Susan Jacobson

Andrew W. Mellon Regional Fellow in the Humanities

20102011 Forum on Virtuality

Susan Jacobson

Assistant Professor, Journalism, Temple University

Playing the Narrative: Virtuality, Video Games and Digital Journalism

Journalism is undergoing a transformation into a mostly digital product. Thrust into the realm of the virtual, journalism in its digital form occupies a domain that is native to video games. Not surprisingly, journalism presentations with video game-like qualities have emerged in recent years. Games theorist Joost Rassens argues that society is moving from a narrative view of reality towards game-like “ludic” constructions of reality. If the emergence of game-like treatments of news stories is a symptom of this change, journalists may need to think about journalistic storytelling as an opportunity to allow the audience play the narrative of news stories. This study examines the impact of video game-like virtuality on the traditional libertarian values of the press.