Goodbye Robin Gibb

The Voice of the Bee Gees has passed away May 20, in London. Following this announcement, reactions were multiple and quick. Between tributes… and bad jokes.

“The family of Robin Gibb, of the Bee Gees, announce with great sadness that Robin passed away today following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.” The British singer and songwriter succumbed at the age of 62 in London.

In the trio, Robin Gibb had often, especially in the 1960s, the role of lead singer. His caressing voice and his tone rather in the treble contributed to the global success of “New York Mining Disaster 1941″, “Holiday, Massachusetts”, “I Started a Joke”, and many more musical hits. On social media, fans and celebrities quickly reacted to the announce of his death. People from all around the world presented their condolences to the family and shared their memories of the Bee Gee.

Pictures of the Bee Gee were posted, as well as videos in honor of the star.

The disparition of Robin Gibb has affected lots of people and not only the anonymous ones. Artists, journalists and athletes have also deplored this loss, as seen in the tweets of Bryan Adams, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Nelly Furtado, Bruno Mars or Lance Amstrong.

Of course some Internet users could not avoid to make the link between Robin Gibb and the famous Bee Gees song ”Stayin’ Alive” released in 1978…

…that leads to comments and bad jokes.

And caricatures.

After the recent deaths of Whitney Houston, Donna Summer, and now Robin Gibb, the world of music mourns its dead.

Flora Berset

Newsgames: Put the fun back into journalism

How can we make news more attractive? There are some methods, but one is very fun: it is called “newsgames”. What is it, exactly? A newsgame is an application of journalism in videogame form. In other terms, it is an interactive way of doing journalism.

Today journalism is facing a crisis that pushes it to reinvent itself. Most of the initiatives for creating a new type of journalism are online. However, few bring a plus-value to the audience. “Games work differently: they simulate how things work by constructing interactive models. Newsgames can persuade, inform, and titillate; make information interactive; recreate a historical event; put news content into a puzzle; teach journalism; and build a community.”[1]

The ideal newsgame should follow the list of criteria bellow: [2]

· Created in response to a current event

· Released close enough to the event that it remains relevant

· Able to be understood in a couple minutes

· It tries to influence the player to a particular viewpoint (persuasive)

· Points out a problem

· Often implies a solution

· Rhetorically communicates through visuals, sound and gameplay (procedural rhetoric)

On newsgaming.com[3] we can find some newsgames that match with these criteria. It is the case for September 12th. This online game has still an impact 10 years after its publication. It was created in response to 9/11 terrorist attacks. Its goal is to make people think on the War on Terror that caused civilian causalities. September 12th clearly tries to influence the player viewpoint and does not hide it. However, it does not offer a solution or an alternative to war.

Primaires à gauche is also a game that is worth. Launched by the French daily newspaper “Le Monde” few months ago, it was made to raise awareness of Socialist Party primary. This interactive game has a didactic objective and a very fun side. It is possible to embody one of the six candidates of the election. Although the Socialist Primary is over, it is still nice to try Primaires à gauche. Quite complex and long to play, the main goal is to learn more about the candidates and their opinions. It seems to work. The resemblance with reality is impressing and the game gives to politics a familiar aspect.

Another example of successful newsgame is Cutthroat Capitalism. Available on the site of “Wired Magazine”, it presented itself as “an economic analysis of the Somali pirate business model”. Amusing idea at first sight, this game uses an original way to make people think on a real problem.

For several years now, a veritable movement acts to promote digital games in an ideal of social change. Its name: “Games for change”[4] also known as G4C. Since 2004 this community has built a non-profit organization that “facilitates the creation and distribution of social impact games that serve as critical tools in humanitarian and educational efforts”. The games available on “Games for Change” website are diverse and can be played by both children and adults. Of course, we find on the Web different sorts of newsgames. Some of them do not aim to be instructive. They just want to be fun.

Videogames have an impact that other media do not have; by an interactive approach, people can feel more concerned. They have the power to make arguments, to influence opinions, to express ideas. This phenomenon is still recent; that is why we should follow this trend of gamification of the news. As professor Ian Bogost suggests: videogames could be a new way of doing journalism.[5]

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[1] See a blog made by researchers and students about newsgames: http://jag.lcc.gatech.edu/blog/

[2] See Mike Treanor and Michael Mateas’ conference paper on newsgames: http://www.wingchunsantacruz.com/gamesandart/research/newsgames-DiGRA2009.pdf

[3] http://www.newsgaming.com/

[4] http://www.gamesforchange.org/

[5] http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/newsgames-video-games-new-way-doing-journalism