Game Frame Research Articles

Gaming the conflict: Fursan Al-Aqsa’s narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle and its reception through moral disengagement

This study explores Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (developed by Nidal Nijm Games in 2022) highlighting its role in the portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a paradigm between propaganda and entertainment. By examining the game’s discourse, and its impact on player perceptions, this research sheds light on how video games can shape understanding and engagement with geopolitical issues. The research utilises Albert Bandura’s concept of moral disengagement to analyse the game’s content and its reception on platforms like Twitch and YouTube. By assessing how the game frames moral considerations through its narrative and gameplay, this study reveals the potential of digital games to affect player perceptions and contribute to the broader media landscape surrounding political issues. The analysis also explores the reception and re-interpretation of the game by players and content creators, thus offering insights into the complex interplay between video game content, ideological influence, and audience engagement.

Exploring the impact of game framing on the motivational appeal of persuasive strategies and their effectiveness in behaviour change games

ABSTRACT To enhance the persuasiveness of behaviour-change games, designers employ persuasive strategies. These persuasive strategies are intended to motivate the users towards the desired behaviours. Hence, the motivational appeal of these persuasive strategies can play an important role in the effectiveness of these behaviour-change games. Furthermore, research has shown that game framing can impact its effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to understand how the type of framing employed in the game impacts the effectiveness of persuasive strategies and their motivational appeal. To advance research in this direction, this paper explores the relationship between the perceived effectiveness of four popular persuasive strategies (reward, competition, praise and suggestion) and their motivational appeal in a persuasive game for healthy eating across the three different game framings: gain-framing, loss-framing or gain-loss-framing. In a study of 371 participants, our results revealed that all the persuasive strategies were perceived to be significantly effective across all game-framing versions. We also discovered that game framing had varying significant impacts on the relationship between the perceived effectiveness of persuasive strategies and their motivational appeal. We conclude by offering some insights on how to implement persuasive strategies to design games with better persuasive motivational appeal.

Stability and consistency for networked multiagent systems with double-Layered game under multiple DoS attacks

In this paper, the stability and consistency are researched for networked multiagent system (NMAS) with double-layered game under multiple denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Concretely, a cooperative game is applied to model the coordination among DoS attackers in the cyber-layer. Meanwhile, a choice scheme based on the Pareto front is introduced to obtain an optimum power distribution that the DoS attackers expect to be consistent. A Stackelberg game frame is developed to simulate the interactions among DoS attackers and agents. Sufficient conditions that can achieve stability and consistency for NMAS are proposed. Eventually, the significance of the scheme is verified through simulation outcomes.

A Predictive Frame Transmission Scheme for Cloud Gaming in Mobile Edge Cloudlet Systems

Cloud gaming is promising yet poses big challenges to wireless communications, due to its stringent requirements for low latency and high reliability. In this paper, we propose a predictive frame transmission scheme (PFT) in cloud gaming, to predict and pre-transmit future game frames to users. The PFT scheme takes full advantage of good network states to transmit the predicted frames, which consequently reduces the frame loss rate (FLR) against the network dynamics. We firstly model a FLR minimization problem with the PFT scheme, that allocates packets to carry the predicted frames. The upper and lower bounds of FLR are derived respectively. Then, we study the system with Markovian property, and derive the optimal packet allocation policy via Markov Decision Process. We further propose a near-optimal and low-complexity policy. Finally, we extend the policy to fit the scenario without direct knowledge of the network state by exploiting the packet loss rate estimation. We set up a practical testbed to evaluate the proposed PFT scheme, showing the capability of decreasing the mean FLR from 7% to 1%.

