{
  "id": 180276,
  "title": "Tell a whole town what to believe in Static Hour, a rolodex-flipping newsroom thriller about investigating a strange epidemic of violence",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/05/tell-a-whole-town-what-to-believe-in-static-hour-a-rolodex-flipping",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-05T14:54:53.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Rock Paper Shotgun",
    "slug": "rock-paper-shotgun",
    "url": "https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tell-a-whole-town-what-to-believe-in-static-hour-a-rolodex-flipping-newsroom-thriller-about-investigating-a-strange-epidemic-of-violence"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Static Hour is a narrative simulation that puts journalists in a god-like position, where they can manipulate the narrative and cause chaos. Set in the 1980s, the player assumes the role of a night shift news editor in a small town plagued by mysterious happenings. The town experiences garbled transmissions about people attacking their families, outbreaks of amnesia, and overflowing emergency rooms. The cause remains unknown, with speculation ranging from aliens to tainted water supplies and fireworks tricks.\n\nTrapped within the newsroom due to a government lockdown, the player must investigate the situation by utilizing their rolodex, assigning tasks to reporters, scanning radio frequencies, and differentiating between factual evidence and rumors. The ultimate goal is to make sense of the bizarre occurrences while deciding what information to broadcast to the town's population. The challenge lies in maintaining transparency while avoiding the potential danger of inciting panic or, paradoxically, deliberately instigating a panic.",
  "summary": "Static Hour is a spooky narrative simulation designed to give journalists a god complex, or at least, aggravate the ones we already have. Set in the 1980s, it casts you as a night shift news editor in a small town that has succumbed to a Happening of some kind. There are garbled transmissions about people attacking their families, outbreaks of amnesia, and overflowing ER rooms. Is it aliens? Too…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}