METRO-APEX Volume 20.1: News Media Manual. Revised

Abstract

The News Media Manual is one of a set of twenty-one manuals used in METRO-APEX 1974, a computerized college and professional level, computer-supported, role-play, simulation exercise of a community with "normal" problems. Stress is placed on environmental quality considerations. APEX 1974 is an expansion of APEX--Air Pollution Exercise (ED 064 530-550; ED 075 261; ED 081 619), and includes roles for an environmental quality agency, water quality manager, solid waste manager, and various pressure groups, in addition to the previously developed roles of city and county politicians, city and county planners, air pollution control office, developers, industrialists and newspaper. Two industries have been added, as have a number of program options. The participants may range in number from 17 to 100. Each run of the game should consist of at least three cycles (simulated years), the optimum being five cycles. Each cycle should span at least a three-hour period. A cycle is composed of two major phases: the first is the game simulation; in the second phase, decisions emerging out of the game simulation are analyzed by a computerized system of integrated simulation models. The METRO-APEX computer program is in Fortran IV and runs on an IBM 360-50 or higher series computer. (BT)