Preferences for honesty can support cooperation

AbstractMany collective action problems are inherently linked to honesty. By deciding to behave honestly, people contribute to solving the collective action problem. We use a laboratory experiment from two sites (n = 331 and n = 319) to test whether honest preferences can drive cooperation and whether these preferences can be differentially activated by framing. Subjects participate in an asymmetric information variant of the public goods game in one of two treatments that vary only in their wording: The Contribution Frame uses a standard public good game framing, while in the Honesty Frame, words aimed to trigger honesty are used. We measure subjects' honesty in three ways using the (i) sender–receiver task, (ii) the die‐roll task, and (iii) self‐reported honesty levels and account for other‐regarding preferences and social norms to disentangle key alternative motives. We find that all three measures of honesty preferences robustly predict contributions, as do other‐regarding preferences and empirical expectations but not normative expectations. Additionally, honesty preferences predict contributions in the Honesty Frame but not in the Contribution Frame, although the difference between these is not consistently significant. Finally, we find no differences in average cooperation across the treatments.

Building extreme right discourses on Twitter for non-campaign periods: insights from populist leaders across Europe

The growing success of extreme right-wing populist parties changed the political state of play in Europe, which has been widely studied by the literature. Populist parties apply a particular communication style, based on simple and non-mediated messages on social media that promote distrust in public institutions. However, the ways in which these strategies are applied for non-campaigns weeks remain little addressed by academia, as well as its development in small countries. This study examines how far-right leaders from European countries with different sizes and historical extremist backgrounds used Twitter during a non-campaign period (29 September 2020 to 28 February 2021). Specifically, we analyze the issues (issue frame), strategies (game frame), and propaganda mechanisms employed through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample includes the messages posted on Twitter (n=1346) by the leaders of the main far-right parties in France (Rassemblement National), Austria (FPÖ), Germany (AfD), Spain (Vox), and Portugal (Chega!). A manual content analysis was applied, allowing comparison of countries with different traditions regarding the Extreme Right. The results show a common pattern of anti-migration messages as the main topic for their communication style, but some differences are found in terms of agenda and propaganda. The most recent parties (AfD, Vox, and Chega!) rarely use Twitter tools, which means leaving behind the interactive capacity of social media; meanwhile, the agenda is less thematic in the Austrian and Portuguese cases. Our research contributes to discussions about the communication practices of far-right populist parties in Europe, identifying trends by country as the binary opposition between the people and the elite is not expressed through the same type of propaganda.

Print Media Framing of the Olympic Games Before Canadian Referendums: The Cases of Calgary 2026 and Vancouver 2010

This study used a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative thematic analysis to explore how the Olympic Games were framed in print media prior to two Canadian Winter Olympic referendums. Content-analysis results showed that the salient topics and the tone of newspaper articles were framed more positively prior to the successful Vancouver 2010 referendum compared with the unsuccessful Calgary 2026 referendum. The thematic analysis indicated four themes. First, news discourse emphasized the importance of Olympic vision that is congruent with host city needs. Second, the prominence of health promotion through sport as a reported theme was more associated with a successful bid. Third, the communication and quantification of intangible benefits were reported to be increasingly important so that the value of the Olympics can be assessed fairly against the ever-burgeoning hosting costs. Finally, the Olympic brand has been deteriorating, at least over the last 15–16 years according to print media. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Generosity during COVID-19: investigating socioeconomic shocks and game framing

This paper investigates two research questions. First, we examine the impact of the negative socioeconomic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic on generosity towards different types of recipients, and changes in generosity as the shock worsens over time. This is carried out by analysing the responses of 1255 US citizens to four dictator games played over 8 weeks of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, corresponding to four different recipients: relatives, neighbours, strangers, and the state. Second, we investigate whether the order in which the games are played create a framing effect that influences social preferences in terms of generosity towards the different recipients. Results capture an increase in generosity despite the worsening pandemic, indicating strong perceived increasing marginal benefits of generosity in times of hardship. There is significant heterogeneity in the effects of additional regressors, such as perceived contagion risk, on the likelihood and amount donated to strangers, family members, or the government. At the same time, some significant effects of framing bring new evidence regarding the stability of social preferences.

