Teaching News Literacy to Children with Digital Games

Given the contemporary state of journalism and the frequent attacks to the press, more scholars, institutions and teachers have been claiming the importance of news literacy (NL) education. However, few studies exist about the impact of digital games designed to educate about the news making process. This paper presents the evaluation of a web-based prototype to teach NL to children from seven to ten years old. Findings show that children were very engaged with journalism simulation and gaming elements. Results also suggest that the system has the potential to have a positive learning outcome. This study contributes to the scholarly debate by giving voice to children in evaluating what features work best in systems designed to teach NL. Based on this exploratory approach we discuss design improvements for this kind of platform. We also describe approaches for future studies in this area.