What Journalists Can Learn from Game Designers

Game designers know something all journalists could learn from: how to create immersive and transformational storytelling experiences, by rigorous user feedback testing and rapid iteration. As inherently skilled software makers, game designers know how to engineer success by embracing and reacting to testing failures and incorporating that feedback into an interactive loop. Lindsay Grace, head of American University’s acclaimed MA program in Game Design (top 25 according to Princeton Review) and Andrew Lih, the leader of the university’s Wikipedia-oriented engagement with the National Archives and Smithsonian Institution, share insights on how user-centric design thinking can apply to the newsroom. This is part of the Knight Foundation-funded JoLT (Journalism Leadership Transformation) initiative at AU exploring the intersection of game strategic thinking and the future of media.

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