<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Producing digital and interactive journalistic products offers unique and important new learning opportunities for journalism education. This study analysed the experiences of two pilot courses on so-called ‘newsgames’ in a Finnish university in 2015 and 2017. The data consisted of the newsgames and other materials produced by the students, student feedback concerning the course and observations of teachers throughout the project. Our analysis demonstrates how producing newsgames in the context of higher education may foster project-based learning experiences, something that has been relatively rare in traditional journalism education. Collaboration with media companies also offered valuable feedback for the students throughout the course and provided them with an opportunity to practice selling their expertise. The study highlights how interdisciplinary and project-based cooperation may benefit journalism education.</p></abstract>

Producing digital and interactive journalistic products offers unique and important new learning opportunities for journalism education. This study analysed the experiences of two pilot courses on so-called ‘newsgames’ in a Finnish university in 2015 and 2017. The data consisted of the newsgames and other materials produced by the students, student feedback concerning the course and observations of teachers throughout the project. Our analysis demonstrates how producing newsgames in the context of higher education may foster project-based learning experiences, something that has been relatively rare in traditional journalism education. Collaboration with media companies also offered valuable feedback for the students throughout the course and provided them with an opportunity to practice selling their expertise. The study highlights how interdisciplinary and project-based cooperation may benefit journalism education.

A Pilot Study on Developing Newsgames in Collaboration between Journalism and Computer Science Students

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Producing digital and interactive journalistic products offers unique and important new learning opportunities for journalism education. This study analysed...

Name (in Finnish)	Topic	Key mechanics	Year	Number of players
Microbrewery (Pienpanimo)	Establishing and running a microbrewery in Finland	Resource management, “simulation”?	2015	2,050 (until August 2016)
The Operation Center (Tilannekeskus)	Decision-making in the police operation center	Real time puzzle, resource management, “simulation”?	2015	5,689 (until August 2016)
Save Refugees from Syria (Pelasta Syyrian pako- laiset)	Distributing the asylum seekers from Syria to European countries	Management	2015	490 (until August 2016)
Before, everything was… (Ennen oli kaikki…)	Living through the life of a person born in Finland in 1917	Story-focused, interactive story, multiple-choice, random elements, “life simulator”	2017
Doctor shortage (Lääkäripula)	Working for 1 week as a general paediatrician	Story, little resource management, multiple choice, random elements	2017
Cybercrime (Kyberrikollisuus)	Choosing and execu- ting cyber-attacks	“Simulation”	2017

A Pilot Study on Developing Newsgames in Collaboration between Journalism and Computer Science Students

Published Online: Nov 28, 2019

Page range: 143 - 155

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0038

Keywords
journalism education, journalism practice, newsgames, project-based learning, multidisciplinary

© 2019 Siitonen, M., Uotila, P., Uskali, T., Varsaluoma, J. & Välisalo, T., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Outline of newsgames produced during the two pilot courses

A Pilot Study on Developing Newsgames in Collaboration between Journalism and Computer Science Students

Published Online: Nov 28, 2019

Page range: 143 - 155

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0038

Keywordsjournalism education, journalism practice, newsgames, project-based learning, multidisciplinary

© 2019 Siitonen, M., Uotila, P., Uskali, T., Varsaluoma, J. & Välisalo, T., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Outline of newsgames produced during the two pilot courses

Keywords
journalism education, journalism practice, newsgames, project-based learning, multidisciplinary