Deadline for abstract submissions is September 7, 2018.
Gamified and playful output that interacts with users (no longer audiences) is used pervasively to engage publics with the news agenda. Much of what is now communicated at a societal level has been subverted by the mechanics of social interaction and game-play, challenging legacy publishers and broadcasters to engage anew with their audiences, especially millennials, a generation accustomed to digital interactivity. The quality of public discourse needs to be scrutinised in the context of the takeup of these new technologies and new formats of journalistic distribution. Digital and AI (artificial intelligence) has the power to reinvent engagement with the public sphere through playful, social and immersive encounters, with the potential to both enhance and to diminish the importance of the content. As such, ‘newsgames’, classified as a broad body of work produced at the intersection of videogames and journalism, present possibilities and limitations as they emerge as a more prominent platform. This special issue seeks to interrogate these trends by examining the growth of ‘newsgames’ and playful approaches to journalism.
Source: Gamifying News: Playful Approaches to Public Engagement