Played Problems - 'Decisions' as a Category of Knowledge in Post-Digital Milieus and Serious Games
Decision-making is an action that is often prepared, supported or even generated with the help of media processes. Deciding also plays a particularly important role in educational content with socio-political significance. In terms of questions related to (dis)information for example: Which sources can users trust? How can you tell fact from fake? How are users induced to click? Or in regard to awareness of the environment and sustainability: Where is the line between short-term effects and sustainable action? What influence do individual consumer decisions have on global interdependencies?
Decision-making powers are increasingly being handed over to non-human actors. Consequently, defining problems that lie at the source of the decision-making process is becoming increasingly important: Who defines the problem and thus paves the way for possible solutions? Which cultural techniques are required to deal with a problem? Which competencies are delegated to programmed entities and which competencies are required for these entities to be involved?
In my project, I approach these questions from a cultural-theoretical and discourse-analytical perspective. One aspect focuses on representations of decision-making and their potential for educational media, particularly with regard to the example of serious games. Another aspect focuses on media of decision-making and the participation of media formations in the definition and processing of decision-making situations.
Methodology
The first main focus area is an analysis of the way in which social conflict situations are represented and are primarily shaped as a problem to be solved by a decision. To this end, serious games and web documentaries on topical issues such as disinformation or climate/environmental awareness will be analysed in order to investigate the potential of these media formations for civic education. How do these narratives deal with affectively charged political topics? From which discursive position and which political standpoint do they claim to teach their players about aspects of objectivity? What perspectives on factual knowledge and objectivity do they produce? I will examine the experiences of users of these media in game labs, followed up by reflective discussions, and examine how their experiences relate to the claims made by the games’ producers.
In the second main focus area – media of decision-making, I will study media formations that are specifically involved in the production of decision-making situations and that are involved in the making of decisions. Central to this is an examination of the management of options, through analysing digital interfaces, as well as questions of accountability and responsibility. How can the tasks, functions and modes of operation of 'smart', digital devices within post-digital environments be kept in the consciousness of users, and thus remain understandable and comprehensible? How can we maintain a basis for responsible use and the ability to criticise these media formations into the future?
Results
‘Reflexivity and Involvement in Environmental Serious Games and Interactive Documentaries’, presentation as part of the ‘Interactive Documentary at Play’ panel, in the Games Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice area at the annual conference of the Southwest Popular and American Culture Association (SW PACA), Albuquerque, New Mexico, 21.-24.02.2024
