Polarisation, disinformation, extremism – such phenomena are increasingly viewed as threatening the formation of democratic opinions in a society now shaped by digitality. There is political and academic consensus that suppressing this trend is only possible to a degree and that preventative education policy and training measures that raise citizens’ resilience are therefore equally important. Different approaches have been discussed for some time, under the concept of digital citizenship education, which can bring political and media education together and which seek to empower young people as democratic citizens in a digitally networked society.
However, the question remains of how best to implement this strategy in German schools. Textbooks, for example, as media of a traditional information environment, can only make a limited contribution to strengthening digital citizenship. The project therefore investigates how successful other educational media, especially serious games, can be in implementing approaches based in digital citizenship education and conveying the challenges posed by polarization, disinformation, and extremism.
Aims
Methodology
Digital games that raise awareness among young people of polarisation, disinformation and extremism in digital networks and the threats they represent are at the heart of the project. The thematic focus is on games that aim to intervene against right-wing extremism. Using the walkthrough method, the team will analyse three games to ascertain (1) how they address players as political subjects, (2) how phenomena such as polarisation, disinformation and extremism are addressed in the games and (3) to what extent the games can be described as approaches to digital citizenship education. The analyses are expected to provide an indication of which serious games have the potential to be used for pedagogical intervention and how they can support digital citizenship education.
Results
Talks
The challenge of prevention in history education. How right-wing extremism is represented in German educational media, HEIRNET conference ‘Connecting the Past to the Future to the Present’, Amsterdam 2022.
Gemeinsam gegen Demokratie. Zur Schnittstelle russischer und rechtsextremer Desinformationskampagnen, Conference ‘Dekonstruktion digitaler Desinformationsstrategien. Phänomene des Rechtsextremismus’, University of Vechta, 2023. (With Johann Trupp).
