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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
The instantaniedad is no longer the only value in the consumption of information, which
expands into horizontal information. Thus, Santaella’s culture of mobility (2008) is
finally incorporated in the journalism, making room for new parameters regarding the
interpretation of their specific medium in the presence of post-mass functions
increasingly taking up more space.
This context can even trace back to the appropriation of technology by journalists
seeking the application of physical mobility and information within the process of
production and distribution of contents to the audience.
3. The ludic-information and the new model of production and dissemination of news
on Internet
According to Seabra (2009), the term ludic-information means “the use of playful
elements in the narrative of the story to attract user attention for the information
available in video game media. The newsgames, therefore, inform and educate having
fun, having ludic-information as a substrate and not limited to the mere reproduction of
virtual reality as a hobby.
In the new directions of the Online Journalism, the newsgames bring an innovative
approach in which the news is formatted differently through ludic-informations,
subverting the traditional notion of an inverted pyramid used on Web pages that,
according to Palacios (2003), work with access links to various inverted pyramids.
Salaverría (1999) had already noticed that the technique of the inverted pyramid does
not stand more alone in cyberspace.
Seabra (2009) suggested in his studies about newsgames a tetrad to explain the new
value added by them to the way we produce and disseminate news on Internet. In this
model, newsgames perform four main functions: extension - interactivity in ludic and
horizontal supports and networks of nano-audience of readers/news producers;
subversion – journalism of nano-social agenda with playfulness inherent to the medium
as opposition to the traditional journalism; recovery - recover the playful essence of the
relationship between reader/user and information content; obsolescence - deepens the
story and presents new aspects of a news event.
Seabra (2009) notes that it’s not a mere news remediation (alternative form of
distribution and consumption) – it’s a new form of production, circulation and
consumption of news media through ludic-informations. In relation to the six
characteristics of online journalism proposed by Palacios (2003), Seabra (2009) added
another one: the playfulness inherent in the media, whose differential (for fun or
entertainment) assured newsgames unique factor when compared to other media
genres (information and interpretive opinion) and other forms of production, circulation
and consumption of news on the Web.
In the narrative of ludic-informative newsgames, games not only communicate
messages, but also simulate experiences. Although they are often thought just as a
leisure activity, newsgames can also become rhetorical tools.
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