Let's Play: Exploring Literacy Practices in an Emerging Videogame Paratext

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Let's Play: Exploring Literacy Practices in an Emerging Videogame Paratext
Language: English
Authors: Burwell, Catherine, Miller, Thomas
Source: E-Learning and Digital Media. May-Jul 2016 13(3-4):109-125.
Availability: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 17
Publication Date: 2016
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Evaluative
Descriptors: Video Games, Literacy, Educational Practices, Educational Games, Web 2.0 Technologies, Computer Mediated Communication, Online Systems, Social Media, Educational Technology, Teaching Methods
DOI: 10.1177/2042753016677858
ISSN: 2042-7530
Abstract: This article explores the literacy practices associated with Let's Play videos (or LPs) on YouTube. A hybrid of digital gaming and video, LPs feature gameplay footage accompanied by simultaneous commentary recorded by the player. Players may set out to promote, review, critique or satirize a game. In recent years, LPs have become hugely popular with young audiences, and currently make up over half the top hundred channels on YouTube. The authors identify LPs as emerging videogame paratexts with pedagogical potential. In particular, they ask how LPs function as sites of new literacies. They answer that question by discussing two key characteristics of LP practices: their emphasis on processes of meaning-making within games; and their mobilization of literacies associated with remix and appropriation. The final section of the article explores how LP practices might inform literacy instruction in schools.
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 60
Entry Date: 2016
Accession Number: EJ1123687
Database: ERIC
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