s identity is the BBC reporter, and the self-determination of the social media broke the news, photos and other information authenticity. Different choices will affect the player’s score. In the end, the game will determine the level of journalism according to the three indexes of accuracy, influence and speed.
BBC promoted the game as a journalism education program to many schools.
NewsFeed Defenders
The University of Pennsylvania’s Annaberg Public Policy Center and educational non-profit organization iCivics partnered with the game NewsFeed Defenders to teach people how to assess the truth of the news.
NewsFeed Defenders Game Interface
After choosing their identity, the player is responsible for deciding which posts to post on their website and which posts to investigate.
Interland:RealityRiver
This game was developed by Google to teach children the basic principles of digital citizenship.
Interland: RealityRiver Game Interface
The game is divided into four parts, covering the four issues of cyberbullying, network security, fake news, and over-sharing. Among them, the task of the fake news link is to cross a river guarded by “phishers”. Users must answer phishing-related phishing, and after successful they can cross the river and win the final victory.
Factitious
This game, developed by American universities, made its debut in 2018, and achieved the achievement of reading about 1.6 million articles in the first three days. How can there be such a large amount of page views?
FaThe ctitious game is that users need to make their own judgments after reading short news reports. If they think the report is true, slide to the right and if they think they are fake, slide to the left. The data shows that the correct rate of reading 15 people is about 82%.
Factitious gameplay
Fact-Check It!
On April 2 (International Factual Verification Day), IFCN released a role-playing game.
Fact-Check It’s game background is a virtual country. The player’s role is a member of the national newsroom. You need to verify 25 different news related projects and make judgments. Each project will affect The editorial content issued by the editorial office on the day of the election.
Misinformer
Investigative online news startup Point is developing a text-based detective mobile game.
In the game, the player plays the role of a citizen journalist and needs to complete a task to crack the conspiracy caused by the fake news before the election day. The story in the game will be directly adapted from Point’s survey. In other words, whenever a new story appears in reality, the game will fictionalize the story and automatically update it.
Point plans to raise $22,505 by August 23. As of August 14, it has raised $3,842.
Fake news games, none of which was born out of the real dilemma of fake news. Although the task is fictitiousThe experience is entertaining, but the game itself has serious social influence. Whether it’s sliding left and right to judge whether the news is true or false, or role-playing to understand the production mechanism, people are receiving information while playing games. In the proposition of helping ordinary people fight against fake news, the game is not an end, just a tool.
Reference link:
“This simple online game is like a “vaccine” against fake news
sciencealert.com/a-simple-online-game-works-like-a-vaccine-against-fake-news
Fake news games make people psychologically resistant to false information on the web
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0279-9#Sec5
The investigative news agency Point on the YouTube platform is raising money for a fake video-themed video game based on real stories
https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/08/investigative-journalism-youtube-outlet-point-is-raising-money-for-a-misinformation-themed-video- Game-based-on-real-life-stories/
Can media literacy be nurtured through games? 》
Can media literacy be gamified? A Q&A with one of Fakey’s developers
Want to be a better fact checker? Come play a game”