Webliography Entry 1:  Bad News

• Reviewer: Crystal Donlan
• Game Title: Bad News
• Developer: DROG and University of Cambridge
• Release Date: February 19, 2018
• Genre: Educational
• Audience: Teen/Adult
• URL: https://www.getbadnews.com/#intro

• Overview: Bad News is a free web-based educational game designed to increase the participant’s awareness of the viral nature of disinformation¹ (i.e., “fake news”). During gameplay, the user takes on the role of a propaganda tycoon by making consciously negative choices with the intention of disseminating false news, proliferating conflict, and avoiding logic. By choosing emotionally-charged and politically-polarizing stories to post in a fictitious social media feed and subsequently developing a legion of followers, players learn how simple and pervasive the process of broadcasting bogus news can actually be.

Touted by its creators as an “inoculation”² to fake news, Bad News situates participants from a villain’s perspective in an attempt to build resistance to the (figuratively) growing social contagion³. Gameplay focuses on six specific techniques of propaganda – polarization, impersonation, emotion, trolling, discrediting, and conspiracy – and players earn badges upon mastery of each concept. Equipped with two additional progress measures – a followers tally and a credibility meter, both of which rise and fall depending on the user’s choices – the game’s object is to deceive readers effectively enough to be considered an authentic news source.

In a BBC interview with Jon Roozenbeek⁴, the co-creator of the Bad News game, the designer explained the concept of Bad News as “a fake news game where you drop all pretense of ethics and choose the path that builds your persona as an unscrupulous media magnate. All in order to make yourself immune to disinformation” (DROG getbadnews, 2018). While the mechanics of the serious game⁵ are confined to individual decision-making via a range of preferences within a culminating scenario, certain risk accompanies each choice. In some cases, a player’s choice of content may boost ratings and accumulate more followers; in other cases, a single decision could reduce ratings and eliminate followers. This cycle mimics modern social media phenomena in that the gambles a participant makes with content selection directly – and instantaneously – affect public perception.

The Bad News information sheet⁶, a 12-page PDF designed to help educators utilize the game as a learning tool, provides guidance for incorporating the game into the curriculum.

• Applied Review: Critically appraising information⁷ for reliability and credibility is an important 21^st century skill⁸. Digital, information, and media literacies enable students to develop fluencies that promote deeper analysis⁹ of published content. Incorporating literacy education in the college curriculum aligns with the knowledge practices and dispositions outlined in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education¹⁰. Bad News specifically scaffolds learning objectives associated with Frame 1: Authority is constructed and contextual¹¹.

Within my practice as an English and communications instructor at a community college, I have incorporated reflective activities based on gameplay of Bad News as one part of a three-module unit through which satisfactory completion yields achievement of a media literacy digital badge. This badge is awarded within the course LMS, and is fully transferable as a digital micro-credential. While my students’ feedback on the Bad News game experience is primarily positive, results vary among users. All learners who submitted reflective commentary on their experience reported a deeper level of understanding of fake news practices as well as a (perceived) wider breadth of cautionary analysis when approaching new broadcast information. This result is consistent with recent research citing experience with the Bad News game as a positive contributor to the development of psychological resistance¹² to disinformation.

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¹ DROG (2018). Information on disinformation. https://aboutbadnews.com/#approach Retrieved October 13, 2020.

² Perkins, K. (2019). Bad News: The game that could “vaccinate” against online misinformation. https://globalshakers.com/bad-news-the-game-that-could-vaccinate-against-online-misinformation/ Retrieved October 13, 2020.

³ BBC News (2018). Game helps players spot ‘fake news.’ https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43154667 Retrieved October 13, 2020.

⁴ DROG getbadnews (2018). CNN interview with Jon Roozenbeek on GetBadNews. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfGwHyxlZCY&t=187s Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

⁵ Growth Engineering (2019). What are serious games? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmG3fdptY_k&feature=youtu.be Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

⁶ DROG (2018). Bad News information sheet.  https://www.getbadnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Bad-News-Game-info-sheet-for-educators-English.pdf  Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

⁷ MindTools (2020). How to spot real and fake news: Critically appraising information. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/fake-news.htm Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

⁸ Alismail, H.A., & McGuire, P. (2015). 21st century standards and curriculum: Current research and practice. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(6). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1083656.pdf Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

⁹ John Spencer (2016). Helping students identify fake news with the five c’s of critical consuming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf8mjbVRqao&feature=youtu.be Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

¹⁰ Association of College and Research Libraries (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education.  http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

¹¹ Benedictine University Library (2020). Information literacy: Teaching and learning: Frame 1: Authority is constructed and contextual. https://researchguides.ben.edu/c.php?g=378156&p=2559697 Retrieved on October 13, 2020.

¹² Roozenbeek, J., & van der Linden, S. (2019). Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation. Palgrave Communications, 5(65). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-019-0279-9 Retrieved on October 13, 2020.