In a push to develop strategies for "serious games," some media organizations are adopting sports style brackets (think March Madness) for uses beyond their traditional role for mapping the course of the annual NCAA basketball tournament.

The subject matter varies: The Washington Post applied "bracketology" to an online game about popular TV show Lost (see image). And the politics team at Congressional Quarterly created a bracket game last week to help John McCain pick his VP.

The Knight Foundation too is supporting media's foray into gaming, awarding two $250,000 Knight News Challenge grants in 2007 for gaming experimentation.

Why the emphasis on gaming? According to Poynter blogger Ken Sands, some studies suggest "tapping into people's gaming instinct makes repeat site visits more likely."

Sands also has a point that "serious games" are better suited to social networking sites like Facebook rather than destination sites.  But if a game on a newspaper site is engaging enough, it could be a great way to boost the time spent on the site by users, a figure that has been dropping in the U.S. even as the number of unique users rises.  And destination sites can and do have popular "serious games;" although it's not bracket-style, newspapers should take note of the UN World Food Program's FreeRice.

Sources:  E-Media Tidbits, Washington Post (picture)