Political Theme's Game in New Media

In an environment of constantly developing digital technologies, the political consultants have to use new and effective methods to influence the electorate consciousness to achieve advantages in the struggle for political power. Modern digital games in new media are a rapidly developing technology, of dissemination of political information. This is a very promising but under-researched field for the way of political communication. The purpose of the study is the analysis of the diversity of options of political theme’s digital games and methods of their use in the political-communicative interaction with the audience. During the study, we considered the game as a cultural phenomenon, and identified the possibilities of the method of gamification as a tool of interaction with the audience; defined the role and place of gaming techniques in the structure of political communication; identified the existing options of political theme’s games in new medias; studied the concept of political theme’s "newsgames" and proposed a classification of its main varieties; analyzed ways of using digital games in Russian and foreign political campaigns, and outlined the perspectives for further development of this method. In this research work we have assumed that this kind of digital games have not only entertainment functions. Through a variety of options, it can become a technology of political influence on the user and being a conscious method of political-communicative influence on him. Summing up all the facts that were researched during our study, we concluded that the hypothesis is confirmed: political theme’s digital games can not only attract the audience by using the method of gamification, but can also be a tool of suggesting to the audience certain ideas, connotations and associations.