Newsgames: The Use of Digital Games by Mass-Media Outlets to Convey Journalistic Messages

Salvador Gómez García is an associate professor at the Department of History and Communication, University of Valladolid (Spain). He holds a BA in Journalism, MA in Documentary Realization and Screenwriting, and international PhD in Media History at Complutense University (2008). His field of study explores how the new narrative formulas have been incorporated into the traditional mass media or, in other cases, how new media have emerged. His specialization in this area of study focuses on the informative power of serious games and the mobile ecosystem in the political and informational spheres. He is also PI of the funded research project “Politainment in the face of media fragmentation: disintermediation, engagement, and polarization” financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2021–2023). He has been visiting scholar in universities of England, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Ecuador, and Chile.

Teresa de la Hera is Assistant Professor of Persuasive Gaming at the Department of Media and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands). Her expertise is related to understanding how digital games and new media technologies can be used as media for communication and tools for engagement, motivation, and persuasion. She conducts research at the Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture where she is member of the Research Cluster Gaming Matters. De la Hera is author of the book Digital Gaming and the Advertising Landscape (2019) and editor of the volume Persuasive Gaming in Context (2021), both published by Amsterdam University Press. She is also PI of the funded research projects “Digital Literacy Games: Digital games designed to support digital literacy skills acquisition” and “Ice-skating game to foster intercultural interaction.” Before joining Erasmus University in 2017, she was a Post-doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University. As a Post-doctoral researcher, she was a member of the NWO funded research project “Persuasive Gaming in Context” in which she explored the potential of digital games as media for persuasion. Teresa started her academic career at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain in 2006. In 2010 she was a visiting PhD Candidate at the University of Amsterdam. Later on, in 2011, she moved to the Netherlands where she obtained an International PhD Fellowship to finish her PhD “Persuasive Structures in Advergames” at Utrecht University. Her thesis has been awarded as the Best Academic Work in the Field of Media Studies by the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (Spain) in 2013. She holds a BA in Journalism (track: Digital Journalism), a BA in Audiovisual Communication (track: Direction and Screenplay), and an MA in Communication and Advertising.