ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the various connections between digital journalism and games while aiming to develop a critical lens by grounding materialist view in broader social theory in order to better understand certain historical problems of contemporary journalism as articulated through games. By reviewing studies that interrogate the intersection between digital journalism and games, the chapter attempts to chart the relatively marginalized terrain of digital journalism research. However, existing scholarship provides valuable empirical insights into the multifaceted convergence of digital journalism and games but rarely tackles it critically by reflecting on its materiality to reveal the limits of the emancipatory potential of these innovations to provide inclusive and reflective accounts of journalism and news. In scholarship exploring game journalism, two prevailing perspectives can be identified: politico-economy and cultural approaches. Although gamification has received substantial attention in other contexts – both celebratory appraisals and more reserved considerations, a review of studies dealing with gamified journalism appears quite underexplored.
