Serious Games as Strategic Communication Tools: An Analytic Framework for the Study of Digital Games in Public Relations Research

Abstract

ABSTRACT Organizations are increasingly using digital games as strategic communication tools for achieving public relations goals. Yet limited extant research examines them as such. This article proposes a definition of the term strategic communication games, and presents an analytic framework composed of four levels – The Organization, The Game, The Dissemination Process, and The Game Playing Public – relevant to their study. Extant research on digital games that are used to achieve organizational goals has focused on the effects of gameplay on an individual player. Alternatively, the framework proposed in this article positions such games within a broader process in which meaning making that is relevant to game outcomes happens across four levels.