Newsgames: Journalism at Play
Abstract
How videogames offer a new way to do journalism.Journalism has embraced digital media in its struggle to survive. But most online journalism just translates existing practices to the Web: stories are written and edited as they are for print; video and audio features are produced as they would be for television and radio. The authors of Newsgames propose a new way of doing good journalism: videogames.Videogames are native to computers rather than a digitized form of prior media. Games simulate how things work by constructing interactive models; journalism as game involves more than just revisiting old forms of news production. Wired magazine's game Cutthroat Capitalism, for example, explains the economics of Somali piracy by putting the player in command of a pirate ship, offering choices for hostage negotiation strategies.Videogames do not offer a panacea for the ills of contemporary news organizations. But if the industry embraces them as a viable method of doing journalism—not just an occasional treat for online readers—newsgames can make a valuable contribution.
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There is a danger that interactive forms are relegated to a position of cheap gimmick, a development Bogost et al. have warned about for newsgames.
“Else, there is a danger that interactive forms are relegated to a position of cheap gimmick, a possible development Bogost et al. have been warning about for newsgames (Bogost et al., 2010) (also see Treanor & Mateas, 2009).”
From Interactive digital narrative (IDN)—new ways to represent complexity and facilitate digitally empowered citizens (2022) · cites this paper as Bogost et al., 2010
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Koenitz, H., Barbara, J., & Eladhari, M. P. (2022) · New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia · doi:10.1080/13614568.2023.2181503 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bogost, I., Ferrari, S., & Schweizer, B.
- Venue
- The MIT Press eBooks
- Publisher
- The MIT Press
- Published
- 2010
- OpenAlex
- W4251829950
- Cited by
- 137
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 5.38
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The MIT Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Journalism and Media Studies
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Keywords
- newsgames, video games, journalism, digital journalism, interactive storytelling, Somali piracy, news production
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