[Air-L] New open access book: Mainstreaming and Game Journalism (MIT Press)

[David Nieborg]

MIT Press is delighted to announce the publication of “Mainstreaming and
Game Journalism” by David B. Nieborg & Maxwell Foxman in their Playful
Thinking series.

The book is available at bookstores and as an open access PDF:
https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5657/Mainstreaming-and-Game-Journalism

Mainstreaming and Game Journalism addresses both the history and current
practice of game journalism, along with the roles writers and industry play
in conveying that the medium is a “mainstream” form of entertainment.
Through interviews with reporters, the authors examine the bumpy process of
what they think of as “mainstreaming,” which encompasses three overlapping
factors. First, for games to become mainstream, they need to become more
ubiquitous through broader media coverage. Second, an increase in ludic
literacy, or how-to play games, determines whether that greater visibility
translates into accessibility. Third, the mainstreaming of games must gain
cultural legitimacy. The fact that games are more visible does little if
only a
few people take them seriously or deem them worthy of attention.
Ultimately, Mainstreaming and Game Journalism provocatively questions
whether games ever will—or even should—gain widespread cultural acceptance.

Table of contents:
1 Introduction: “Shall I Explain the Game?”
2 Moving Away from the Mainstream
3 Passionate Experts
4 The Many Streams of Game Journalism
5 What It’s Actually About
6 Conclusion: Mainstream Is a Verb

According to Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly this book is: “A
must-read for journalism and game scholars… it masterfully presents the
complex dynamics that form and establish journalistic genres and their
impact and influence on journalists’ practices and sensemaking and vice
versa.”