Suchergebnisse

Islam is a hotly debated topic on YouTube, comprising approximately a half-million videos, tagged with this word. The study presents empirical material regarding three aspects of Islam's representation: (a) how Islam is framed in user-created videos; (b) how it is visualized; and (c) what are the motivations of the YouTubers who create these videos. The theoretical framework of the study is based on two pillars. The concept of valence framing was employed to identify positive/negative patterns of representation. The motivations to videoblog about Islam were examined from the perspective of the Uses and Gratifications Theory. Data comprised a content analysis of 120 videos and 15 in-depth interviews with content producers. Despite a number of extremely attacking videos about Islam, the overall tone of the coverage appeared to be balanced. However, images and ideas that are inappropriate for broadcasting on mainstream media repeatedly appear on this website.

This article is concerned with Internet games that critically address political issues. Developers and players of six online games were interviewed about the expressive and engaging power of the games, in particular with respect to the performance of a 'political self'. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in order to explore this issue in some detail. Interviews with the six game-developers revealed that building a game contributed to the enhancement of their everyday political engagement. Players were addressed by an online questionnaire which also included playing a political game ( N = 80). The results showed an impact of playing a political game on their knowledge and opinion about the issue addressed in the game.The results also suggested that the construction and expression of a 'political self' through the act of playing a political game may have consequences in the real world.

An exploratory survey was undertaken about the appeal of playing video games at a Local Area Network (LAN) event where personal computers are linked in order to play both face-to-face and online. First, we wanted to know who the visitors of a LAN event were, because there is hardly any research available about this class of gamers. Second, we wanted to know why they participated in a LAN event. The survey showed that LAN gamers were almost exclusively male, with a mean age of 19.5 years. They devoted about 2.6 hours each day to gaming. They were motivated by social contact and a need to know more about games. The competition motive was third in the total sample. A subgroup of heavy gamers obtained a higher score on competition. This article emphasizes the importance of the social context of gaming and interprets its results as a nuance of the stereotype of the solitary, adolescent gamer.

The Sims is the best selling PC game of all time. It has regularly been stated that its success is partly due to its attraction to a much wider audience than the proverbial male adolescent, yet academic research on its player base is lacking. This article reports on the first ever explorative survey ( N = 760) conducted among players of The Sims2. Our study combined social role theory with gender and games theorizing to enable us to understand gender differences in play. We focused on gender differences in motivation for playing The Sims2, employing uses and gratifications as our guiding theory. Our results revealed that most of our participants were indeed female. The significantly higher score of male players on the challenge motive was anticipated by social role theory, but their higher score on social interaction was unexpected. Accordingly, we discuss the implications of our results for uses and gratifications theory as well as the necessity to investigate actual practices of play in more detail.

A B S T R A C T ■ An Internet survey of 765 parents examined (1) to what extent parents wanted to be informed by ratings of harmful videogames for their children (four to 18 years), (2) which content descriptors interested them, (3) which parents were most interested and (4) how parental mediation of the child's gaming related to their interest in ratings and content descriptors. The majority of parents thought it very necessary to have ratings. Warnings of realistic `gore and gross' were considered most important, followed by warnings regarding alcohol/drugs, fantasy violence, bad language and, finally, nudity. A LISREL model showed that the ratings and most content descriptors were used as tools for restrictive and active parental mediation, in relation to parents' ideas on negative game effects. The mediation strategy of social co-play was strongly associated with the parents' own gaming and views on positive game effects. ■

In a world of continuous migration, super-diverse cities consist of a multitude of migrants and non-migrants from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Yet one characteristic they all have in common is the place where they currently live. In addition, both groups are active users of social media, especially the young. Social media provide platforms to construct and negotiate one's identity - particularly the identity related to where one lives: urban identity. This article presents the results of a survey study (N = 324) investigating the relationships between social media engagement and identity construction among migrant and non-migrant adolescents in the super-diverse city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was found that urban identity was significantly higher for migrants than non-migrants. Certain aspects of social media engagement predicted urban identity in combination with social identity. Finally, social media engagement was found to be positively related to group self-esteem.

The rapid developments of new communication technologies have facilitated the popularization of digital games, which has translated into an exponential growth of the game industry in the last decades. The ubiquitous presence of digital games has resulted in an expansion of the applications of these games from mere entertainment purposes to a great variety of serious purposes. In this edited volume, we narrow the scope of attention by focusing on what game theorist Ian Bogost has called "persuasive games", that is, gaming practices that combine the dissemination of information with attempts to engage players in particular attitudes and behaviors. This volume offers a multifaceted reflection on persuasive gaming, that is, on the process of these particular games being played by players. The purpose is to better understand when and how digital games can be used for persuasion, by further exploring persuasive games and some other kinds of persuasive playful interaction as well. The book critically integrates what has been accomplished in separate research traditions to offer a multidisciplinary approach to understanding persuasive gaming that is closely linked to developments in the industry by including the exploration of relevant case studies.

This intervention study investigated how much impact a specific peer-coaching (Peer2Peer) for refugee adolescents has on different factors of well-being for both sides: refugee adolescents (peers, N = 16) and their local peer coaches (buddies, N = 16). Next to pre- and post-tests, four buddies reflected on the process via weekly media diaries. We found that higher peer-loneliness and lower self-esteem was reported for peers in the beginning but these differences disappeared. These results were confirmed by buddies' media diaries: language and communication barriers reduced and friendships between buddies and peers grew. Buddies also reported high feelings of responsibilities in their media diaries which led to worries about their peer, but also to pride due to peers' improvement. Online communication was used on an almost daily basis to stay in contact each other. Snapchat was found to influence emotional and affectionate support. In sum, Peer2Peer as a program showed positive effects for both sides. Future Peer2Peer programs should include trainings on social media as well, as most apps are able to be used independent of own language skills. Thus, social media can help to overcome language barriers and intensifies the feeling of being supported.