International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijcci

Research paper

Not too young to learn about the news: Best formats to educate about
journalism in digital platforms
Ioli Campos
Nova University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 31 August 2020
Received in revised form 20 October 2020
Accepted 20 October 2020
Available online 4 November 2020
CSS Concepts:
Social and professional topics → user
characteristics → age → children
Human-centered computing → interaction
design → empirical studies in interaction
design
Applied computing → education →
interactive learning environments
The educative game market is on the rise. However, research about digital resources that go beyond
the common core standards, like games on news education, is still lacking. We already know that there
are several advantages of the use of games to teach journalism students. Less is known about the use
of similar games to teach children.
This paper helps educators and game developers improving digital platforms to extend news
literacy education among children, by providing a list of 11 best formats to include in the design of
such platforms. This study is the culmination of wider research that, using a mixed methods approach,
included a formative evaluation of games available in the market, the creation of a new prototype, its
piloting and its testing among a group of 50 children.
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
News media literacy
Educative games
Children
Participatory design
Best practices

1. Introduction and literature review
Researchers have been focusing on the use of games in rela-
tionship to the news for some time. The term newsgames was
introduced by Gonzalo Frasca [1] and it referred to the pre-
sentation of current events in a digital playful way. Ian Bogost,
Simon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer proposed a more detailed
classification of newsgames, including several categories. One
of those categories was literacy newsgames – games that were
designed to educate about the importance of journalism to the
society [2]. Wajeehah Aayeshah also refers to these kind of games
as ‘‘journalism games’’ – games that, in her words, ‘‘aim toward
teaching journalists and training them for the required skills’’ [3].
Journalism professors have used analogical games to teach
about journalism production for a long time, even before the dig-
ital revolution. Some of the strategies used included mock media
conferences and hypothetical reporting scenarios [4]. Simulations
were considered a powerful teaching tool because they allowed
controlled preparation for the real thing which was immediate,
fast and sometimes included some danger [4].
E-mail address: icampos@fcsh.unl.pt.
The advantages in the use of these games in journalism classes
have been documented, and those include increasing analytical
thinking and problem-solving, generating empathy and cultural
sensitivity, while equipping users with specific skills such as gath-
ering information, editing news stories and doing interviews [3–
6]. Spikes and Haque add that the use of these games in the study
of journalism education is also beneficial for researchers because
it helps researchers to have greater control of the variables, while
allowing direct observations that complement the more usual
questionnaires based on self-report measures [7].
News literacy education is an evolving field, which during
the course of the last five years has attracted more attention,
due to phenomena like the Brexit referendum (related with the
withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union) and
the 2016 North American presidential election. On the course of
the information crisis generated by the communication related
with those events, several games that propose to raise awareness
about disinformation were launched [8–10]. Those were designed
for the common citizen, not only the journalism college stu-
dent. Furthermore, several official institutions have given signs
of support toward news literacy education measures [11,12].
However, the fact is that most school curricula still do not
include much media education content overall, and even less

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2020.100218
2212-8689/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
I. Campos
in the early years of education and at elementary grades [13].
Also, teachers often lack the necessary preparation [14] and re-
sources [15] to teach about the news.
Media literacy has been defined as ‘‘the ability of a citizen to
access, analyze, and produce information for specific outcomes’’ [16].
News literacy is often perceived as a subset within media literacy.
‘‘We consider news media literacy to be an important educational
goal because of its potential to foster increased news consumption,
civic engagement, and democratic participation, and, by extension,
to improve the conditions of citizenship and democracy’’ [17]. News
literacy can be approached from a practical side, more linked to
the production of media, or from a critical side, more linked to
the awareness raising and critical approach to news consumption.
This study focuses more on the latter.
Several digital platforms and games that propose to educate
children about the news have become available on the mar-
ket. They are situated in one of the fastest growing markets
— the educative game market. Although there is a large body
of literature about educative games in general, especially in the
common core areas such as language literacy and mathematics,
less is known about news literacy digital games for children.
Examples of those platforms specifically designed for children are
the app News Tutor [18] and the games available at museums
about the news [19,20]. Most of those use a simple structure like
quizzes [21].
We have seen that learning via digital games is already well
covered by the literature with regard to journalism college stu-
dents, as is the use of games that propose to educate a broader
population about the disinformation phenomena. However, less is
known about the use of these kinds of games among elementary
school-aged children.
