Concluding remarks

By Matt Hemmendinger

The preliminary use of the CU-Boulder-specific Qrank news-and-trivia quiz game in conjunction with the CU Independent has revealed opportunities for the student-run news service to grow its operation and reach, and alter news-consumption behavior and news awareness of CU students and other groups within the campus community.

A critical element in succeeding will be achieving buy-in by the newsroom staff, which must be strongly encouraged and supported by the editor-in-chief. An enthusiastic social-media editor taking charge of the linkage of stories to the CUI Qrank quiz, writing of questions, and the generation of content that lends itself to the localized quiz game are crucial to the development and success of the game.

Equally important is a marketing team that understands the value of the game in terms of generating new advertising and sponsorship revenue. A passionate staff should have little problem embracing the localized Qrank quiz game and utilizing it to great benefit for the CUI, and demonstrating the value of localized news games to other news websites and digital-news entities.

The initial testing has developed a path to expand the game’s reach and generate a user base to test our questions about a news quiz’s ability to boost the news literacy rate of its users and alter their news-consumption behavior. The stage is set, and my colleagues at the Digital News Test Kitchen expect to provide some answers as this research project continues its path.

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