Honesty Among Lawyers: Moral Character, Game Framing, and Honest Disclosures in Negotiations

Lawyers have broad discretion in deciding how honestly to behave when negotiating. We propose that lawyers’ choices about whether to disclose information to correct misimpressions by opposing counsel are guided by their moral character and their cognitive framing of negotiation. To investigate this possibility, we surveyed 215 lawyers from across the United States, examining the degree to which honest disclosure is associated with lawyers’ moral character and their tendency to frame negotiation in game‐like terms—a construal of negotiation that we label game framing. We hypothesize that the more that lawyers view negotiation through a game frame—that is, the more they view negotiation as an adversarial context with arbitrary and artificial rules—the less honest they will be in situations in which honest disclosure is not mandated by professional rules of conduct. We further hypothesize that lawyers with higher levels of moral character will apply a game frame to negotiation to a lesser degree than will lawyers with lower levels of moral character, and that honesty when negotiating will be higher when lawyers have higher versus lower levels of moral character. Our study results support these hypotheses. This work suggests that focusing on game‐like aspects of negotiation can induce a less moral and ethical mindset. To the extent that teaching law students to “think like a lawyer” encourages them to adopt a game frame of negotiation, we can expect such training to reduce the likelihood of honest disclosure.

When Politicians Meet Experts: Disinformation on Twitter About Covid-19 Vaccination

The Covid-19 vaccination has meant a huge challenge for crisis communication. After months of lockdowns, mass vaccination was a silver lining moment, but it was under threat from disinformation boosted by misinformation on social media. This research explores how opinion leaders among political leaders and health experts used Twitter to create and manage messages about the vaccination process. Specifically, we show the issues (issue frame) and strategies (game frame) applied by these actors. This study employs a corpus on the words “Covid-19” and “vaccines” used on Twitter by the heads of government and 10 recognized health experts (two for each country) in the US, the UK, France, Portugal, and Spain. We also analyze the accounts of fact-checking projects on those countries (@PolitiFact, @FullFact, @decodeurs, @JornalPoligrafo, and @maldita). The sample allows the comparison of countries with different political cultures that participated differently in the production of vaccines. The data were captured from the beginning of the vaccination drive (December 14th, 2020) until most of the population above 60 were vaccinated (May 14th, 2021). A manual content analysis was performed on the tweets (n = 2,607). The results illustrate that the politicians mostly disagreed with experts regarding issues and strategies. This finding can foster distrust in the elites and, therefore, threatens the long-term success of a public health campaign. Our study contributes to discussions on the role of networks for social cohesion, arguing that the public conversation on Twitter about the vaccination has revealed high levels of controversy.

Exploring Populism in Times of Crisis: An Analysis of Disinformation in the European Context during the US Elections

Electoral contests around the world are suffering from an increasing distrust triggered by the dissemination of conspiracy theories. Extant research on political communication has largely studied this phenomenon, but, in some cases, it has neglected the relationship between social and legacy media in the breakthrough of a radicalized populism. Based on a wide literature review of liberal democracy and the roots of populism, this study addresses the right-wing populist communicative actions as one of the causes of the fragmentation of the democratic system, defining a journalistic and fact-checking standard to promote a well-informed society. Specifically, our research focus is to illustrate the impact of populist rhetoric on the traditional media system through a multiple-case study applied in European countries affected by right-wing populist discourse following the last United States elections (2020). The results show a connection among the strategies (game frames) used on Twitter, being less clear in the number of retweets and the presence on the front pages of newspapers. These data serve as a guide to build a journalistic indicator, arguing that high-quality information could be the key for democratic systems to minimize populist rhetoric and tackle the disinformation that endangers their future.

Polityka jako gra strategiczna – ramowanie polskich wyborów 2019 w telewizyjnych programach informacyjnych

The research on the information media coverage of elections deals with a concept of strategic game framing. Despite the major importance of the media in elections, there are few systematic research on the media framing in Poland. Using a content analysis of two television news programmes, the goal of the study was to evaluate the frequency of strategic game framing in comparison with issue framing and to test the hypothesis about the relationship between application of the frames and different ownership types in the media (public vs private). The findings show a key role of strategic game framing in the news programmes covering European Parliamentary elections and Parliamentary elections of 2019 in Poland and refute the hypothesis that ownership type of media predicts the frequency of analysed frames.

