Video games in the context of screen technoculture and media education: new rhetorical strategies and educational potential
Authors:   Lipetsk State Pedagogical University named after P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shan, Belyaev Dmitriy A. , Belyaeva Ulyana P. ,   Lipetsk State Pedagogical University named after P.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shan
Published: January 2022

Video games have become a prominent part of on-screen technoculture today, breaking the purely entertaining social labelling framework. They contribute to the generation of new social activities, and also become an innovative media space for the explication of artistic and aesthetic values, political meanings and educational practices. The aim of the study is the reconstruction and analysis of the cultural constitution of video games, revealing the features of their screen rhetorical capabilities, as well as revealing the educational potential of gamification practices and Digital Game Based Learning strategies. This is intended to form the competence-thematic framework of video games as a platform for modern media education. The methodological basis of the work is the cultural-historical and dialectical approaches, as well as the methods of systemic and structural-functional analysis. The study made it possible to trace the genesis of the cultural formation of video games, which demonstrated many strategies for their integration into the space of mass media culture. The main rhetorical models implemented in video games are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the comprehensive consideration of procedural rhetoric as an original way of convincing the user through gameplay, interactive involvement in virtual practices. The foundations of the practice of gamification and the strategy of Digital Game Based Learning in education are considered. It identifies the possibilities of gamification as an innovative methodology for organizing incentives and rewards, and also identifies the range of difficulties and risks of total gamification of the educational process. Based on the results of the study, it was determined that video games use an original complex of rhetorical techniques that combine both traditional audiovisual formats of narrative, characteristic of other on-screen media, and procedural-interactive techniques. They made it possible to directly integrate the user into virtual narratives, turning them from a passive recipient into an actor. The importance of gamification as a tool for building strategies of internal stimulation with elements of entertaining practices in the dynamics of learning is also revealed, which increases the effectiveness of education. It has been revealed the significant educational potential of video games as a promising media platform in the framework of the implementation of the Digital Game Based Learning strategy. They can act both as carriers of knowledge and as a virtual environment for the formation of competencies in the field of history, economics, literature and social management. Procedural and rhetorical tools allow a person to become a part of an interactive scenario, which greatly increases the likelihood of assimilating information and developing professional skills.