Narrative Journalism As a Design Framework for Newsgames

Newsgames integrate journalism and digital game design to communicate news through interactive storytelling. This study examines how narrative journalism can function as a design framework for newsgames by exploring how its storytelling techniques—such as characterisation, scene construction, and narrative structure—can inform the design of interactive journalistic experiences while maintaining factual integrity. Using a narrative literature review, the research synthesises scholarship from journalism studies, narrative theory, and game studies to analyse how narrative structures and gameplay systems shape the communication of news in digital games. The paper proposes a conceptual model that integrates narrative journalism and newsgames with Symbolic Interaction Theory (SIT) and the Values at Play (VAP) heuristic, providing a theoretical framework for interactive journalistic storytelling. Within this framework, gameplay operates as a narrative structure through which players engage with journalistic content by interacting with simulated environments, characters, and decision-making processes. The analysis indicates that the communicative capacity of newsgames depends on how journalistic information is embedded within gameplay mechanics and narrative systems, where interactivity, player agency, and ethical design shape how audiences interpret complex social and political issues. The study concludes that newsgames function as interactive narrative systems of journalism, in which gameplay serves as a storytelling mechanism that enables audiences to engage with news through participation and interpretation. By positioning narrative journalism as a design framework for interactive news experiences, this research contributes a theoretical foundation for analysing and developing narrative-driven newsgames.