Bad News: the antidote to fake news

This month’s featured content from freelearninglist.org is Bad News: The Game. 

It’s an ingenious research project and online game where you take on the role of fake news-monger, and drop all pretense of ethics to build a media empire. This fun, gamified approach helps us to more readily identify the tricks used to manipulate us.

In the game, players earn "badges", each of which correspond to common techniques used in the production of fake news, such as polarization, conspiracy theories, discrediting, trolling, and invoking emotion.

The goal is to build your own fake news empire and gain as many followers as possible while maintaining credibility. The game is based on a psychological concept known as inoculation theory, where exposure to weakened doses of common fake news tactics is thought to help confer resistance or psychological immunity against fake news.

The project was a collaboration between a Dutch media agency called DROG and the University of Cambridge. The research project showed that people were better able to spot and resist fake news and misinformation after playing the game.