Improving news literacy among 7 to 10 year old children: An experiment with digital gaming Iola Ribeiro Campos (Ioli Campos) Doctoral Thesis in Digital Media Tese de Doutoramento em Medias Digitais (June, 2018) Dissertation submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Digital Media under scientific supervision of Professor António Granado Tese apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Medias Digitais, realizada sob a orientação científica do Professor Doutor António Granado Financial Support from i DECLARAÇÕES Declaro que esta tese é o resultado da minha investigação pessoal e independente. O seu conteúdo é original e todas as fontes consultadas estão devidamente mencionadas no texto, nas notas e na bibliografia. O candidato, Lisboa, 4 de Junho de 2018 Declaro que esta tese se encontra em condições de ser apreciado pelo júri a designar. O orientador, Lisboa, 5 de Junho de 2018 ii To Gaspar, it all starts with a particle, iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the final product of a long and deep personal journey which, despite the great isolation it demanded, would not have been possible without the help of others. I am very grateful to all people who supported me along the way in a variety of forms. First of all, thank you to my supervisor, Professor António Granado, from FCSH- UNL, who was the first person giving me the confidence to embark on such a voyage. Thank you for always being readily available, encouraging and supportive of my work in both sides of the Atlantic. I also would like to express my appreciation to Professor Kathleen Tyner from UT Austin for her unparalleled professional mentorship, whilst I was in the United States and Portugal. A sincere thank you goes to Professor Tom Johnson and all Digital Media Research Program from UT Austin members for showing me how good academic research is done and for all those Friday afternoons spent at Hole in the Wall after our intense meetings. Thank you to Professor Joseph Straubhaar, from UT Austin, for pushing me to think critically about the methodology of this research. At UT Austin, I also would like to express my deepest appreciation to Professor Sharon Strover for hosting me; to Professor Craig Watkins for opening my mind to the broader context of the scholarly research about young people and the media; to all people from the Writing Center for helping me improve my writing; to Janelle Hedstrom for her librarian support. I am also grateful to all scholars I met along the way and with whom I brainstormed ideas about this research. In particular, Professors Stephanie Craft, from University of Illinois; Steen Steesen, from Oslo and Akershus University; Dafna Lemish, iv from Rutgers University; and game developer Warren Spector, you probably do not realize, but the simple advices you gave me had a true impact on my research design. I would like to acknowledge Professor Nuno Correia, from FCT-UNL, for helping me getting the technical expertise I needed to complete my research. I extend my deepest gratitude to student André Sardo who was generous enough to invest the necessary time to make the prototype come true. Additionally, I express my appreciation for Professors Inês Amaral, from ISMT, and Cristina Ponte’s, from FCSH-UNL, service on my dissertation project initial jury. This acknowledgement also goes to all elementary teachers, librarians, students and parents who accepted participating in this research. For practical and ethical reasons I cannot name you all. But this work is especially intended for you, so thank you for helping me carrying it on. Undoubtedly, the most influential person in the process of doing this research was Gaspar, my dearest muse, it all started with you. But such a journey would not have been possible without the great moral support and patience of João too. Finally, thank you to all my family members who were kind enough to simply be there when needed. Finally, to Fatinha and Zé an extra word of appreciation because you raised my understanding of the intersection of education and journalism like nobody else did. v PERSONAL STATEMENT Research is always biased in a form or another. In an effort to bring more transparency to the researcher’s motivation for this study, this is a first-person-written section aimed at explaining the background of this study. This thesis idea started to take form, one day in 2014, when I was driving my son to school. He was three years old at the time. The radio was on and we had just stopped at a red light, when suddenly he exclaims: -Mom, the man on the radio just said the word “war”. But you said “war” is a bad word. I immediately shut off the radio. The day before we had been watching the animated movie “Planes”, where there is a very short scene with a war airplane. On that occasion, I mentioned that war was a very bad thing. Now, we were, in the car, facing that difficult concept again. “The man on the radio”, as he puts it, was talking about the unset in Crimea. How was I going to explain him what was that about? I spent most of my professional career working as a features’ reporter, covering news stories mainly about human rights and environment. Before starting this doctoral program, I had never done journalism for children, neither had I been evolved in education for children at a professional level. But when I was growing up I was a fan of TV newscast for children Caderno Diário, and of newspaper DN Jovem. As well from an early age I enjoyed reading the science section from my parents’ newspaper and playing journalists. vi Up until that day in the car, my son’s exposure to the media had been hardly inexistent. He had just started having a very limited and controlled exposure to screens, a few months before. But I had forgotten about the radio. It seemed such a harmless medium. Still stopped at that red light, I tried to give him an age-adequate explanation about why “the man on the radio” was talking about “war”. Later that night and the next few days, I was searching the Internet for all sorts of advices about how to talk with toddlers about the news, how to explain them what is the news, and how the news is made. I was searching for online platforms about the news for toddlers. I was surprised with the little practical assistance I came across. It became clear this was the topic I wanted to research. I also knew that I wanted to do something more than just observing, collecting data and analyzing it; I wanted to build something that would have a positive impact in the society. vii “IMPROVING NEWS LITERACY AMONG 7 TO 10 YEAR OLD CHILDREN: AN EXPERIMENT WITH DIGITAL GAMING” Iola Ribeiro Campos ABSTRACT Children are particularly vulnerable to violent non fictional content (Buckingham, 2004). Therefore, scholars sustain the need to educate children about the news (Frau- Meigs, O’Neill, Soriani, & Tomé, 2017). However, news literacy education for young children has been overlooked by academics (Livingstone & Haddon, 2009). There is also a gap in the literature about media education in informal settings (Vraga & Tully, 2015). There are a few digital platforms to teach children about the news. But, again, research about newsgames has been focusing older population’s uses too (Aayeshah, 2012). This research aims at filling those gaps in the literature by examining how digital platforms propose to educate children from seven to ten years old about the news. To do so, this thesis implemented four studies, using a mixed methods approach. On a first stage, this thesis assessed the best practices by interviewing five children and by analyzing nine digital platforms. On a second stage, a prototype was created and tested twice, first among a group of eight children (pilot study) and then among a group of 50 children (final testing). Results suggest that there is a great potential in the use of simulation and real stories to teach children about the news. Also, data implies that, when educating children about the news in a digital environment, it is important to achieve a balance between elements of fun and of learning. Not surprisingly, results suggest that children may learn practical skills about the news faster than abstract concepts. Even so, data also indicates that children are curious to learn more about abstract concepts like journalism ethics and the idea of truth. Finally, another conclusion of this dissertation is that while the use of digital platforms to teach about the news presents many advantages, the learning process may be expanded when there is also human interaction in connection with the digital. Guidelines to improve digital platforms to educate children about the news are included at the end of this dissertation, as well as recommendations for future studies. KEYWORDS: news literacy, children and media, newsgames, informal education, media education viii “IMPROVING NEWS LITERACY AMONG 7 TO 10 YEAR OLD CHILDREN: AN EXPERIMENT WITH DIGITAL GAMING” Iola Ribeiro Campos RESUMO As crianças são particularmente vulneráveis à exposição de conteúdo violento de não ficção (Buckingham, 2004). Por isso, os investigadores têm defendido a necessidade de se educar as crianças acerca das notícias (Frau-Meigs et al., 2017). No entanto, a academia tem negligenciado o estudo da educação para os media para crianças (Livingstone & Haddon, 2009). Outra área negligenciada pela investigação académica é a educação informal para os media (Vraga & Tully, 2015). Já existem algumas plataformas digitais para crianças sobre as notícias.