Activity Overview

The “Telephone Game” is an activity in which participants play and collectively witness how a story or event can be distorted through repeated sharing and communication, both on social media and in everyday life. This exercise addresses the issue of misinformation and explains the consequences of these distortions, especially when statements target individuals or communities directly.

Initially, one person invents a story and whispers it to the next person, who does the same, and so on, until everyone has heard and shared their version of the story.

During the debrief at the end, facilitators can discuss interpretation issues and subjective biases in information dissemination.

Variation of the exercise:

  • You can give a photo, image, or short video to the first participant, who describes it to the next person without letting them see it, and so on. At the end, reveal the original image to the group and observe the changes it underwent.

Activity Procedure

1. Activity Preparation: Facilitators should prepare one or more stories for the Telephone Game or select images illustrating an action or event, ensuring there are enough details to consider. The story’s or image’s complexity will determine the difficulty of the exercise.

2. Game Setup: Facilitators explain the rules and provide the story to the first participant or show them the chosen image.

3. Procedure: Participants sit in a large circle. The first person whispers their story (or describes the image) to the person on their right, who whispers their version to the next person, and so on until everyone has heard it. The last person repeats the story aloud. The group then compares this version with the original, noting the differences.

4. Group Debrief/Debate (questions written on the board): How did the story change as it was retold? What influences how we hear and interpret information? How do our experiences and interests shape our perspectives? Do people sometimes hear multiple versions of the same story and wonder which is most accurate? If everyone perceives things slightly differently, how can we know what’s true? How do the changes make you feel? Compare the feelings of the original storyteller with the rest of the group. What if it were a personal story and its meaning changed? Would you be willing to share it online?