Journalism in Transition: Exploring Newsgames as an Experimental Form

Crossword puzzles in newspapers allowed news and games to intersect decades ago. In the digital age, the combination of journalism and video games has generated a new type of journalistic innovation: newsgames. Newsgames employ the game format as a basis of construction and place the context for the games within a newsworthy story or event. This thesis aims to explore and understand how newsgames reflect the negotiation of different journalistic roles and what this reveals about broader changes in journalism. I employ a cultural approach to studying newsgames that highlights the importance of audiences and sees journalistic roles as a key dimension of journalistic cultures. Methodologically, I develop a multi-dimensional approach to analyse newsgames. Furthermore, this research uses semi-structured interviews to explore the production of newsgames, and gaming interviews provide insights into audiences’ interaction with them. Publicly available sources serve as additional materials for these two perspectives. This thesis focuses on three aspects: truth claims, entertainment and audience engagement, and advocacy. My findings suggest that newsgames practitioners take a series of steps to justify newsgames as appropriate journalistic practice. As an experimental and innovative form of journalism, newsgames have a promising potential to enhance journalism. Players' experiences of playing newsgames are highly relevant to their views on the roles of journalism in society. These findings make three main contributions to scholarship. First, this thesis offers a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of newsgames. Second, this study emphasises the need to examine journalistic innovations through the cultural approach. Third, it proposes a process model that incorporates audiences into the negotiation of journalistic roles.