Misinformation Project
This project is a project that educates information literacy using a misinformation escape room game and measures the effect on the game.
#Misinformation
Method
Participants
The data collection was undertaken for two months from February to March, 2021. A total of 18 sessions proceeded in three libraries located nearby in the Seattle area, and 80 patrons and 6 librarians who hosted the misinformation escape room game play attended the workshop. The patron interviews were on average 15 minutes short and conducted after the gameplay. On the other hand, for the interview of librarians who were hosts of the gameplay, it was a focus interview that took more than 1 hour. These 86 participants also submitted the survey responses.
However, the surveys were not mandatory for all participants. The survey data was only collected for 50 respondents. Most of them were above college as an educational level (76%). and average 32 years old. Since the workshop was for the library patrons, interestingly, there were 11 underage participants who are below 18 years old. Also, the workshops were conducted as a voluntary response sampling. Thus, gender and race data presented no equal balance. The majority of participants were female (66%) and male (18%) as follows. Similar to race, white (62%) were the highest race, and Asian (22%) were the second highest race among the participants. Lastly, we collected the political tendency: conservative vs. liberal. Majority of participants tend to be liberal (82%).
Procedure
The procurement of this research project broadly consists of two parts: one for librarians and another for patrons. We trained the librarians as hosts of the gameplay so that they can lead the session with their patrons. Benefits of hosting from the librarians (citation needed). In the training session, the research team provides the guidelines of gameplay and what to ask in the debriefing session. In gameplay, one or two librarians host the escape room over Zoom, leading players through the escape room narrative and offering hints as needed. At the end of all workshops, focus group discussion was conducted with six librarian hosts, in order to hear more about their experiences as a host and how they interact with the patrons during and after the gameplay. .
Another part of the study were patrons. They were recruited from each library. For them, there were three main processes of the workshop and data collection: (1) playing the game, (2) debrief interview, (3) conducting a survey (see Figure #). Players interact with each other as they collaboratively solve the puzzles over Zoom. Usually one person shares the screen and other participants discuss together. In one session, there are usually two to seven people playing. The game play was set to 45 minutes to complete the puzzles. After the gameplay, the session ends with a 15 minute debrief interview with the librarian. Game literature shows that an opportunity to reflect on an experience and put it into a non-play context is when most learning happens (Clark et al., 2013). Lastly, to obtain more accurate quantitative data, a voluntary questionnaire was distributed.
#Misinformation
Misinformation Escape Room
The primary focus of this study was the affective dimensions of misinformation. We have developed the game for almost a year to undertake from library interview to digital prototype. We elected to create a fictional theme that avoids mention of polarizing and alienating terms such as “misinformation” and “fake news” to appeal to a broad and diverse public, as suggested by librarians in our study. Thus, the name, Euphorigen, was used for the escape room game.
The game begins with a situation narration in which an investigative journalist suspiciously vanishes their laptop over to their trusted librarian. The librarian knew the journalist was doing research on the company that makes Euphorigen, a mood enhancing supplement. Now the government is about to sign a contract to put Euphorigen in the public water supply for everyone to enjoy its benefits. The player has suspicions, and only 45 minutes to uncover the truth. After the narration, the escape room game starts with the laptop background with five locked folders (FIgure xx).
The misinformation escape room:Euphorigen investigation contains five puzzles and deepfake video sharing activity. The five puzzles aimed for awareness of common technologies and tactics, such as misleading charts, social media bots, AI-generated images, and deepfake videos. Once the player solves all puzzles, the player finally can find the real video and complete the mission by sharing the video.
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Debriefing interview
After the group completed the gameplay, the librarian began the debriefing interview with the participants. The debriefing interviews took an average 15 minutes. The interview was mainly focused on emotional and psychological feedback regarding the gameplay experience. The main interview questions are as follows, but there were always sub-questions leading from the librarian host. Most of the interview questions were related to the misinformation escape room experiences.
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How was the experience?
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What do you think were the goals of this escape room? Do you think anything will stick with you?
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We noticed that someone from your group hesitated or did not want to share the first video. Can you tell us why? Is this something you do regularly?
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In the game you were able to contact everyone who spread the wrong (deepfake) video. How do you think this would have played out in real life?
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Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you unintentionally shared some information that turned out to be wrong? What were the consequences? How did this affect you?
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Who is responsible for stopping misinformation?
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Questionnaire
We wanted to elicit feelings of vulnerability, challenge people’s preconceived notions, and cause people to reflect on the consequences of spreading misinformation. A total of 14 questions and two open-ended questions were distributed to the participants who finished the workshop. It was not mandatory to complete the survey for the participants. There were three questions that specifically asked about how game experiences affected participants' concerns, behaviors, and feelings of vulnerability (#9, 10, 11). Also, we want to investigate the misinformation with regards to politica, social issues in social media. As aforementioned, a total of 64 participants were responded and 14 data was excluded due to missing data, duplicated data.
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I analyzed two different approaches with students who support this project: a qualitative and quantitative analysis.
