New Forms of Political Participation: Prospects for Newsgames

The article considers the phenomenon of newsgames as a new form of political participation and analyzes the prospects of their spread in Russia. Materials for the analysis are a secondary analysis of data presented in scientific publications, the author's research on the analysis of the dynamics of newsgames development in Russia, as well as materials of the research "Level, Quality, Fullness of Life - A New Index of Social Development", carried out by the Center for Sociological and Internet Research, Saint Petersburg State University, in March 2020. It is proved that newsgames represent a new form of political participation, since clicking on the "start game" button can be considered as participation in a specific voting organized by particular mass media on the issue of the problematic nature of news. Participation in the game is a variant of a non-public statement, expression of a personal position, it can be considered as an action that is performed by individual citizens intended to demonstrate their own mobilization. The features of newsgames as a form of political participation are determined by the specifics of their functioning environment (virtual environment) and the nature of the media (combination of news and game). Newsgames represent the trend of virtual political participation as opposed to its traditional forms, and they are also one of the manifestations of the gamification trend. This form of participation is one of the mechanisms that ensure the integration of individuals (at their wish) into the network and streaming structures of modern society, and at the same time act as a tool for latent mobilization and audience retention by the Internet media. The correspondence of newsgames to the forms of social organization of modern society - network and streaming structures - makes it possible to predict their potential demand in the nearest future. Newsgames, as a new form of news reporting, allows going beyond the boundaries of conventional informing, suggesting a gentle "recruitment" of individuals for the needs of modern capitalism and at the same time providing them with certain benefits. Despite the fact that Russian newsgames cannot be considered a significant form of political participation yet, they should still be taken into account when measuring and characterizing individuals' involvement in political networks and streams.