Public Pedagogy, Policing, and Videogames: A Multimodal Content Analysis

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 3:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Gaming as Community, Public Pedagogy, and Skill Building (Table 4)

Abstract

Theorizing videogames as public pedagogy, this roundtable session presents an analysis of the representations of policing in popular gaming spaces. We focus on digital games available through Steam, a well-known and widely-accessed platform for distributing, purchasing, playing, reviewing, and discussing PC games. We use techniques of multimodal content analysis and discourse analysis to interrogate recontextualizations of social actors, institutions, and ultimately, the ideologies about policing, criminality, and society constructed and circulated through these media. Initial findings suggest that games published since the 2020 racial justice uprisings reflect patterns of both ideological reproduction and ideological transgression of the “fantasy of ethical policing.” We discuss the implications of these circulating discourses in relation to ideals and pragmatics of socially just education renewal.

Authors

• Earl Aguilera, California State University - East Bay

• Joel De Jesus Lovos, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Katherine Kafonek, Stockton University