Digital Games as Social Environments
Media Education / Media Ethics Summit

Virtual worlds offer myriad opportunities to interact socially with others in a variety of ways. Whether playing together on a PC or home console, playing online with friends and strangers alike, or participating in e-sports events as spectators and contestants, digital games provide us with fertile ground for countless offline- and online-communities with unique social dynamics and rules, raising many questions about the specifics of these new social environments. What social and cultural norms are developed within them? How do these social spaces impact the players who participate in them? How do players integrate into these spaces in light of differences in age and background? What social conventions determine the interactions within these environments? Do racism and sexism play a role in these environments? How could these new social dynamics be successfully implemented in innovative media education projects? These questions and many others will be discussed at the media education summit titled “Digital Games as Social Environments” at the international Clash of Realities conference in 2016.

Speakers:
Angelika Beranek, Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften München & Sebastian Ring, jff
Kelly Boudreau, Brunel University London
Johannes Breuer, Albertus-Magnus-Universität zu Köln
Arno Görgen, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Eric Jannot, waza! Games, Niels Boehnke, Stiftung Digitale Spielekultur, Matthias Uzunoff, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
Michael Lanzinger, Johannes-Kepler-Universität Linz
Arne Schröder, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Miguel Sicart, IT University of Copenhagen
Ute Barbara Schilly, TH Köln
Christian Toth, Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
André Weßel, TH Köln
Emma Witkowski, School of Media and Communication RMIT University, Melbourne

See Schedule November 15, 2016

Contacts:
Angela Tillmann: angela.tillmann(at)th-koeln.de
André Weßel: andre.wessel(at)th-koeln.de