Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies
Media literacy is considered one of the key competencies to acquire in the 21st century. With games being recognized as having a large potential to train and educate, a wide range of games focusing on media literacy related topics such as fake news games, digital privacy, personal media habits, and...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Communication |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1155840/full |
| _version_ | 1797293786056884224 |
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| author | René Glas Jasper van Vught Timo Fluitsma Teresa De La Hera Salvador Gómez-García |
| author_facet | René Glas Jasper van Vught Timo Fluitsma Teresa De La Hera Salvador Gómez-García |
| author_sort | René Glas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Media literacy is considered one of the key competencies to acquire in the 21st century. With games being recognized as having a large potential to train and educate, a wide range of games focusing on media literacy related topics such as fake news games, digital privacy, personal media habits, and practical media skills have sprung up over the years. All claim to foster media literacy skills and competencies. This begs the question how these games generally frame and understand media literacy, what competencies and skills they actually focus on, and through which game design choices. This paper thus asks: how media literacy games are designed to foster media literacy? Taking the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies Model as a departure point, we answer this question using a thematic analysis of 100 media literacy games and formal analysis of a smaller heterogeneous sample consisting of 12 games. We present a series of key findings involving the prominent presence of certain topics and competencies in the dataset, as well as prevalent design choices, allowing for a discussion of the current landscape of literacy games and underlying competencies and future potential for development. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T21:20:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5803ea83297c4c209ca110ac57ae547d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2297-900X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T21:20:53Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-5803ea83297c4c209ca110ac57ae547d2024-02-27T11:54:54ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Communication2297-900X2023-06-01810.3389/fcomm.2023.11558401155840Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competenciesRené Glas0Jasper van Vught1Timo Fluitsma2Teresa De La Hera3Salvador Gómez-García4Department of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsDepartment of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsDepartment of Media and Culture Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, NetherlandsDepartment of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, NetherlandsDepartment of Journalism and Global Communication, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, SpainMedia literacy is considered one of the key competencies to acquire in the 21st century. With games being recognized as having a large potential to train and educate, a wide range of games focusing on media literacy related topics such as fake news games, digital privacy, personal media habits, and practical media skills have sprung up over the years. All claim to foster media literacy skills and competencies. This begs the question how these games generally frame and understand media literacy, what competencies and skills they actually focus on, and through which game design choices. This paper thus asks: how media literacy games are designed to foster media literacy? Taking the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies Model as a departure point, we answer this question using a thematic analysis of 100 media literacy games and formal analysis of a smaller heterogeneous sample consisting of 12 games. We present a series of key findings involving the prominent presence of certain topics and competencies in the dataset, as well as prevalent design choices, allowing for a discussion of the current landscape of literacy games and underlying competencies and future potential for development.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1155840/fulldigital gamesmedia literacydigital literacyliteracy competencieseducational games |
| spellingShingle | René Glas Jasper van Vught Timo Fluitsma Teresa De La Hera Salvador Gómez-García Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies Frontiers in Communication digital games media literacy digital literacy literacy competencies educational games |
| title | Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies |
| title_full | Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies |
| title_fullStr | Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies |
| title_full_unstemmed | Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies |
| title_short | Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies |
| title_sort | literacy at play an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies |
| topic | digital games media literacy digital literacy literacy competencies educational games |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1155840/full |
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