TikTok and the new language of political communication

Introduction: Political parties struggle to reconnect to Young people by using social networks. Acknowledging that 2020 has been the year of TikTok, most Spanish political parties have joined this social network: Podemos, with 191.400 followers and 3.1 million likes, is the most followed political party on this platform. Method: Using multimodal content analysis, this paper aims at analyzing how the party is using this social network, and for which purposes, placing the attention on how Podemos has adapted to TikTok specificities in terms of both language and technical affordances. Results: Results show that while the party perfectly adapts to TikTok’s specific language and technical affordances (special effects, etc.), instead of focusing on entertainment, the platform’s main genre, it uses TikTok as a showcase for political activities, failing in favoring a renovating relationship with users. However, politics is represented through the “game frame”, that is to say, dramatized as a battlefield between Good and Evil, which strengthens the populist dichotomous vision of the world, endorsing emotional response. Conclusion: In this sense, it is possible to conclude that, although Podemos mainly displays political content, this content falls into the category of politainment. Considering that present trends in usage rates suggest that the short-video format is the future of social media, we might expect an increase in politainmement content.

Selective eye-gaze augmentation to enhance imitation learning in Atari games

This paper presents the selective use of eye-gaze information in learning human actions in Atari games. Extensive evidence suggests that our eye movements convey a wealth of information about the direction of our attention and mental states and encode the information necessary to complete a task. Based on this evidence, we hypothesize that selective use of eye-gaze, as a clue for attention direction, will enhance the learning from demonstration. For this purpose, we propose a selective eye-gaze augmentation (SEA) network that learns when to use the eye-gaze information. The proposed network architecture consists of three sub-networks: gaze prediction, gating, and action prediction network. Using the prior 4 game frames, a gaze map is predicted by the gaze prediction network, which is used for augmenting the input frame. The gating network will determine whether the predicted gaze map should be used in learning and is fed to the final network to predict the action at the current frame. To validate this approach, we use publicly available Atari Human Eye-Tracking And Demonstration (Atari-HEAD) dataset consists of 20 Atari games with 28 million human demonstrations and 328 million eye-gazes (over game frames) collected from four subjects. We demonstrate the efficacy of selective eye-gaze augmentation compared to the state-of-the-art Attention Guided Imitation Learning (AGIL) and Behavior Cloning (BC). The results indicate that the selective augmentation approach (the SEA network) performs significantly better than the AGIL and BC. Moreover, to demonstrate the significance of selective use of gaze through the gating network, we compare our approach with the random selection of the gaze. Even in this case, the SEA network performs significantly better, validating the advantage of selectively using the gaze in demonstration learning.

No effect of partisan framing on opinions about the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Media critics frequently complain about the tendency of reporters to cover political news using partisan conflict or partisan game frames, which describe policy disagreement as sites of partisan conflict where the parties can score “wins” or “losses.” Such frames, thought to decrease trust and increase partisan polarization, may be particularly dangerous when used in the coverage of public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We report a survey experiment where 2,455 respondents were assigned to read coverage of the pandemic that was framed in non-partisan terms, in terms of partisan conflict, or as a game where one party was winning and the other losing. Contrary to expectations, we find no effect of these frames across a broad range of opinions about and actions related to the pandemic, with the exception of a small negative effect of partisan game-framed coverage on the desire to consume news about the pandemic. These results suggest that partisan framing may not have negative effects during a public health crisis or, alternately, that such effects are difficult to detect in real-time using traditional survey experiments.