Previous research shows that children are not inherently dis-
engaged from the news, rather they may be lacking age appro-
priate news stories [22]. Also, several authors have shown that
children are ready to learn about media production [23,24] and
yet the scholarly literature continues to overlook this popula-
tion [25], possibly because young children are a difficult and
vulnerable group with whom to conduct studies.
However, the fact is that although most advice direct parents
and educators to restrict children’s exposure to violent news
content [26], children continue to be exposed to the news and to
discussions about current events [27]. Previous studies of news
literacy interventions in the classroom have also shown that
there are clear benefits in improving news literacy education
specifically among children. Some of those advantages include
helping children improve their ability to cope with negative
news content [28]. Another benefit of news literacy education
among children includes the development of various lifelong
learning lessons that go beyond writing and reading skills im-
provement [29–31], such as technological and/or digital skills
development [30]; critical thinking [31,32] and civic literacy in
general and regarding empathy for global issues [31,32].
We know that for digital games to be effective educative tools,
they should incorporate good principles of teaching [6]. In the
case of news literacy educative interventions in the classroom,
Hobbs has suggested that there are seven learning principles that
work: ‘‘starting from the learner’s interests; connecting compre-
hension and analysis; asking critical questions and listening well;
focusing on constructedness; using new ideas to directly support the
practice of critical analysis and media composition; using collabo-
rative multimedia composition to produce meaningful and authentic
communication; and making connections between the classroom and
the world’’ [33].
Yet, those seven principles, as most of the literature that refers
to news literacy advantages, are based on studies done in a formal
educative setting, not including human to computer interaction.
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218
Research about digital games that propose to educate children
about the news is still very scarce. In fact, we could not find any
study that consisted in creating and testing a prototype to educate
elementary school-aged children about the news construction
process. Therefore, in our wider research, we were curious to
examine how digital platforms propose to educate children
from seven to ten years old about the news and how can news
literacy education in digital media be improved? This specific
study unpacks those broader research questions into two specific
questions:
RQ1 What formats related to gaming, storytelling or educative
features can be used in digital platforms to educate children
about the news?
RQ2 How do children engage with those technological features
while learning news literacy in a digital environment?
Based on that analysis, and in articulation with the previous
studies, we elaborated a list of the best practices, which is pre-
sented in the discussion section of this paper, and may be helpful
both for educators and game developers.
2. History of the project
This study is part of a larger doctoral research that incorpo-
rated four studies. The first study included five semi-structured
interviews with children from 10 to 11 years old. Interviews
were made after these children had played/used six platforms
about the news, which had been chosen on grounds of visibility,
antiquity, technological innovation and/or originality — two of
those platforms proposed to educate children about how the
news is made and the other four just presented current events.
The study, carried out at a private school in the outskirts of
Lisbon, in Portugal, also included user analysis.
Results from that first exploratory study showed that children
were particularly interested in learning how the news was made
and not only in being recipients of the news content. Those results
were in line with the literature that demonstrates that, at the age
of seven, children already show interest in learning how media
messages are produced [23,24].
That first exploratory study was the main definer of the
broader research design. This means that children’s participation
at such an early stage of the research contributed to incorporate
their interests and point of view in the definition of the subse-
quent research questions and to focus the research on the analysis
of games that propose to educate children about the news.
The second study consisted of a formative evaluation of nine
platforms available on the market and that proposed to do just
that: educate children about the news [21].
Based on the results of that benchmarking, we built a proto-
type in which we tried to incorporate what seemed to be the best
practices in terms of formats and competences. A third study with
eight children from seven to ten years old, carried out in public
libraries of Lisbon, Portugal, helped piloting both the prototype
and the research questionnaire [34]. Based on those results, we
fine-tuned the prototype by adding several features and new
objects and we fine-tuned the questionnaire by rewording some
of the questions and shortening its length.
Then, we carried out a fourth study, in which we re-validated
the improved prototype with a larger population. This paper
presents the results of that last study in articulation with the
previous ones.
3. Methodology
In this last study, we tested the formats implemented in the
improved prototype among a group of 50 children in a school
context, during 2018. To do that, we organized a series of work-
shops in which we used a mixed methods approach.
I. Campos
Fig. 1. Screen example from Game 1, in which children read/listen about how
the polar bear, next to the elephant, had just woke up from hibernation. At the
bottom, children had to choose what question to ask to the zookeeper. Image
credits: Jean Beaufort and Vilem Sharolek — PublicDomainPictures.net.
3.1. The prototype
The prototype tested in this last study consisted of a platform
with three games, a news area and an interaction with that news.
