What would Walter Williams say? Using game technology to spread the Missouri Method to citizen journalists

An interview with Anne Derryberry as she begins her Fellowship year.
By Alecia Swasy

Ultimately, we can spin people out of game/simulation mode into a real community press corps.

Anne Derryberry

Don't be surprised if you find Anne Derryberry playing video games in her office at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. She’s not slacking off - she's researching how to train the next generation of community journalists.

As one of the 2010-11 Donald W. Reynolds Fellows, Derryberry wants to come up with a prototype of a game that teaches journalism and creates a giant network of people who can contribute stories as citizen journalists.

Using game mechanics is one way to broaden the audience of citizen journalists especially those who grew up playing video games online. "Younger people bring that into how work is conducted," Derryberry says.

Besides, as traditional news companies adjust to shrinking budgets and staff, they need more sets of eyes and ears feeding them news tips from the front lines of their schools and city halls. "More and more, there's no money to get yourself around to get the story," she says. "We have to figure out how to make it work even where you don't have the resources."

Her vision is a multi-player, game-like environment that starts with the basics. "Part of the way online games work is they start you at a very low level so you can become accustomed to the rules of the game and how the game is played. Every game tells a story. As a player acquires more game-based skills the game itself gets more complex, more challenging and, we hope, more fun," says the Northern California native.

Part of the journalism game would be learning how to find sources, dig up background on stories and other steps that reporters take to build a story. "Ultimately, we can spin people out of game/simulation mode into a real community press corps," she says.

Derryberry knows there are skeptics about merging the serious news business with gaming. "For people in the old school, the notion of games in how we conduct work sounds ridiculous," she says.

But she has learned from experience that using games can work. She has already seen how video games added to her work in education technology. Much of her career has focused on helping adults retool with new skills in ever-changing workplaces. She started a company called Informania that did consulting work for Fortune 500 clients, such as Apple and Motorola.

In one of those projects, she started using video games as part of the curriculum. "It opened my eyes to how powerful this approach is," Derryberry says. "Using games and simulations is like the Missouri Method. You put people into what they are doing as they learn the theory." One of her biggest projects was building the national learning network for Norway. "Norwegians want everybody connected," she says.

After she sold Informania, she spent the last decade doing independent work, such as forming a national political organization called "Engage America," which is focused on getting citizens to vote.

Part of her fellowship requires her to get up to speed on the nuts and bolts of journalism. "I'm sleeping with The Elements of Journalism," one of the key texts used at the Missouri School of Journalism. "I'm doing a mind meld with that book."