The scrabble of language towards persuasion: Changing behaviors in journalism

Abstract

The rise of social media influences in the online journalism domain suggests that new learning systems are required to modify the behaviors of journalists. The design of future systems can be explored as game concepts and guided by an emerging ontology for journalism. For these ends this paper identifies vocabulary, concepts and emotions in the domain, and vital intersections with social media, such as crowdsourcing. Data from participatory workshops with journalists is applied to new synthetic player ideas, using Hoare logic. It is also lightly structured for a starting ontology for journalism, to inform how a synthetic player system might persuade a journalist to check their behaviors. It prompts the core values of journalism, such as obtaining opposing views, and prompts critical engagement with crowdsourcing, before declaring a story newsworthy. The system includes contextual emotions, which may vary from inspiration and curiosity to anxiety, due to not having a story. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.