ABSTRACT

According to Douglas Kellner, ‘critical media literacy’ (1) analyzes media artifacts and discourses as cultural products of production and struggle, and (2) emphasizes the need for ICT users to create media texts themselves, to promote self-expression and social activism.

This paper adopts Kellner’s definition, and asks if the video game form can aid educators in fighting the emerging ICT literacy divide by fostering critical new media literacies. First, I provide a literature review of the digital divide discourse, and then review how theorists have positioned video games with respect to learning and literacy. Next, I look at The Education Arcade project , Mary Flanagan’s RAPUNSEL software, and the Room 130 group, to see how these recent development and advocacy projects have addressed this question.

This paper argues that video games that fuse textual hermeneutics with media production practices can contribute to new media literacies.

Abstract submitted for Computers and Writing Online 2005:

The “digital divide” has traditionally pointed to the social schism between computer and Internet haves and have-nots. Recent ICT-related research indicates that while issues of access may be improving, other information gaps have since emerged: such as, inequities in gender, race, and skills and usage. The last gap, skills and usage, is otherwise known as new media literacy, and represents a problem that technological access alone will not solve.

This paper focuses on the “black sheep” of the new media family, video games, and argues that particular types of interactive texts can contribute to new media literacies. The paper concludes by investigating three recent ventures into critical gaming design and advocacy. While it does not suggest a “video game divide,” the paper maintains that critical video games are an underutilized resource that could suture broader digital divides.