The first game uses a non-linear narrative to build a simulation
that shows how journalists gather information to build a news
story. In this story, the user assumes the role of a journalist who
has to solve a mystery about a situation that happened at the
zoo. The figure of a news editor is used to guide the journalist,
by giving him/her instructions and feedback. The game starts
with the editor calling the journalist to assign him/her a job. A
group of animals was stolen from the zoo and the editor asks
the journalists to find out who did it. To do that, the journalist
should go to the zoo and interview several people. Before leaving
the newsroom, the user has to choose what objects to bring with
him/her — some are related with the job, others are not, those
being: notebook and pen, camera, toothbrush and mug. As the
game unfolds, the user is confronted with several choices he/she
has to do, such as where to go next, whom to interview and
what questions to ask. Some of the people who the journalist
may interview are the police agent in charge of investigating the
case and the zoo director. According to the path that the user
chooses, there are five possible endings. In the end, the user has
to choose the best possible headline. But information available
at those headlines varies according to the information that was
gathered during the game. Therefore, ending scenarios vary from
the player being able to write a comprehensive and accurate
headline to write an incomplete and/or not so accurate headline.
This game was inspired by one of the games tested during the
formative evaluation study [19,21]. Due to technical constraints,
design elements of this game are very simple. The story is mostly
told through written text, a dramatized voice over and a just few
pictures, with no moving images (see Fig. 1).
The second game explores the concepts of news construction,
perspective and framing through a short quiz kind of structure. It
was somewhat inspired by the game Be a Photographer that sim-
ulates the unfolding of a news event in real time using live action
video and allowing the user to choose where to look [35] and the
app Newstutor that uses video to discuss news framing [18].
In this game the user has to choose the best pictures to
represent a story about a witch that lives in a forest. The pictures
were taken from the same place but with different close ups and
focal points. Some framings represent more honest and complete
representations of the story than others, showing that the choices
made by the story producer influences the audience perspective.
This is a very short quiz-like game with only two questions that
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218
Fig. 2. Screen example from Game 2, in which children had to choose the best
perspective to illustrate a story they had just read/listened. Pictures by José
Manuel Ribeiro.
Fig. 3. Screen example from Game 3, in which children have to answer several
questions about a story of their liking.
relies mostly on photography, but that also uses written text and
voice over (see Fig. 2).
The third game explores notions about news writing, the
inverted pyramid and the six journalism questions (Who? What?
Where? When? Why? How?). Children are asked to think of their
favorite book and to compose a news story about it. Although
we call it game, the fact is that no specific gamification elements
were included in this last game. So this third object was more
a linear digital interaction than a game. But for the purpose of
simplicity, in this paper, we call it the third ‘game’. First, the user
fills in a table answering the six journalism questions, then the
system gives back those answers in a whole text, framed in a
newspaper page. Next, the user has the chance to review and
amend the story before it becomes final. Users may print their
own newspaper page (see Fig. 3).
All three games end with a screen highlighting the lessons
learned. For example, in the second game, the highlighted lessons
include: ‘‘News stories may be told from various angles and per-
spectives; Journalists always choose a news angle when telling a
story; Journalists follow certain rules (called ethical principles) to
build the story; Those rules say that the journalist should always
narrate facts with accuracy and precision; Those rules also say
that the journalist should choose the news angle with honesty’’.
Our games relied heavily on written text. Because children
grow in confidence about their reading skills at different paces,
we decided to add voice-over to make sure all children were able
to follow the game’s instructions, regardless their reading level
(see Fig. 4).
The platform also has an area where current news events
are presented, like in a news website. Those news were always
updated on the same day of each workshop. The choice of the
news topics to include was guided by a mixture of common news
criteria and a perspective about what stories interest children
I. Campos
Fig. 4. Screen from News Interaction. Here, children may choose headlines to
build up their own frontpage.
the most [22]. The news stories were especially written for chil-
dren, using short sentences, easy and repetitive vocabulary. Each
paragraph contained a maximum of five sentences, following the
lowest reading levels characteristics for the youngest members of
our sample [36].1
3.2. Data collection
Data was collected through a mixed methods approach, which
included a survey, semi-structured interviews, computer screen
capture, observation, field notes and group discussions followed
by a teaching process.
The questionnaire was based on a validated construct by Maskl
et al. [37], which had been adapted for this specific population
and had been re-validated during the previous study [34]. The
survey included common demographic questions to assess par-
ticipant’s characterization, questions about current events knowl-
edge, news socialization, net and news consumption, news liter-
acy and engagement.