How American Media Framed 2016 Presidential Election Using Data Visualization: The Case Study of the New York Times and the Washington Post

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to explore the role of data visualization in the media coverage of the 2016 presidential election in the United States focusing on data-visualization projects from the New York Times and the Washington Post. This research aims to examine how media coverage of the election has been framed with infographics through mixed methods analysis. Another part of this article presents an investigation of data journalists’ working routines and so-called boundary-work (Boyles, J. L., and E. Meyer. 2016. “Letting the Data Speak.” Digital Journalism 4 (7): 944–954. doi:10.1080/21670811.2016.1166063) by conducting interviews with data reporters. The mixed methods textual and visual analysis shows that framing the election as a game is still relevant for the election data reporting. Analysis of graphics before the election has demonstrated the prevalent game frame trend in data visualization pieces. However, this pattern has changed after the election with increased priority for the issue frame and policy coverage. Results have demonstrated that journalists tend to reinforce the game frame in the infographics. That phenomenon leads to a potential increase in political polarization and political skepticism. Analysis of the interviews with data journalists from two newsrooms shows that professional work routines affect their reporting and reinforce the detrimental influence of framing on the election coverage.

Impact of Trump’s Digital Rhetoric on the US Elections: A View from Worldwide Far-Right Populism

A time of turmoil and uncertainty is invading the public sphere. Under the framework of the 2020 US elections, populist leaders around the world supported Trump’s speech on Twitter, sharing a common ideology and language. This study examines which issues (issue frame), and strategies (game frame) framed the messages of populism on Twitter by analyzing the equivalences through Trump’s storytelling and checking the bias of the media in the coverage of the US elections. We selected a sample of tweets (n = 1497) and digital front pages of global newspapers (n = 112) from the date of the Trump/Biden face-to-face debate (29 September 2020) until the Democratic party candidate was proclaimed the winner of the elections by the media (7 November 2020). Using a content analysis method based on triangulation (quantitative and qualitative-discursive), we analyzed the Twitter accounts of five leaders (@realDonalTrump, @MLP_officiel, @matteosalvinimi, @Santi_ABASCAL, and @Jairbolsonaro) and five digital front pages (The New York Times, O Globo, Le Monde, La Repubblica, and El País). The results show that populist politicians reproduced the discourse of fraud and conspiracy typical of Trump’s politics on Twitter. The negative bias of the media was also confirmed, giving prominence to a rhetoric of disinformation that overlaps with the theory of populism.

Horse-race coverage (Election Campaign Coverage)

The term horse-race coverage refers to one of the most prominent types of election coverage (e.g., Schmuck et al., 2017) that strongly focuses on winners and losers (who is ahead?). Typically, it is related to opinion polls and/or election outcomes. Quite often also “a language of war or games to describe the campaign” (Aalberg et al., 2012, p. 167) is involved in this kind of news stories, although – in a narrow sense – this aspect does not seem to be an essential part of the concept of horse-race coverage (e.g., Banducci & Hanretty, 2014). Regarding the conceptual definitions, a development in the terminology may be noticed: “The original horse race news became part of the game frame which was later discussed as part of the strategy frame.” (Aalberg et al., 2012, p. 166) In other words, the term ‘game frame’ is sometimes used synonymously with ‘horse-race’ coverage (although some scholars discuss whether these concepts can actually be used synonymously; e.g., Banducci & Hanretty, 2014; de Vreese 2005; Valentino et al., 2001). Field of application/theoretical foundation: Horse-race coverage is a very popular concept that is analyzed in research on the media coverage of politics, especially in times of elections and election campaigns. References/combination with other methods of data collection: The analysis of horse-race coverage may be combined or compared with opinion polls and election outcomes. Furthermore, experimental studies that analyze potential effects of the horse-race coverage on recipients (e.g., political cynicism) exist (e.g., Lavrakas et al., 1991; Valentino et al., 2001). Example: Although often analyzed, the operationalization of horse-race coverage in quantitative content analyses differs. Aalberg et al. (2012) review existing concepts and operationalizations and provide a set of coding instructions, which are cited below. Coding instructions (direct quotation) by Aalberg et al. (2012, p. 177): Game frame [respectively horse-race coverage] Does the story deal with opinion polls and politicians’ or parties’ standing in the polls? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story at least once mentions opinion polls and the standing of political parties or individual candidates in these. Coders should also type 1 if the news story includes references to generic ‘polls’ or ‘the opinion’ and the standing of political parties or candidates according to ‘polls’ or ‘the opinion’. Otherwise coders should type 0. Does the story deal with politicians, parties or other actors in relation to potential election outcomes and/or coalitions/government formation? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story reports or speculates about election results or government/coalition formations. Otherwise coders should type 0. Does the story deal with politicians, parties or other actors winning or losing (elections, debates or in general)? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story at least once refers to whether politicians, parties or other actors are winning or losing with respect to elections, debates or in general. Otherwise coders should type 0. Does the story make use of a language of sports or war? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story at least once makes use of a language of sports and war, such as battle, competition, winning, or fight. Only exempted expression is ‘campaign’. Otherwise coders should type 0.

