Contrast to this, the development in social networks and technology has been able to bring the world community closer together as news of one event can be followed and read in a matter of minutes from anywhere in the world. This disconnect between the growing importance of the news and the declining readership indicates an opportunity for apps which are able to reconcile the two. Newsmeister: A Daily News Trivia Quiz, for example, effectively bridges the gap between the two trends through gamifying the news content for greater retention of information.[sc name=”quote” text=”the gamification of the entire news reading process makes it an activity which is highly engaging and removes the stigma associated with consuming news content”]
In quizzing readers on news events daily, users not only are required to simply keep up with current events, but are also tested in a fun way to ensure that they do not quickly forget the information. With content that is updated on a daily basis, the game ensures that users are not playing with out-dated information and are instead asked only the most relevant information. Using Newsmeister, players are able to simultaneously keep up with the news while being more engaged through answering the short quizzes that are provided as opposed to just reading and forgetting about the news. Furthermore, answering the provided questions is made into a social activity through having a leaderboard that ranks players based on their score of correctly answered questions. In having scores to form a competitive environment, players are more incentivized to keep up with the current events. Through this competitive aspect of the game, players are able to see where they rank among their friends, city, state, country, and globally.
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Beyond just having the ability to be quizzed on news that is available on that particular day, older news questions are also made available so that players can be tested on previous news. Although Newsmeister adds a unique aspect to the realm of consuming news, the process of keeping up with the news is one which is often regarded as boring and time consuming, creating a barrier for those who are already time-strapped.
In this regard, the time that is required to keep up with the news and simultaneously play the game can create retention issues, especially for those who are casual, less frequent news readers. For instance, even with the game, players still have manually keep up-to-date on current events in order to maintain their high score, ultimately leading to a high degree of time investment which may hinder the overall experience. However, the gamification of the entire news reading process makes it an activity that is highly engaging and removes the stigma associated with consuming news content. For example, being presented with only multiple choice questions, the amount of time that a player needs to play the game is reduced. Furthermore, the competitive nature of the app encourages players to return in order to defend their score.
As an app which facilitates effective new content consumption, Newsmeister is a must have for new and returning news readers. Effectively countering the decline in readership of news-based content, Newsmeister couples the realm of gaming with news information in order to make keeping up with current events more engaging. Through the use of multiple choice questions on several news categories, players are able to compete with one another in order to obtain the high score while simultaneously being kept up-to-date with the latest events.