Interviews, field notes and group discussions helped under-
standing the meaning and context of the survey’s results. Not
only social and communication sciences have recognized the
usefulness of such qualitative approaches as a complement to
quantitative methods [38], but also computer sciences are in-
creasingly using this kind of methodology to evaluate computer
systems [39].
The teaching process, inspired by a participatory action re-
search approach, was created in order to help children consoli-
date skills and knowledge gained during the platform use.
3.3. Workshops’ description
This fourth study included three workshops of one and a half
hour each. The workshops were held in February of 2018 in the
computer lab room of a private school in the outskirts of Lisbon,
Portugal, called Colégio da Bafureira. There was one workshop per
school year. In the computer lab room, each child had access to
one computer. Computers were lined up against the walls, leaving
a wide empty area at the center of the room.
As the children entered the room, they were invited to pick
up a chair and place it in a circle at the center of the room.
With everyone facing each other, the facilitator introduced herself
and the study. Additionally, the facilitator explained what the
children’s rights as research participants were. Then, each work-
shop started with a group interaction about the news. Children
were asked about what they thought news was and what features
1 The games’ complete structure and full scripts are available upon request
to the authors.
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218
they would include in a digital platform to teach them about the
news. Answers were audio recorded and written on flipcharts for
further analysis. At this point, the facilitator tried not to provide
any guidance about the answers. Then, each child sat in front of
his/her computer, where they answered a pre-task questionnaire,
and then explored the platform at their own pace and will. After
having played with all the games, the children answered a post-
questionnaire, in which children were asked to classify on a five
point Likert scale how much they liked or disliked features like
simulation; editor’s feedback; option of asking questions; use of
true stories; option of composing a frontpage; option of writing
a news article; feature of selecting pictures; and recap at the end
of each game.
During the interaction with the platform, the facilitator and
the teacher moved around the room, helping the children when-
ever they requested. At the end, the children were gathered once
more at the center of the room. Using flipcharts again, we talked
about what were their favorite parts of the games and what they
had learned. At the end, the facilitator read three picture books
about the news [40–42], provided some input about the topic and
answered all the children’s questions.
3.4. Data analysis
Descriptive frequencies for all survey questions were analyzed
using SPSS. A Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient
was computed to assess the relationship between the questions
within each variable. Reliability measures, like Cronbach alpha,
were also performed to examine whether questions could be
grouped into single variables like current events knowledge and
news socialization. With the questions grouped into variables,
another series of correlations for all grouped variables was com-
puted to examine the relationship among variables like age, cur-
rent events knowledge, news socialization, net consumption and
prior news literacy level.
Field notes, flipcharts, screen capture and transcribed au-
dio sessions were read multiple times and analyzed through a
method of constant comparison, using a grounded theory ap-
proach which extracts meaning from people’s experiences about
the phenomenon of interest [43]. Based on the procedures and
evaluation criteria suggested by Corbin and Strauss [43], we
examined the data looking for conceptually similar responses,
with an open coding procedure, and grouping them together to
form categories.
3.5. Sample description
A sample of convenience of 20 females and 30 males (n = 50)
composed the final survey sample: 21 were second graders, 15
third graders and 14 fourth graders. Participants had between six
and ten years old. This institution has been well placed in national
school rankings [44]. Most participating children came from well-
placed economic households, where most parents hold at least a
BA degree.
Questionnaire results showed that at the start of the work-
shop, participants had a medium level of current events knowl-
edge, a high level of news socialization, a high level of Internet
consumption, and a medium level of news literacy.
Crosstabs showed no difference per age or grade in partici-
pants’ answers to news socialization questions. Almost all partici-
pants answered that they either use Internet everyday (frequency
= 23, n = 50) or at least once a week (frequency = 20, n =
50). Only three participants out of 50 answered that they do
not regularly use Internet. However, a considerable number of
participants (frequency = 17, n = 50) answered that they have
I. Campos
never used the Internet as a news source, while almost a third
have had that experience at least once.
Also, most participants said that they had never been in-
volved in a school project about journalism. The few participants
who answered ‘yes’ to that question, were not able to enunciate
projects about journalism in particular. For example, one of the
participants who answered yes, explained that he had been in the
TV Quiz Show ‘‘The Price is Right’’, which, in fact, is not related
with journalism.
