Choose Your Own (News) Adventure

Interactivity means ownership and young people thrive on ownership.

Hello Dear Old Friend: some sweet memories we have with choosing our own adventures.

Interactive entertainment for young people is not a new thing. Even when Edward Packard created “the Cave of Time” in 1979, the first “Choose Your Own Adventure” book, it was not a new thing. The more inventions there are the more you realize that everything is just a remodel of something our ancestors did hundreds of years ago. Lets assume interactivity was even in Africa at the cradle of civilization.

So the latest interactive antics of MySpace, Bebo and the likes are not onto something new, but just a remake of what always has been. Using MySpace as the example, this year the social networking site launch a video series, Freak, about British young people, labeling it an “audience-centric style drama.” Each webisode takes three minutes,

projecting the normal soap opera feelings of emotion and drama. The twist is the audience can interact with the show by picking the sound track, inviting characters to be “friends” on Myspace, inputing into the story-line and giving characters advice.

In the context of young people interactivity is a massive, yes MASSIVE, power of the Internet. And a reason why? Take a look at the lives of children to teenagers to young adults – they spend much of their time absorbing, learning and being talked to. There are few opportunities for involvement and a platform to share. One could argue there is the debating team in school but that only covers 0.001 percent of the youthful population, and often just the “talented” ones.

Young people like to be given the responsibility of being “in-charge” because it communicates that someone believes in their ability to contribute. When working with a young person who had challenging behavior I found giving them responsibility or a chance to share their thoughts instantly change their countenance and often altered their behavior for the rest of our time together. Interactivity means ownership and young people thrive on ownership.

Young people want to be involved and they are capable of being involved.

For news-media it is a relief to see news organizations embrace interactivity when delivering the news. Young people want to be involved and they are capable of being involved. Traditionally news has been a one-way communication line where journalist communicate to their audience without a caring for response – except for the few columns of op-ed and “Letters to the Editor.” However, rather obviously this back lane one-way is turning into a two-lane highway with media companies jumping on the okay-fine-give-the-audience-at-bit-of-a-voice train. CNN loves to read out Facebook comments from its readers, even the pets of reporters have Twitter accounts and citizen journalists are gaining some street cred as a cheap and viable option for content.

When it comes to interactivity on the Internet, although technically difficult and expensive, it is making a mark. An example of fine interactivity was when the New York Times knit together a ton of photographs of President Obama giving his inauguration address. The outcome was a large photo where Internet users could zoom into any section and run their cursor over faces revealing names of the people who surrounded the president as he spoke. The user is in control of their news experience causing them to linger longer on the page.

In an interview with the interactive media team at the New York Times, Aron Pilhofer said there are many ways that technology and journalism connect in the newsroom. Examples such as graphics, computer-assisted reporting and multimedia departments are unavoidable when logging on to any news.com. Interactive teams such as those with the Times are not cheap, but for engaging the next generation in news-media they are worth every penny.

Hopefully news-media will continue its experiment with the interactive and engage more young people in the process. We want young people to be active consumers of news and the ownership that comes from interactivity is one way to ensure that.

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