Where This Fits in Your Curriculum

What Students Will Learn

• Identify how editorial framing (emphasis, omission, angle, word choice) shapes audience understanding without requiring factual inaccuracy
• Analyze the economic pressures (advertising, ownership, ratings) that influence media content decisions
• Evaluate how information asymmetry between journalists, editors, and ownership affects what the public learns
• Practice collaborative deliberation and persuasive argumentation in a professional editorial context
• Recognize the difference between factual reporting and framing, and articulate how both can be used to mislead
• Assess the role of media in a democratic society and the consequences of editorial capture by corporate interests

Cases Included

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.6 - Determine an author's point of view or purpose and analyze how rhetoric advances that purpose
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1 - Initiate and participate effectively in collaborative discussions, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.3 - Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric
• C3 Framework D2.Civ.10.9-12 - Analyze the impact and appropriate roles of personal interests and perspectives on the application of civic virtues
• Center for Media Literacy Core Concepts - media messages are constructed using a creative language, have embedded values and points of view, and are organized to gain profit and/or power

Social & Emotional Learning (CASEL)

Aligned to the CASEL framework's core competencies. These are the SEL skills students actively practice while playing.

• Responsible Decision-Making The newsroom picks each story's framing - from jobs-boom to sweetheart-deal angles - weighing accuracy, sponsor revenue, and community harm to see how editorial choices mislead without any factual lie.
• Social Awareness The Community Reporter and social-media data surface who gets erased by a convenient frame - Elm Street families, Riverside residents, an injured worker - pushing students to represent the people a story actually affects.
• Relationship Skills Story selection happens through a collaborative editorial meeting where the News Director, Ad Sales, and Corporate Liaison persuade, apply pressure, and argue the lineup to consensus under a time limit.

Flexible Class Sizes

How the Game Plays Out

Hand Each Student Their Own Sheet

One click on the teacher dashboard prints a dossier for every role - background, goals, key facts, and their confidential briefing - plus the primary-source packet and a vocabulary sheet. Print them, or save as PDF, so each student reads their role on paper instead of huddling around one screen. The app still runs the votes and the action; the paper just carries the reading.

Primary Sources

Every role includes real historical documents. Students read them because they need the information to make their case.

Key Terms Students Will Learn

After the Game: Debrief Questions

1. Did you keep any story off the air this week, or play one down? Why? Were those good reasons?
2. Did anyone share information that changed the group's mind? Did anyone withhold information? Why?
3. Did sponsor pressure affect any of your editorial decisions? If it did, how did you justify it at the time?
4. If you were a Lakeport resident relying on WLKP for news, how would your understanding of your town be different based on what aired versus the full truth?
5. None of the framing options involved outright lies. So was any of it dishonest? How?
6. Pinnacle's guidelines take effect tomorrow. Stories about Calloway Capital companies need corporate approval. Community stories are capped. Nothing may create 'community anxiety.' How different is that from the editorial decisions your team was already making this week?