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Inside the Fake News Machine: Learning Through Bad News
Inside the Fake News Machine: Learning Through Bad News
Про
This activity helps young people and youth workers to explore how disinformation spreads online — and how to build resistance against it.
By playing the free online game Bad News, you’ll step into the shoes of a fake news creator to learn firsthand how manipulation tactics work and how to spot them in real life.
By completing this activity, you will:
- Recognise common techniques used to spread misinformation online.
- Strengthen your critical thinking and media literacy.
- Reflect on how youth work can promote information resilience and digital responsibility.
Get inspired
Bad News is an online game that flips the script — you play the villain to understand the system. You’ll build a fake media empire using tactics like trolling, conspiracy, and emotional manipulation. But be careful: tell an obvious lie, and your credibility drops.
The game is based on research that shows prebunking — exposing people to manipulation techniques — helps build psychological resistance to disinformation. Try it here: https://www.getbadnews.com/en
Take action: activities for different roles
Explore the role-specific badges below to access tasks that deepen your understanding of disinformation and how to combat it:
- Young people can independently play the game, reflect on their experience, and explore how online media influences their views and communities.
- Youth workers can use the game as a tool to facilitate workshops, promote media literacy, and open discussions about truth, trust, and influence.
- Youth organisations can reflect on how they address media literacy strategically, and how to design engaging educational experiences using digital tools like Bad News.
Suggested follow up activities include
- Become Disinformation Detective and Analyse Real Posts Together: Find real-world social media posts or news headlines and analyse them using the manipulation techniques learned in Bad News (e.g. emotional language, impersonation, polarisation). Use current examples relevant to your group’s context and aim to practice the identification of disinformation tactics in the wild and build critical thinking skills in young people.
- Create Your Own (Fake) News Campaign and Then Debunk It: Challenge your participants to create a short fake news campaign using memes, headlines, or tweets, based on the Bad News game-play techniques. Then ask each group to present it and debunk another group’s campaign. You can even document the created campaigns and counter-strategies as a toolkit or mini-exhibition to be held in your youth organisation. Aim to reinforce learning through creativity and role-switching in young people who can try to be both “creators” and “critical analysts.”
- Design a Peer Awareness Campaign on Disinformation: Use what was learned in Bad News to co-create a campaign (e.g. TikTok videos, posters, Instagram stories, or a workshop) in which your young people can educate their peers on how disinformation spreads and how to resist it. Use this activity to help youth link this to real-world activism or school/community engagement by using real life examples from your local environment. Aim towards encouragement of peer-to-peer learning and empowering youth as media literacy ambassadors.
Claim open badge recognition
After completing the activities, participants can earn digital badges that recognise competencies in:
- Media and information literacy
- Understanding online manipulation techniques
- Using games for digital learning and youth empowerment
Who created this resource?
This activity is based on the free online game Bad News, developed by Tilt and the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. The Digital Systemic partnership and the Cities of Learning Network supports the integration of educational games into youth work practice, while reminding on the crucial role of youth workers and other educators in leading reflections and conversations about and around digital games, tools and topics explored by them - by young people.
Next steps: Try more games focused on media literacy and truth, like "Breaking Harmony Square" or "Go Viral!", and run your own youth workshops on responsible online engagement.
Resources
Get activity badge
Truth Seeker: Exploring Disinformation Through Play Get this badge
Awarded for completing the interactive activity based on the online game Bad News and reflecting on the dynamics of disinformation, online manipulation, and media credibility. This badge recognises your ability to identify common manipulation techniques and critically evaluate digital content.
Skills and experiences gained
This badge supports the development of:
- Critical media literacy
- Awareness of disinformation techniques
- Ethical thinking in digital environments
- Confidence in identifying and resisting manipulation online
- Reflection on personal or organisational media engagement
You have to finish 2 tasks to get the badge
Tasks
Task no.1
Evidence verified by: self-approved
Play the game Bad News from beginning to end and explore its key mechanics and manipulation strategies.
Task no.2
Evidence verified by: one activity organiser
Reflect on Your Learning. Answer a few short reflective questions, such as:
- What techniques did you use in the game to gain followers?
- Which forms of manipulation felt most powerful or dangerous, and why?
- How can this game help others better understand how fake news works?
Task no.3
Evidence verified by: one activity organiser
Apply Your Insights by choosing one of the following:
- Share one real-life example of disinformation you’ve seen online and explain which Bad News tactic it used.
- Create a short post, meme, or visual to raise awareness about manipulation online.
- Write or record a short message (video or audio) on how this game changed the way you view online information.
Організатори
Digital Youth Work Resource Hub
Awero not-for-profit organisation manages this platform and develops it together with leading educational organisations. The European Union's programme Erasmus+ granted co-funding for building the first version of this platform. Contact support@awero.org.
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