Legacy and sustainability in the Olympic Movement’s new norm era: when reforms are not enough

ABSTRACT In times when cities around the world are withdrawing from consideration to host the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has responded by enacting policy reforms. Entitled Olympic Agenda 2020: 20 + 20 Recommendations, we examine forty recommendations through the lens of critical policy analysis. Specifically, we use Strittmatter et al.’s framework of legitimation strategies in policy formulation and implementation to investigate the ways in which the use of sustainability and legacy terminology is employed in the process of legitimating the IOC today. Findings demonstrate two general legitimation strategies. One is the familiar framing of the Olympic Games in terms of sustainability and legacy with a new emphasis on the Games as an opportunity to integrate cities’ long-term planning needs into bidding and hosting the event. The second focus asserts the Olympic Movement’s global leadership role in sport in the context of sport itself being depicted as a leading social institution in making meaningful social change. In this paper, we detail these legitimation strategies and offer commentary related to the need for the IOC to use this policy reform process to move beyond rhetoric alone to embed meaningful and measurable accountability standards in the hosting process.

No Trust vs. Some Trust in a Game Framed as Trust or Investment: Avoiding the Distrustor

Purpose: The study aimed at examining how observing a person showing no trust or some trust, in interaction framed as a trust or an investment, influences two variables: anticipated dissatisfaction from cooperating with the trustor and willingness to avoid such a person in future cooperative tasks. Additionally, the perception of the trustor and anticipated feelings in the role of the trustee were analyzed. Methodology: A scenario describing the trust game framed as trust or investment was used in the study. Participants (N = 166) were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions: 2 (amount sent in the game: zero vs. one-tenth of the endowment) x 2 (game framing: trust vs. investment) and after reading the scenario made three types of evaluations: (1) their feelings in the position of the trustee from the scenario; (2) the trustor’s sociability, morality, and competence and (3) anticipated dissatisfaction from cooperating with the trustor in the future, and finally (4) willingness to avoid the trustor in future interactions. Results: Interaction effects were found for evaluations of anticipated dissatisfaction from cooperating with the trustor and willingness to avoid the trustor in future interactions. Observing sending nothing in the trust game framed as trust, rather than investment, resulted in stronger anticipated dissatisfaction from cooperating in the future with the trustor, and stronger willingness to avoid such a person as a partner for cooperation. Moreover, independent of the framing of the game, in condition of no trust, participants reported stronger negative feeling when imagining themselves in the role of the trustee and perceived the trustor as less sociable and less competent. Surprisingly, the perception of trustor’s morality did not differ across the conditions. Conclusions: Observing distrust, particularly when the interaction is interpreted in social terms as trust, rather than in economic ones as non-investing, with all other aspects of the situation the same, results in different attitude towards the distrustor on the side of observers. Distrust, in comparison to just non-investing, evokes in observers a stronger propensity to avoid such the distrustor as a partner for cooperation and lowers their anticipated satisfaction from cooperation with him/her.