Playing the News: Speaker Bios

Sponsored by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism.
Supported by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Return the the agenda.

Gail Robinson is editor-in-chief of Gotham Gazette, an award-winning online publication on New York City policy and politics published by Citizens Union, a good government group. Robinson received a 2007 Knight News Challenge grant to develop news games. Gotham Gazette currently features 20 news games and quizzes online. Prior to joining the Gazette, she was executive editor of World Press Review, oversaw political coverage for United Media, a major national newspaper feature syndicate, and covered the environment, education and local government for various publications.

Return to top

Joellen Easton is currently a public insight analyst at American Public Media. She divides her attention among supporting APM’s sustainability coverage and Marketplace's entrepreneurship and Washington desks, tackling business technology needs and developing journalism games for the Center for Innovation in Journalism and training CIJ's partner stations in the use of Public Insight Journalism (PIJ). Easton is a key producer of “Consumer Consequences,” a game about the environmental impact of personal choices, and has been involved with both the “Budget Hero” game and “Idea Generator” exercises. Minnesota Public Radio has been honored with Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism for both PIJ and its Budget Balancer game.

Return to top

Meghan Laslocky is the interactive producer for KQED’s “You Decide” and for “Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures” on PBS.org. She has worked extensively on other PBS sites including China from the Inside and FRONTLINE/WORLD. She has also produced events in Second Life. Laslocky is also a freelance writer and has had articles published on an array of subjects for publications including The San Francisco Chronicle and Salon.com. “You Decide,” the grand prize winner of the 2004 Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism, was recently redesigned and relaunched for the 2008 elections.

Return to top

Eric Brown co-founded ImpactGames to create compelling interactive experiences around current events. PeaceMaker, a video game simulation developed by ImpactGames on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been sold in over 60 countries, featured in media outlets around the world and has won several international awards. ImpactGames’ newest product, "Play the News," addresses the shifting online news media industry and its changing news consumption from passive reading to active engagement. Playthenewsgame.com features new games nearly every day.

Return to top

Nora Paul is director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the recipient of a 2007 Knight News Challenge grant to create a toolset for news simulation games. Paul was previously at the Poynter Institute teaching news library management, computer-assisted research, and new media leadership. Paul is the co-author of “Behind the Message: Information Strategies for Communicators.” Her work at the Institute focuses on evolving digital storytelling forms, eye tracking research and news game development.

Return to top

Ian Bogost is a video game designer, critic, and researcher. He is an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a founding partner at Persuasive Games, LLC. His research and writing consider video games as an expressive medium and his creative practice focuses on games about social and political issues. Bogost’s video games cover topics as varied as airport security, disaffected workers, the petroleum industry, suburban errands and tort reform. His games have been played by millions of people and exhibited internationally.

Return to top

Josh Sheldon is a project manager at MIT's Scheller Teacher Education Program, where, in conjunction with MIT’s Center for Future Civic Media, he works on TIMELAB 2100 and other Outdoor Augmented Reality software, game development and research. Prior to MIT, Sheldon worked in Web development and science and technology education. He was a Web editor/producer at Physicians for Human Rights, a senior content producer at the JASON Foundation for Education, and a science teacher at Cape Cod Academy.

Return to top

Suzanne Seggerman is president and co-founder of Games for Change, a group that provides support, visibility and shared resources to individuals and organizations using digital games for social change. G4C recently joined forces with Parsons The New School for Design and the MacArthur Foundation to create PETLab, a public interest game design and research laboratory. Before moving to G4C, Seggerman was a director at NYC-based think tank Web Lab where she oversaw a variety of cross-media projects. Her background in online media includes community-oriented interactive environments and the design of non-traditional games, which earned her awards from New Voices New Visions and Communications Arts.

Return to top

Jan Schaffer is executive director of J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism and one of the nation’s leading thinkers in the journalism reform movement. She brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to her work. Schaffer is a former Business Editor and Pulitzer winner for The Philadelphia Inquirer. J-Lab helps journalists use digital technologies to develop new ways for people to participate in public life with projects on innovations, entrepreneurship and citizen media.