Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

ABSTRACT

The Candidate is an attempt to marry elements of journalism and gaming into a format that both entertains and educates the player. The Google-AP Scholarship, a new scholarship award that is given to several journalists a year to work on projects at the threshold of technology and journalism, funded the project. The objective in this prototype version of the game is to put the player in the shoes of a congressional candidate during an off-year election, specifically 2014.

The goal is to navigate the demands of interest groups, voters, and campaign money to successfully win the election. The election takes place in a fictional congressional district equally split between all voter groups. The game uses a choose-your-own-adventure-style to allow the player to pick various “challenges” that advance them in the game, such as confrontations with different voter groups or fundraising initiatives. For the player who wants to just play, they can bolt through the game no problem and not read any of the in-depth material. But for the player who does want more context into the challenges and overall game, it is available.

The game in this prototype version relied heavily from the Pew Research Center and Gallup in order to get polling data on various issues and voter groups. American National Election Studies was referenced for particular questions, like impact of media on voters, but a more comprehensive and recent study covering 2012 will be made available this summer. At that point, the game’s backend will be updated to represented the most accurate depiction of congressional races as possible.

I think that is where the real test will occur once this is published: do players actually retain knowledge they learn from a game? It would be interesting to learn how effective the game is at both entertaining and teaching a player about congressional races through just playing the game. Time will tell.

RESEARCH

Pew Research Center for the People and Press Political Typology 2011

http://www.people-press.org/typology/

Pew Forum on Religion and Life

http://features.pewforum.org/abortion-slideshow/

http://features.pewforum.org/same-sex-marriage-attitudes/

Pew Research Center

http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/04/30/immigration-tip-sheet-on-u-s-public-opinion/

http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/03/13/gun-control-key-data-points-from-pew-research/

On The Issues

http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/26/sunday-review/a-new-guide-to-the-republican-herd.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/09/02/sunday-review/a-new-guide-to-the-democratic-herd.html?ref=sunday-review

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2006/10/01/opinion/a-guide-to-the-2006-democratic-herd.html?ref=sunday-review

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2005/04/02/sunday-review/a-guide-to-the-republican-herd.html?ref=sunday-review

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/how-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage-is-changing-and-what-it-means/

Center for Responsive Politics: OpenSecrets

http://www.opensecrets.org/

American National Election Survey

http://www.electionstudies.org/

Center for Voting and Democracy

http://www.fairvote.org/voter-turnout#.UZGYdCvF10c

Democratic Party Platform

http://www.democrats.org/democratic-national-platform

Republican Party Platform

http://www.gop.com/2012-republican-platform_home/

Gallup

http://www.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx

http://www.gallup.com/poll/117328/marriage.aspx

http://www.gallup.com/poll/9904/Public-Opinion-About-Abortion-InDepth-Review.aspx

Congressional Appointments: US Census

http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-08.pdf

MetroWest Daily News

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/x1272751770/Election-2012-Robo-call-in-Holliston-tries-to-mislead-voters

NPR

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/04/01/175928963/opposition-research-boot-camp-learning-to-dig-for-political-dirt

Treehugger

http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/57-americans-think-government-should-do-great-deal-combat-global-warming.html

Political Mailers Report

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~marcmere/workingpapers/PersuasiveMail.pdf

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

http://www.afscme.org/

American Gas Association

http://www.aga.org/Pages/default.aspx

Wellpoint

http://www.wellpoint.com/

Americans for Tax Reform

http://www.atr.org/

National Rifle Association

http://home.nra.org/

ART

Democratic Party Logo

http://www.democrats.org/

Republican Party Logo

http://www.gop.com/?source=logo

Noun Project (all the following)

http://www.nounproject.com

Postmodern Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/iphone/#icon-No1506

Blue Collar Bloc Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/hard-hat/#icon-No7065

Tea Party Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/tea/#icon-No1817

New Coalition Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/people/#icon-No2300

Main St Conservatives Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/family/#icon-No8199

Media Challenge Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/camera/#icon-No7104

Issue Challenge Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/talking/#icon-No12625

Operative Challenge Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/hide/#icon-No8013

Candidate Challenge Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/user/#icon-No10231

Money Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/dollar/#icon-No7453

Gun Issue Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/gun/#icon-No2459

Energy Issue Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/energy/#icon-No478

Same-Sex Marriage Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/marriage/#icon-No8226

Foreign Policy Icon

http://thenounproject.com/noun/world/#icon-No6502