Jolyon Jenkins looks at how the techniques of gaming have been co-opted to coerce, cajole and control us, using our inherently playful nature to make us act in ways that may not be in our own best interests. 

Welcome to gamification. Points, badges, and leaderboards are creeping into every aspect of modern life. Businesses, governments and schools use games and gamification as tools for profit and control. Amazon workers pack boxes while a virtual car races across their screen. The faster they pack, the faster the car - and if they beat their co-workers, they rise to the top of the leaderboard. 

Truck drivers are measured for compliance with company driving standards, and can see in real time how they are performing against colleagues.

But is any of this actually fun? And who said work was supposed to be fun anyway? 

Producer/Presenter: Jolyon Jenkins
An Off Beat Media production for BBC Radio 4

Gamification

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In this series, teenage boys from all over the UK talk frankly to Catherine Carr about sex, consent, life online, fun and friendship. They discuss porn, their struggles at school and becoming men. In the first episode, they talk candidly about what it is like to be a boy in 2024. They reflect on where they get their ideas about masculinity from, and whether those might be different if they lived elsewhere in the country. They also discuss the importance of role models - if they have them. Catherine also hears from adults making a difference in boys’ lives and finds out how examples of masculinity online can put real pressure on boys thinking about what it means to be a ‘successful man’. To listen to the rest of the series, just search for About the Boys on BBC Sounds. Thanks to  South Dartmoor Community College 
Dr Martin Robb, Open University
DRMZ Carmarthen Youth Project 
Thomas Lynch from Dad's Rock
Elliott Rae Founder of MusicFootballFatherhood
Cambridge St Giles Cricket Club
Dance United Yorkshire
Movember
Rebecca Asher Author ‘Man Up How Do Boys Become Better Men?’ Producer: Catherine Carr 
Researcher: Jill Achineku
Executive Producer: Marie Helly  A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

About the Boys - Episode 1

With criminal gangs now controlling most of Haiti's capital and no function government, Mike Thomson explores what caused this spiralling descent to Anarchy in this predominately Christian, Caribbean country, where more than half its eleven million French and Creole speaking people live below the poverty line. Mike looks for answers with help from Haitians, experts and political leaders who’ve lived through many of their nation’s recent social upheavals and natural disasters. Producer: Ed Prendeville
BBC Audio in Cardiff

Haiti - Descent Into Anarchy

In February 2024, the NHS dental crisis hit the headlines as hundreds of people queued outside a dental practice in Bristol to register as NHS patients. It was the latest sign of the severity of the national shortage of NHS dentists. The Nuffield Trust have declared that NHS dentistry faces its 'most perilous point' in 75-year history and the government have responded pledging to improve access and funding for dentistry. At the centre of this crisis are the dentists who serve our communities.   A Dentist's Life follows one Cornwall based dentist, Dr Jenna Murgatroyd, as she treats patients needing vital care, manages a practice facing financial risk and trains the next generation of dentists.  As a second generation dentist, Dr Murgatroyd also reflects on the past and the future of the profession and asks what it means to be a NHS community dentist today. Produced by Mugabi Turya

A Dentist's Life

What do Artificial Intelligence and digital technology mean for actors and their relationship with audiences? Leading acting coach Geoffrey Colman, who has spent his working life on the sets of Hollywood movies, in theatrical rehearsal spaces, and teaching in the UK's most prestigious classrooms, wants to find out.  AI, he says, may represent the most profound change to the acting business since the move from silent films to talkies. But does it, and if so how are actors dealing with it? What does that mean for the connection between actors and audiences? Geoffrey's concern is rooted in acting process: the idea that the construction of a complex inner thinking architecture resonates with audiences in an authentic almost magical way. But if performance capture and AI just creates the outer facial or physical expression, what happens to the inner joy or pain of a character’s thinking? The implications for the actor’s technique are profound. To get to the bottom of these questions Geoffrey visits some of those at the cutting edge of developing this new technology. On the storied Pinewood lot he visits Imaginarium Studios, and is shown around their 'volume', where actors' every movement is captured. In East London he talks to the head of another studio about his new AI actor - made up from different actors' body parts. And at a leading acting school he speaks to students and teachers about what this new digital era means for them. He discusses concerns about ethical questions, hears from an actor fresh from the set of a major new movie, quizzes a tech expert already using AI to create avatars of herself, and speaks to Star Wars fans about how this technology has allowed beloved characters to be rejuvenated, and even resuscitated. Producer: Giles Edwards

Counterfeit Characters

Richard King explores the past and present of the second homes debate in Wales, revisiting the story of Meibion Glyndwr – active terrorists on British soil for almost 15 years.
 
The proliferation of second homes is a problem in many parts of the UK. They contribute to pushing up house prices, often in low-income areas, effectively locking young people out of the housing market. It’s a problem with different characteristics in different places.  In Wales it is compounded by the fate of Cymraeg, the Welsh language.  It is felt by many that second homes contribute to the fragmentation of Welsh-speaking communities and pose a threat to the survival of the language.  It's nothing new. Beginning in 1979, Meibion Glyndwr – Sons of Glyndwr (Owain Glyndwr being a soldier who led a revolt against English rule in the 1400s) – responded to this threat by carrying out hundreds of arson attacks and fire-bombings. Initially targeting second homes and holiday cottages in Welsh-speaking areas, the campaign later expanded to target estate agents, English-owned businesses and the offices of police and politicians, accompanied by stencilled letters containing extravagant nativist threats. Hundreds of properties were damaged and destroyed. It lasted until 1994 and only one person was ever convicted of a related offence. The Meibion Glyndwr campaign was audacious and shocking – and utterly ineffective.  In the thirty years since the last attack Wales has gained its own parliament and with it a measure of power to decide its own fate. And as elsewhere in the UK, the issues around second homes have only become more urgent. One of the newer policies enacted by the Welsh government is a council tax premium on second homes, with local authorities able to decide how much of a levy to apply, up to a possible 300%. Writer Richard King visits Abersoch on the Llyn Peninsula, a village very much at the sharp end of the current situation and hears from some of those who lived through the Meibion Glyndwr campaign. Featuring Robat Gruffudd, Amanda Jones, Richard Wyn Jones, Alun Lenny, Louise Overfield and Eifiona Wood. With grateful thanks to Sian Howys, Meic Parry and Dylan Roberts. (The programme contains an archive recording which refers to RS Thomas as a non-conformist minister. RS Thomas was a priest in the Anglican Church in Wales.)

Gamification

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