Categories

To focus our investigations, we began this project by identifying a number of key questions. In doing so, we're hoping to cover a variety of different perspectives on both journalism and games. As the project continues and these questions leads us to ask new questions, we'll be adding more categories.

Here are our current areas, along with some brief descriptions:

Announcements
Used for posts about the project/blog itself.

Building Awareness
How can games build awareness of news events and political issues? Do they do so in a different way?

Development Process
What aspects of the game development process make games suited or unsuited to the practice of journalism? Should we develop newsgames in the same way we develop other games? Can we apply game development wisdom to journalistic practice?

Discourse
How can games facilitate discourse between citizens? What kinds of discourse? Can such a discourse lead to productive reflection or action? How does such discourse differ from that produced by more traditional news media?

Editorial Games
How do games function as editorial statements? What are some other, less explored ways of using games editorially? Are game editorials fundamentally different than written pieces or political cartoon editorials? How?

Formal Aspects
What formal aspects of games (e.g. immersion, competition, participation) suggest synergies with the formal aspects of news media, or the news experience? What are the opportunity spaces? Does the theoretical analysis of computer games help to cast traditional journalism in a new light?

Game Analysis
Are any existing games (digital or analog) "journalistic"? Which ones? How so? Can we imagine re-designing those games to be more journalistic? Do any existing games warn us about ways in which games might threaten journalistic principles?

Infographics
How are infographics and data visualizations "game-like"? Are some types of infographics games themselves? What can data vis designers learn from game design, and visa versa?

Newsgames
What are newsgames? What are some successful and unsuccessful examples? How have they been defined, and how should they be defined? How are newsgames different from other games? Are newsgames simply pieces of news media, or can they achieve something more "journalistic"?

Newspaper Games
What role do traditional newspaper games (such as the crossword puzzle) play in news media? Do they serve any journalistic goals? Or how do they complement the practice of journalism?

Responsibility to Citizens
Citizens are not just customers. The purpose of journalism is to work in the public interest. How do existing games treat their players? How could games be designed or contextualized differently to approach their players in a new way?

Transparency
Transparency is a key principle of journalism. How can games and simulations reveal their designers' methods and assumptions? Can games help make traditional journalism become more transparent? What is the equivalent of the footnote in a game?

Verification
Verification, which might be explained as a methodological, evidence-based approach to testing information, is the cornerstone of journalism. Does simulation design require new methods of verification? Do typical game development processes facilitate or hamper verification? Can games somehow aid or monitor journalists in the verification process?