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News and quizzes to engage teenagers in politics

presents

A GEN Editors Lab hackday project

Eva Csuthi (web designer), Alessio Sgherza (journalist), Federico Zanchetta (developer)

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TEENAGERS & POLITICS: SOME DATA

  • In six years (from 2006 to 2012) the trust in the institutions (political parties and parliament) among 15-24 years old decreased from 20% to 4%
  • 15-24 years old: one Italian in two thinks democracy could work without political parties
  • Six teenagers in ten feel “datached from politics”�BUT:
  • At the same time, a desire to participate is growing: participation index among 15-24 years old grew 2 percent from 2006 and 2012
  • Eight teenagers out of ten want to vote

(dati Demos e Eurisko)�

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WHAT TEENAGERS WANT (AND HOW)

“Teens are (over)confident in their web abilities, but they perform worse than adults”

(Jakob Nielsen Guidelines)

So: �

  • Short and simple texts
  • Simple navigation
  • Interactive features (games and online voting)
  • Not too many animations or multimedia

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A web app, full responsive, mobile first

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News of the day

It’s not just an editorial choice: we are interested in the main topics on the web

So:

1. We aggregate all the articles in the italian media about politics (via rss)

Right now we have:

Ansa, Corriere della Sera, il Fatto quotidiano, Giornale, Il Sole 24 Ore, Libero, Quotidiano nazionale, la Repubblica, La Stampa, TgCom24

2. We total the numbers

of social sharings on Fb, Tw and G+ for each article

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News of the day/2

3. We apply to each site

a ‘multiplier’

to give each article

the same weight �(because smaller sites

could be undervalued)...

… and we decrease it

“as time goes by”

We call this final number

SOCIAL RANK

4. We cluster all the articles about the same topic

and we total all the social ranks of these articles

5. So we have a list

of the Top Trending News

of the day on social networks

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It’s a teen’s choice

Starting from that list, teenagers that are logged on to the app can vote for each topic and change the list.

We add this ‘golden vote’ to the

social rank of the topic and

update the homepage.

Safeguard clause: editors can at any time decide a different homepage

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For math lovers...

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For editors’ eyes only ;-)�The topics of the last 48 hours

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For editors’ eyes only ;-)�The articles of the last 48 hours

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Do you recognize him?

Everybody - probably - recognizes Silvio Berlusconi, but there are many other characters in politics. First step for teenager: discover the politicians’ faces.

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Do you recognize him? / 2

We create a database with photos of politicians.

A user can play as much as he wants.

Users can win the “Alla faccia” badge.

Badges are assigned when users guess 5, 20, 50, 100, 250 politicians’ faces and can be shared on social networks.

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Do you recognize him? / 2

We create a database with photos of politicians.

A user can play as much as he wants.

Users can win the “Alla faccia” badge.

Badges are assigned when users guess 5, 20, 50, 100, 250 politicians’ faces and can be shared on social networks.

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Who said that?

Words are important in politics, and analizing a politicians’ statement is a good way for teenagers to become familiar with political topics.

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Who said that? / 2

Each day editors must create three questions, with a politicians’ quotation and three likely answers

Users can win the “Chi l’ha detto?” badge

Badge is assigned when users guess 3 answers on a single day and the badge can be shared on social networks.

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Who said that? / 2

Each day editors must create three questions, with a politicians’ quotation and three likely answers

Users can win the “Chi l’ha detto?” badge

Badge is assigned when users guess 3 answers on a single day and the badge can be shared on social networks.

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User’s profile

For games and badges we use the Gigya platform, which we already use as commenting platform on Repubblica.it

Gigya will allow us to register users with their social identities, set quizzes, give badges and make rankings between users

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DAILY TASKS FOR EDITORS

At least three times a day (and after breaking news), check the admin panel to:

  • write headlines and texts for new topics
  • update headlines and texts for old topics

Once a day:

  • Change the quiz “Whose quote is that”: three new questions each day on facts from the last 24 hours

Bonus track for newsrooms: analize the web, discover new topics and decide whether and how to cover them

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Greetings from the