The semiotics of social justice: a multimodal approach to examining social justice issues in videogames.

This article explores how principles of multimodality can be effectively incorporated into game analysis in the context of social justice. The authors use a multimodal framework to assist developers, researchers, and educators in better understanding representations of class, race, and gender in vid...

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Published in:Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education Vol. 41; no. 5; pp. 723 - 740
Main Authors: Hawreliak, Jason, Lemieux, Amélie
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Oct2020
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      aug:
        au:
          Hawreliak, Jason
          Lemieux, Amélie
        affil:
          Centre for Digital Humanities, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada
          Faculty of Education, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Canada
      su:
        Social semiotics
        Video games
        Social justice
        Social context
      sug:
        subj:
          Social semiotics
          Video games
          Social justice
          Social context
      keyword:
        gender
        Multimodality
        procedurality
        race
        social justice
        videogames
      ab: This article explores how principles of multimodality can be effectively incorporated into game analysis in the context of social justice. The authors use a multimodal framework to assist developers, researchers, and educators in better understanding representations of class, race, and gender in videogames. Videogames are multimodal in nature: not only do they 'remediate' and adopt the representational practices of other media, but also employ algorithmic, procedural, haptic, and interactive forms of expression. Videogames are uniquely situated to represent systemic oppression and privilege through what Ian Bogost calls 'procedural rhetoric,' i.e. the representation of systems through computational media. Videogames' high multimodality allows players to experience and interact with systems of oppression and privilege in ways that other media cannot. To define these concepts, the paper will include examples from several videogames deal with issues of representation either implicitly or explicitly, including CartLife, a retail simulator; Overwatch, a competitive First-Person Shooter; and Apex: Legends, a battle-royale First-Person Shooter.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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