University of Minnesota Moment: Neverwinter Nights

Transcription

[Announcer]: I'm Rick Moore with the University of Minnesota Moment. Journalism students at the U of M are using a new tool to strengthen their fact-finding skills: the fantasy computer game Neverwinter Nights. According to Nora Paul, director of the University's Institute for New Media Studies, the players tackle sources and gather information, rather than slay monsters and gather treasures.

[Paul]: The game starts with the reporter—the player—appearing in the newsroom and being told that there was a large train wreck and that they are being asked to do one of the sidebar stories. Essentially, somebody else is covering the accident itself, and they need to decide whether they wanna do a different kind of angle on the story: the health effects of this anhydrous ammonia spill, the public safety issues of trains going through the town, environmental effects.

[Moore]: The game reinforces the thinking process behind information-gathering and distinguishing between different kinds of sources. It also teaches reporter etiquettes.

[Paul]: One of the things that we wanted to simulate as much as possible is the kinds of things that they could expect in real life; for example, if you don’t prepare to go to an interview with some good core information and/or already making an appointment to interview somebody, [you] may well arrive at the interview and the source will say, “I’m sorry, I don’t have time for you.” Or, the source, if you ask a student question, will say, “I don’t have time to do your background information for you. Why didn’t you look that up?”

[Moore]: That’s Nora Paul for the University of Minnesota Moment.