4. Results
4.1. What children thought that the news is and what have they
learned
When asked to define what news is, at the beginning of
the workshop, participants gave three kinds of definitions: (1)
news as something, which has occurred in the past; (2) news
as something defined by its gatekeeper (the journalist); (3) news
as something defined by its content (weather, tragedies, and so
on). Then, still before playing the game, when asked how should
a news website for children be, children’s answers very often
pointed to topics to be covered, such as: ‘‘warnings’’, ‘‘news’’,
‘‘events which cause fear’’, ‘‘special events’’, ‘‘events that hap-
pened’’, ‘‘things which we like’’, ‘‘weather’’, ‘‘people’s jobs’’, and
‘‘texts about what they are talking on the news’’.
After playing the games, when asked to enunciate some of
the lessons learned, some children exhibited some difficulties
mentioning three lessons on their own, while filling in the ques-
tionnaire. But most were able to enunciate at least one aspect that
they had learned.
The most common answers had a general focus. A little over
twenty children answered something like: ‘‘how to make news’’,
‘‘how to make interviews’’, ‘‘how to be a journalist’’, ‘‘how to write
a news story’’, or ‘‘how to make a news cover’’. However, some
children mentioned very concrete lessons, which were stated at
the recap screens within the games. Some of those lessons were:
‘‘the editor is the one choosing the news pieces’’; ‘‘to make a news
story we always have to ask six questions’’; ‘‘a journalist has to
follow certain rules’’; ‘‘a journalist needs to make interviews and
tell things right and write well’’; ‘‘journalists have to tell true
things, they have rules and they cannot copy other people’ work’’.
A few children focused on the importance of news or journalism
– ‘‘I learned that news are important’’; ‘‘I learned that journalists
are important’’. Also, eight children focused on the fun factor,
writing things like ‘‘I played, explored and I loved it’’. Additionally,
four of them said they did not know what they had learned. Only
one said he learned nothing while another said she learned that
she wants to be a journalist when she grows up.
When gathered in a circle at the end, they were encouraged
to discuss their answers. And some of them also added more
lessons, like ‘‘how to select images’’, ‘‘that a newspaper brings
new information’’, ‘‘that a news piece answers six questions’’,
‘‘how news/features are made’’, ‘‘how to make a news title’’.
In short, most of them were able to recall the lessons about
newsgathering and news production (reporting process, writing,
and editing). However, not so many were able to mention lessons
about framing and the reality’s representation.
Next, during the picture books read aloud, children often
interrupted with questions, transforming the read aloud into a
real-life interactive experience where connections with topics of
their own choice and from the games were made. One child
mentioned that ‘‘truth’’ was very important for journalists. Then,
suddenly, another child asked us if we liked Trump, while another
commented he was a bad person. We then briefly discussed
the importance of truth and facts in journalists’ work. Thus, the
read aloud seemed to have ended up working as catalyst for the
learning process, elevating the lessons from a concrete level to a
more abstract and complex one.
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218
4.2. Engaged and playing together
Most children played the three games in the order they ap-
peared on the screen, but a few of them explored the games in
a different sequence. The vast majority of the children seemed
very engaged with the game. Their heads were facing the screens
most of the time and even when their heads were not facing the
computer, they were often chatting with their peers about the
game or the news topics being presented. Rarely have we found
a child who was truly distracted from the topic of the news or
the games.
Also, some children spontaneously paired up and played to-
gether. In such cases, each child remained seated in front of
his/her own computer, but before clicking in a new option they
would wait for their buddy and they would often make those
choices together, discussing aloud what they should do. Even
when they were not ‘playing together’ they were very helpful
to their peers, answering their occasional doubts. Also, many
compared results with their peers at the end of each game.
This interaction with their peers happened especially dur-
ing the third game. During this ‘game’, they would often look
to their peer’s screen and they seemed keen on sharing their
answers with their peers and with the workshop facilitators.
Generally, they expressed enjoyment in writing the news stories,
in selecting images and in selecting the titles. Many of them
were concerned with spelling it right, so they also requested the
facilitator’s help to check the spelling before moving on to the
next screen.
Children who ended more quickly often asked if they could
play again or if they could play the next game. In the post-task
questionnaire, 34 out of 50 said that if they were given the chance
to play this game again at another time, they would do so; 14
answered ‘‘maybe’’ and only 2 said no (n = 50).
Despite the use of voice over, many children often exhibited
signs of wanting to read by themselves, even the younger ones.
Some of them complained that the voice-over was too fast, al-
though children had the control when to pass to the next screen.
