Are Newsgames Better Journalism? Empathy, Information, and Ideology in Games on Refugees and Migrants

• In Event: Constructive Uses of Journalism

Abstract

This study interrogates if newsgames are meaningful supplements to already existing forms of journalism. Using the case of refugee and migrant issues, this study examines how the newsgames The Refugee Crisis, Against all Odds and The Migrant Trail convey information about refugee issues in interactive game play, and how refugees and their situation are represented in these games. The findings are then discussed in relation to empathy, objectivity, complexity and the representation of distant suffering. The overarching question is if newsgames hold up against traditional journalism when it comes to helping audiences understand political events of global concern and diminishing power asymmetries between “Others” and “us.”

Authors

• Elfriede Fursich, Boston College

• Christoph Plewe, Freie U Berlin