Chaos-proof your 2020 election coverage with Sept. 25 game

The National Press Club Journalism Institute, the National Press Foundation, and the RAND Corporation have designed a new way for journalists to prepare for the unexpected in election 2020 news: Gaming your coverage plan.

RAND gamemaster David A. Shlapak plans to present participants with scenarios based on current and likely events, and each team will make coverage decisions, not knowing what the next roll of the dice will bring. Registration is open for this free program, which will be held on Friday, Sept. 25, from 5-7 p.m. ET. 

The game should bring to the surface journalists’ assumptions and test decisions as reporters and editors balance competing goals, commit limited resources, and assess tradeoffs. The game’s timeline will begin in September, continue through Election Day, and end on Inauguration Day and is expected to conclude with a debrief that ties the game outcomes to coverage decisions you’re about to make. 

David A. Shlapak is a senior defense researcher at the RAND Corporation. From 2014 to 2018, Shlapak was a founding co-director of the RAND Center for Gaming, one of six Methods Centers under the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He is a former acting director of the Strategy and Doctrine Program in Project AIR FORCE.

The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public-policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous.