The TaCT-FoRSED team recently hosted a workshop on Critical Media Literacy and Game-Based Learning at the DiLab, University of Passau.
40 students from across Lower Bavaria and 7 teachers from regional partner schools joined us at the university.
The workshop centred on Headline Hunter, a game developed within TaCT-FoRSED. In teams, participants took on two roles: as “Headliners”, they analysed AI-generated news headlines and crafted their own human headline designed to blend in. As “Hunters”, they tried to identify the human-written headline among AI-generated alternatives. The game challenges players to recognise how headlines use strategies like emotionalisation or conspiracy narratives to generate credibility or emotional impact.
After two rounds of play, we moved into a debriefing phase where participants reflected on their strategies and we contextualised the game experience within the field of Critical Media Literacy, examining how disinformation strategies such as emotionalisation and conspiracy narratives are embedded in the AI-generated headlines, and discussing the limits of what can be judged at headline level alone (e.g. fake experts, false evidence). This was grounded in inoculation theory: research suggests that actively applying manipulation strategies, as players do in the game, builds resilience against disinformation.
The workshop concluded with a joint discussion between students, teachers and the TaCT-FoRSED team on the instructional potential and feasibility of using game-based approaches like Headline Hunter in the classroom. Teachers were invited to share their professional assessment, and several expressed interest in future collaboration. The feedback received will be used to improve the materials available for the game.
For more information on Headline Hunter and other games aimed at increasing learners overall resilience towards conspiracy theories and disinformation, check out the TaCT-FoRSED Digital Gamebox.
