Is the future for journalists that of data master for video games? That was the idea put forward in a session on news and gaming by the BBC’s Philip Trippenbach.
Addressing the Futuresonic conference in Manchester today, just weeks after the controversial video game based on the real Battle of Fallujah was cancelled, Philip proposed that journalists were ideally skilled to take on the tasks of selecting and curating content for a new audience.
A journalist himself, he said: “The big question for people like me is that social media is everything turning upside down. This is a big problem for journalists.
“Games like these are pointing the way, to manage all these multiple data streams, journalists as data master.
“These are the only things that journalists have left – we can look at information coming in and judge whether it’s good.”
While accepting that many people may still see the whole genre of gaming as a potentially trivialising the news agenda, he argued that the experience of gaming is essentially an educational one, giving the user pleasure in problem solving.
He showed the audience some examples of games which had proved to be both successful and tackle serious issues – Insurgency (which involved input of veteran Marines), Budget Hero – get to control the US budget and a game in the Sim City series which has sold an amazing 46m copies.
“Is it journalism? – I don’t know but you can argue it reflects the experience of people on the ground.”
I managed to grab Philip for a very quick audio interview before he flies off to Poland which you can hear here.
Dim Sum Digital 