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Traditional news media has been in flux over the past several years largely because of the Internet which has been blamed for smashing newspaper profits. Online interactivity is playing a bigger role than ever as news agencies look for new ways to connect with their audience.

And gaming is part of this new frontier.

Take this MSNBC game on baggage screening. It came out a few years ago as part of the network's coverage of airline safety. The game uses attributes like scoring, time limits, right answer, wrong answer.

Nora Paul is Director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota's Journalism Department. She calls the MSNBC game a beautiful example of what some of the possibilities are for news organizations to create real, experiential content. She says gaming is a direction traditional news media should consider heading.