Then, in some of the workshops, there were technical problems
that made the audio not available. Curiously, that did not seem
to have affected children’s engagement as, in the end, no children
complained about the lack of audio.
4.3. Children’s appreciation of the formats
When classifying the formats that they had liked or not, in
general, and with very little nuances, most answers were neg-
atively skewed. For example, regarding the feature of asking
questions to interviewees in the first game, more than half of the
children ranked 5 out of 5 as they had enjoyed that feature. Most
participants also said they preferred the use of real stories (40 out
of 50). For technical/financial constraints, we were only able to
use still images. Results show that half of the children appreciated
it and the other half did not. Children also appreciated the various
recap strategies although one of them suggested that we should
‘‘not repeat the same line as much’’. The editor’s feedback was the
feature that fewest children said they had liked very much.
Children were also asked about what they would do differ-
ently. The vast majority said ‘‘nothing’’ but a few of them offered
some suggestions, such as ‘‘add more questions’’, ‘‘having control
over the character’’, ‘‘I would choose other images’’ / ‘‘I would
change the animals’’.
Then, at the plenary session at the end of the workshop,
children were again asked as a whole group if they had enjoyed
the game and what aspects had they liked and disliked the most.
At that moment, children had the chance to elaborate on their
answers. Sometimes they expressed preferences for different as-
pects. Some children preferred the first game while others said
I. Campos
that what they had liked the most was the chance of writing
a news story (third game). Specific formats like this and the
following ones were discussed in more detail during the final
plenary. For example, a few children suggested increasing the
amount of questions in the prototype, while one explained how
she proposed giving players more control over the character. At
that moment, children talked about how they enjoyed to pretend
being a journalist and having to solve a ‘‘mystery’’ in the first
game.
5. Discussion
Contrary to the common idea that children find news boring,
and in line with Alon-Tirosh and Lemish’s work, which already
contradicted that common view [22], participants of this study
also demonstrated an interest in learning more about the news
during all the workshop stages. On the other hand, results in-
dicate that, before the workshop, children still lacked a proper
understanding of what news is, because not only have some
of them defined news by their content, as well as others have
considered the TV Show ‘‘The Price is Right’’ as a news program. If
children lack knowledge about the news, while having an interest
in learning more about it, we conclude that there is a need to
increase news literacy education, especially since the literature
shows that there are several advantages in doing so [28–32].
Digital platforms are an important space to do that, given its
spreadability and affordability.
Focusing this study on the analysis of digital media does not
imply a belief that digital media should substitute the classroom
or the teacher. On the contrary, results showed that the role
of a facilitator contributes to consolidate the learning outcomes
that start in a digital medium, as the real interaction with peers
during the virtual experience also does. However, given that
children already spend so much time online [45], that school
curricula often overlooks news literacy, and that teachers often
lack preparation in these topics [14], we believe that digital media
may be an important complement to other formal and informal
educative initiatives.
By articulating the results of this study with the literature
and with the results of the previous studies that composed this
broader four-year-research, we came up with a list of 11 formats
that would contribute to improve digital platforms that propose
to educate children about the news. This data may help edu-
cators, designers and developers improving their approaches to
children’s news education in digital environments.
5.1. Simulation
Many children preferred the first game, which consisted of a
journalism simulation. Results pointing to simulation as a best
practice to educate children about the news in a digital environ-
ment are in accordance with other studies about games to teach
journalism to college students [3,4] and with studies about the
benefits of using role-playing in videogames for early childhood
education in general [6].
5.2. Recap
Comparing with our previous pilot study, in which the games
did not had recap slides, we observed that the recap slides intro-
duced in this fourth study contributed to children’s knowledge
consolidation as children could more easily elaborate on the
lessons learned at the final group discussion, like the six questions
that guide the journalists’ work, for example. Thus, results suggest
that recap strategies within the games may contribute for a more
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International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218
positive effect on the learning outcomes, without decreasing the
‘fun factor’.
Recap strategies can assume different formats. Our prototype
tested two, which were already in use in other games: the use
of an editor’s character who provides feedback throughout the
game [19,35] and a screenshot highlighting key points at the end
of each game stage [46]. A third strategy that we tested was
repetition, given that repetition to increase learning has been
recognized as a good learning principle since the time of Aristotle,
passing by Pavlov, and more recently also in the field of student-
centered educative technologies [47]. However, given that one
child suggested us ‘‘not to repeat the same line as much’’, we
would say that the creativity used in the creation of the recap
strategies is important in keeping children engaged with the
game. For example, incorporating quizzes in a simulation as a
learning recap strategy could spice up the experience while in-
creasing knowledge consolidation and allowing the incorporation
of testing (something that educators may be interested in) and
scoring (to increase gamification).
5.3. Asking questions
Most news literacy games for children available in the market
do not allow the user to ask questions [21], although researchers
have been pointing out several advantages in the usage of chat-
bots in journalism simulations [4]. Asking questions to news
sources is deeply related to the lessons about newsgathering.
But asking questions is not only useful in an educative perspec-
tive, it also seems to increase engagement in general, making a
simulation closer to the real thing.
We speculate that most news educative games available in the
market failed to include this feature due to technical constraints,
as we also did. However, even if we were not able to include a
chatbot, we were able to incorporate interactions, in which the
player could choose whom to interview next and which questions
to pose (always from a limited set of questions). Given that most
children appreciated this feature and that this feature allows to
simulate journalists’ work, this is another aspect that should be
contemplated in future prototypes of the like.
5.4. Interactivity
Starting from the learner’s interest has been pointed out as one
of the best learning principles in the field of news literacy [33].
Nevertheless most educative newsgames available on the market
do not do so [21].
In our prototype, we included that feature in two different
ways: in the third game (in which children could construct a
news story based on their favorite book) and in the news in-
teraction area (where children could act as gatekeepers building
their own newscover). Both features were technologically easy
to implement and test observation showed that children were
engaged with those features. Given that for many children the
third game was the most enjoyed one, this would be one of the
formats to consider in the creation of such games. Perhaps one
aspect that could be improved in future initiatives would be the
level of interactivity of such elements.
5.5. True stories and real-life cases
News literacy games available on the market incorporate real
stories in different levels: some games are based in entirely non-
fictional stories, some mix reality with fiction, while others are
mostly based on fictional plots and characters, especially the ones
for younger children [21].
I. Campos
The use of real life cases would also be in line with the news
literacy learning principle of ‘‘making connections between the
classroom [in this case, the player] and the world’’ [33]. Addition-
ally, study’s participants seemed to have enjoyed more the real
stories than the fictional ones. Therefore, this would be another
feature to contemplate in a future prototype. Naturally, the choice
of such stories would have to accommodate children’s particular
vulnerability to violent content, approaching with care certain
topics or leaving them out completely.
5.6. Live action videos
Results in this fourth study showing that half of the children
enjoyed the use of live images may have been contaminated by
the fact that we were unable to fully implement this feature.
More research would be needed to verify if the use of live action
videos is, in fact, a best practice according to children. Even so, we
decided to include this format in this list because our formative
evaluation analysis [21] had suggested a strong potential for this
feature.
5.7. Elements of gamification
Games usually include elements like competition, goals, rules,
scores, or others [48]. Most news literacy digital objects avail-
able on the market have incorporated gamification elements,
even when they are clearly positioned as non-games, as is the
case of the MOOC ‘‘Checkology’’, which has a scoring element,
for example [49]. However, our previous formative evaluation
showed that most analyzed platforms failed in incorporating
many gamification characteristics [21].
In the case of the prototype that we tested in this study,
children seemed to be highly engaged in comparing results and
scores at the end of the games that included such feature. Thus,
one recommendation for future developers of news literacy ed-
ucative platforms would be to increase the use of gamification
elements.
5.8. Mystery and narrative
While children showed appreciation for the use of real stories,
they also showed admiration for the ‘‘mystery’’ factor used in
our first game. Perhaps what they truly appreciated was not only
the ‘‘mystery’’ element, as they called it, but also the compelling
narrative/storytelling. We could not tell for sure. In any case, both
premises would be in accordance with the literature.
On one hand, while recommending the incorporation of more
entertainment game elements in educative games, Charsky sug-
gests the use of fantasy and hypothetical scenarios [48]. On the
other hand, the specific use of mystery elements has been proved
to be a good method to educate children about the media in a
digital setting [50]. Therefore, the use of an enigmatic narrative
is one more feature to be considered when planning a platform
like this.
5.9. Doing ‘stuff’
Many of the platforms analyzed during the previous bench-
mark study simulated how media messages are built, but few
actually gave the chance to the user to build his/her own media
messages [21]. However, the results of this fourth study sug-
gest that there is a potential in that sort of feature that we
incorporated in the third ‘game’. Children’s appreciation for that
object was surprisingly positive, even though it lacked many
gamification and narrative elements. This digital object generated
7
International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218
more reactions during the workshops than all the others included
in our prototype.
