I'm excited to announce the first public materials from a research project on Journalism and Videogames, which I've been pursuing with a small cabal of devoted students since the start of the term. Here's a brief explanation:

There's still much to do before we come to any firm findings, but we've begun to publish our in-progress work on a new blog hosted at Georgia Tech. I invite you to follow what we're working on there and join in the conversation; of course you can also get a feed at the blog.

Some of the questions we're asking include: How can games and simulations reveal their designers' methods and assumptions? Can games help make traditional journalism become more transparent? How can games facilitate discourse between citizens? What kinds of discourse? Can such a discourse lead to productive reflection or action? What role do traditional newspaper games (such as the crossword puzzle) play in news media? Do they serve any journalistic goals?

As things progress, we're also planning to publish more formal, lengthy arguments in a kind of online magazine. More on that when the time comes.