{"62215":{"#nid":"62215","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Ian Bogost Teams with Students for his Latest Book, Newsgames","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENewsgames: Journalism\nat Play\u003C\/em\u003E, the latest book by Ian Bogost, prolific video game designer,\ncritic, author and director of graduate studies in Georgia Tech\u2019s Digital Media\nprogram, examines the use and potential of video games to inform the public and\nbring context to the news. For his latest book, the author of \u003Cem\u003EPersuasive Games\u003C\/em\u003E and \u003Cem\u003ERacing the Beam \u003C\/em\u003Eis joined by graduate\nstudents Simon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer. In this Q \u0026amp;A, Bogost talks\nabout this collaboration as well as how games can help journalists share the\nrest of the story.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EQ: In this book, you teamed up with two of your graduate\nstudents, Simon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer. How did the book benefit from this\ncollaboration?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nWhen done right, a relationship between a professor and a graduate student\nshould be one of building colleagues. Graduate school is a place where students\nlearn to be professionals, sometimes professional engineers or lawyers or\nwhatever, and sometimes professional scholars. Real colleagues don\u0027t work in\nmaster\/apprentice relationships nor in boss\/worker relationships, but sit on an\neven keel. By working with my doctoral students on the book (in addition to the\ndozen or so other researchers who participated in the lab), we were all able to\nwork through the topics at hand together, finding approaches and answers that\nwe might not otherwise have seen individually. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nQ: What do you mean by the term \u0022newsgames?\u0022\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026nbsp;\u0022Newsgames\u0022 is just a name for the ways journalism can partake\nof video games as a medium. Originally when the term was coined (by Georgia\nTech digital media alumnus Gonzalo Frasca, in fact), it meant bite-sized games\nthat express a designer\u0027s commentary on a current event\u2014a sort of playable\neditorial cartoon. In the book and in related work in our research lab here at\nGeorgia Tech, we have expanded the term to include any application whatsoever\nof video games to journalism, and vice versa, from editorial cartoons and\ntabloids to documentary games and crossword puzzles and software platforms.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nQ: What can newsgames add to the news that traditional forms like print and\nbroadcast miss?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe videogame is a powerful medium for constructing systems that are governed\nby rules. A videogame is a computational model of a system whose underlying\ncode governs what that system can do and how it operates. As such, players of video\ngames reason about the logic that makes the videogame world possible and use it\nto proceed through the game. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nPrint and broadcast media do the opposite. They tell stories about people,\nplaces, objects and events. Broadcast news excels at supplying vivid images\nthat appeal to viewers\u0027 emotions, while print stories often weave elaborate\nnarratives. Journalists may research the underlying\nprocesses that brought such events about, but journalistic matter, itself,\noften just scrapes the surface of the outcomes. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nVideo games, by contrast, reconstruct the underlying logics that make\nparticular stories possible in the first place. For example, the tale of the woman\nwho can no longer get to work because her MARTA bus route has been cut is\nimportant for making us aware of the budgetary problems of our transportation\nsystem, but a carefully constructed newsgame starts by examining the root of\nthe problem, for example the entire economic, mechanical and operational\nmechanism that is the public transit system.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nToday, most problems are complex and systemic rather\nthan surface-level. Good video games always involve systems, and for that\nreason they have much to contribute to civic knowledge and engagement.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nQ: Are newsgames likely to become more popular, like Internet news sites did,\nor will they always be a niche format? Why?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe biggest challenge newsgames face comes from their fundamental\nincompatibility with the way readers and journalists think about the news. The\nobstacle here is not the technology or the medium, but what it represents about\nideas and information; we\u0027re just not used to creating and interacting with\nsystems instead of stories. That is changing as software media like video games\nincrease in popularity.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBut that\u0027s not the only way the newsgame could prove successful. Much like the\nmany interactive infographics and photo slideshows that get passed around the\nInternet, the newsgame could serve as a hook for online news organizations to\ndraw in readers. As the format develops, the newsgame could help differentiate\none news agency from another. \u0022Come to our website, we\u0027re the ones doing\nsomething new and different.\u0022 We\u0027re working on a new project with this\ngoal in mind, again funded by the Knight Foundation. Its focus is on creating\nan authoring tool for small-scale newsgames meant to draw users into local\nissues.