Their greater appreciation for the news production compe-
tences is in accordance with the overall idea that children learn
by doing and with the learning principle about constructedness
and the use of collaborative multimedia composition [33].
5.10. Voice-over
Voice-over is also used in several other news literacy games
available on the market [21]. Although results about voice-over
were not entirely conclusive, they seem to indicate that voice-
over is not as important as initially conjectured, given the fact
that even when the audio was not working for technical reasons,
children continued to be engaged with the games. Even so, we
maintain that game developers need to consider whether to
include or not the use of voice-over, having in mind not only the
target group’s age and their reading ability but also how the other
elements of the game work on their own or not.
5.11. Virtual formats with real interaction
Some technology and game enthusiasts may consider that
using media to teach about the media may be the ultimate
goal of media education, however we argue that the mix of
virtual with real interactions may bring more advantages in news
literacy educative digital experiences. In this study, we observed
that human-to-human interaction seemed to have contributed
to knowledge consolidation of an experience that started as
computer-to-human interaction. By human-to-human interac-
tion, we refer to the group discussion facilitated at the end of
the workshop and to the peer interaction, which spontaneously
emerged during the virtual experience.
This consideration is in line with other researcher’s observa-
tions. For example, Kiili also noted that there was an advantage in
using real feedback in a virtual educative experience, while study-
ing the use of a media literacy game where real teachers could
interact with children through the game [50]. Also, the news-
game at the Päivälehti Museum proposes teachers to customize
the game according to their educative goals [20]. Additionaly,
Thevenin concluded that children were more engaged with a
paper prototype of a mobile device app, than with the virtual
thing [51].
6. Limitations and future studies
One of the limitations of this study is related to the sample size
and its limited characteristics, which does not allow us to extrap-
olate the conclusions for the general population. Nevertheless, the
exploratory nature of the study may still be useful in providing
important clues to be taken into consideration while planning a
prototype of the like.
Another limitation had to do with the poor frontend support
we had, which may have influenced children’s perceptions, given
that color and animation is usually perceived as an important
component for them. On the other hand, the lack of a more
attractive design may have helped children to focus more on the
specific format characteristics that we aimed at analyzing.
Future studies could continue examining the usage of such
formats through a more representative and robust sample size.
Furthermore, given the rapidly changing nature of technology, the
technological formats that work today, may become obsolete in
the future. So, this is a line of research that needs to be updated
regularly.
I. Campos
7. Conclusion
In this study we tested several formats to educate children
about the news in digital platforms. This study is the culmination
of a wider research that started by a participatory exploratory
study with children, a market assessment, the creation and pi-
loting of a prototype. Based on the results of this study, and
articulating those with the results of our previous studies, we
have discussed a list of 11 formats that may help improve digital
environments that propose to educate about the news. This study
helps fill in the gap in the literature about news literacy education
for elementary school children by providing concrete guidance to
educators and game developers.
In short, this is what we have learned:
• Digital simulations provide a rich environment to educate
children about the news.
• Hosting the right equilibrium between fun and learn in
a digital platform to educate about the news is key for
children’s engagement and success with the learning expe-
rience.
• Children appreciate the use of real elements (stories and/or
images and/or human discussions) to learn about the news.
After all, journalism is about representing reality.
• Young children may learn concrete skills more rapidly, but
they are also interested in discussing more complex abstract
concepts, when learning about the news.
• The additional human-to-human contact should not be ne-
glected when using digital platforms to educate children
about the news.
• Digital platforms about the news should present a feature
that allows starting the educative process from the learner’s
interest.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank all children who have chosen to partic-
ipate in this study; professor António Granado for supervising
this doctoral research; developer André Sardo for programming
the platform and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portu-
gal for funding this research through the scoholarship number
SFRH/BD/52609/2014.
Selection and participation of children
Children who participated in this research were recruited
through the school. To do so, we started by meeting with the
pedagogical director to whom we described the research team,
purpose, procedure and funding, while answering to all ques-
tions. A week prior to the workshops, parents received consent
forms with all those details as well as information about the
participants’ rights, namely the right to not answer a question,
to suspend their participation in the study at any given moment
and to have their data anonymized. On the workshop day, we
provided the same kind of explanation to children in a more
accessible language, with emphasis on their rights as research
participants. We explained that even if their parents had signed
the form, they could suspend their participation without any
retaliation. It was repeated on several occasions that they were
the ones evaluating our work and not the other way around.
8
International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 27 (2021) 100218
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