Jogos de Mesa contra Fake News: Digital media literacy in analogue contexts

Concerns about contemporary (digital) media literacy are increasingly prominent. Where digital solutions are often proposed, inequalities of access to technology and related infrastructure create barriers to delivering media literacy training. The objective of this pilot study in Brazil was to explore the potential for non-digital solutions, with a focus on analogue games as an approach to combating fake news and mis-/disinformation. In this project, educators and schoolteachers attended six workshops delivered by game studies researchers, in which participants learned how to use games to extend the media literacy of themselves and others. Discussions about making games encouraged participants to explore their media literacy expertise and to refine it by reflecting on media literacy as a systematic and mechanical challenge. We conclude that, distinct from approaches that use games and gameplay as vehicles for learning, this perspective focuses on thinking with and through games rather than simply learning from them.