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAnother point: novelty is not really our goal anyway. When we first started\nthis research in 2008, we began by looking at the core values that drive\njournalistic practice. We asked ourselves what video games excel at that and can\nsupport these values in a meaningful way. Anything that doesn\u0027t advance those\ngoals doesn\u0027t deserve the name \u0022newsgame\u0022 anyway. The newsgame may never replace the written story or the 6:00 news, but\nif put into the right hands it could serve as an invaluable tool for tackling\ncomplex issues while engaging readers. And perhaps over time, it will become\ncentral rather than peripheral to civic engagement.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003EQ: What are the top things you hope a reader can take away\nfrom your book?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nFirst, the potential of newsgames is their ability to explain systems, not tell\nstories. They are capable of handling a level of complexity that is difficult\nto address with words or images. Newsgames not only address the who, what,\nwhere and when, but they are especially suited for the why and how. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nSecond, there is a natural relationship between journalism and games. Newsgames\nare not about hopping on the bandwagon of popular entertainment, but taking\npre-existing forms like crossword puzzles, news quizzes, editorial cartoons and\ninfographics a step forward. Journalism does not have to be dry to be\nprofessional and these forms have proven news can be portrayed beyond the\nwritten and spoken word. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThird, journalism is hard work. Newsgames are not some cure-all ready to remedy\nthe ills of a field in financial trouble. The games need the guiding hand of\nthe journalist to ensure that they are addressing journalistic values. Creating\na newsgame involves mustering the resources of the newsroom to reform civic\nknowledge in a new way. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nQ: Tell me about the cover.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nThe cover shows an early 20th-century newsboy holding a Nintendo DS handheld\ngaming system instead of a newspaper. It communicates the current state of\njournalism, a collision of outmoded ways of making and disseminating the news\nand an uncertainty about what to do with new technologies. And it suggests just\nhow conservative adoptions of technology have really been in the news: the web,\nblogs, Twitter, YouTube, all are just adaptations of print and video into\nnetworks for digital distribution. The videogame offers something surprising\nand unfamiliar and new, a new way of doing journalism, not just a new way of\nsharing the same old stuff.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\n\n\u003Cstrong\u003EAbout the Authors\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nIan Bogost is associate professor in the School of\nLiterature, Communication and Culture, at the Georgia Institute of Technology\nand founding partner, Persuasive Games LLC. He is the author of \u003Cem\u003EPersuasive Games: The Expressive Power of\nVideogames\u003C\/em\u003E and \u003Cem\u003EUnit Operations: An\nApproach to Videogame Criticism\u003C\/em\u003E and the coauthor (with Nick Montfort) of \u003Cem\u003ERacing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer\nSystem\u003C\/em\u003E (2009), all published by the MIT Press.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nSimon Ferrari and Bobby Schweizer are doctoral students in\ndigital media at the Georgia Institute of Technology. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ENewsgames: Journalism\nat Play\u003C\/em\u003E, the latest book by Ian Bogost examines the use and potential of video games to inform the public and\nbring context to the news. In this Q \u0026amp;A, Bogost talks\nabout this collaboration as well as how games can help journalists share the\nrest of the story.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Newsgames: Journalism at Play, the latest book by Ian Bogost examines the use and potential of video games to inform the public and bring context to the news."}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2010-10-18 11:26:47","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:38","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-10-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2010-10-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"62216":{"id":"62216","type":"image","title":"The Authors of Newsgames","body":null,"created":"1449176355","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:59:15","changed":"1475894539","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:19","alt":"The Authors of Newsgames","file":{"fid":"191431","name":"bogost-ferrari-schweizer.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bogost-ferrari-schweizer_0.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bogost-ferrari-schweizer_0.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4719491,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bogost-ferrari-schweizer_0.jpeg?itok=Qi4o-uAf"}}},"media_ids":["62216"],"groups":[{"id":"1216","name":"Digital Lounge - Gaming"}],"categories":[{"id":"143","name":"Digital Media and Entertainment"}],"keywords":[{"id":"315","name":"bogost"},{"id":"1302","name":"book"},{"id":"10997","name":"ferrari"},{"id":"10590","name":"Newsgames"},{"id":"169312","name":"schweizer"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}