The news literacy game NewsFeed Defenders, developed jointly by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) and iCivics, has been named a finalist in Fast Company’s 2019 World Changing Ideas Awards in the education category.
The World Changing Ideas Awards, now in its third year, celebrates “businesses, policies, and nonprofits that are poised help shift society to a more sustainable and equitable future,” according to Fast Company. The winners, selected from nearly 2,000 entries, were judged in each category by a jury consisting of “social entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, thinkers, and designers, plus a Fast Company editor,” the company says.
NewsFeed Defenders teachers players how to evaluate information and disregard disinformation and misinformation in today’s chaotic news environment. The game, created for secondary school students through adults, charges players with managing a news aggregation website and balancing the need to attract readers with the need to protect the site’s integrity. In doing so, players learn how to spot so-called fake news or viral deception, how to distinguish between sponsored content and real news, how to identity bias and apply journalistic standards, such as verifying information and images, and how to become a more astute reader of online news.
The winner in the World Changing Ideas’ education category was the Meraki Margdarshaq Project (Meraki Foundation). Among the other honorees in the category were Babbel Neos (Babbel), Intel x Smithsonian American Art Museum (Agency Inside, Intel), Kupaa (Mastercard), New York Public Library Insta Novels (Mother), STEM Connect (Discovery Education), and Techniques for Effective Teaching Program (IDP Foundation and Sesame Workshop). Click here for all of the honorees.
NewsFeed Defenders is available free on the web at FactCheck.org and at iCivics and as an app for tablets through iTunes and Google Play.
About iCivics
Founded in 2009, iCivics is a nonprofit organization committed to transforming civic learning through effective and inventive resources. iCivics was founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to develop free educational online games and lessons that teach young Americans to be knowledgeable, curious, and engaged in civic life. iCivics’ game-centered curriculum provides students in grades 4-12 with the tools they need for active participation and democratic action. Today iCivics’ innovative resources are used by nearly 180,000 educators and more than 5 million students nationwide, making iCivics the largest classroom-based digital civics educational resource in the country. For more information, visit www.icivics.org.
About the Annenberg Public Policy Center
Founded in 1993, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania is the home of FactCheck.org and Annenberg Classroom, which are dedicated to enhancing media literacy and civic knowledge. FactCheck.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. It has published a video and article showing voters how to spot bogus claims in the news and on social media and has partnered with Facebook to identify and label false viral posts. Annenberg Classroom, a project of the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics, provides teachers with a free multimedia curriculum to teach the Constitution to middle and high school students. Its resources include games, timelines, lesson plans and videos, including a dozen award-winning films produced by the Sunnylands-APPC Constitution Project, whose advisors have included Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Stephen Breyer, and Anthony Kennedy.
