AbstractsPolitical Science

Video game trailers are simultaneously scrutinized and overlooked. Both game fans and the gaming industry invest huge amounts of time and money into video game trailers, yet few outside the community pay notice. Media critics, film critics, and game studies scholars have little to say about video game trailers. This critical oversight has political consequences. To paraphrase Langdon Winner, our understanding of new media and new technology affects our lived experience of that media and technology. And as modern technology continues to outpace itself, society struggles to navigate an ever larger pool of new cultural forms. Looking specifically at video game trailers, I argue that audiences approach new media through both formal history and social literacy. Using Lisa Kernan's work on film trailers as a guide, I trace a history of the trailer from pre-cinematic appeals, to motion picture previews, and finally to video game trailers. Comparing film trailers to game trailers, I argue that game trailers often offer audiences greater interpretive flexibility. Following Gee's work on video games and semiotic domains, I argue that audiences read game trailers through particular affinity groups. Moreover, as Gee emphasizes, these readings are inherently political. Building on Jenkins' work with fan communities, I look at the political implications of competing literacies. I argue that fan-made trailers and other means of digital representation offer an alternative to mainstream political representation; this new literacy is a playful demonstration of cultural and technical mastery that is situated and local, yet well aware of global voices.