Dark Ride: Disneyland. Using educational games for critical media literacy education
Year of production: 2020
Image is illustrative. By Capricorn song on Unsplash.
This article describes Dark Ride: Disneyland – a mobile game that encourages Disneyland guests to critically consider Disney’s representations of history, culture, and technology. The game was the creation of a group of faculty, students and professionals associated with Brigham Young University. The article contextualizes the game and its development in relation to concepts including media as public pedagogy, critical inquiries of place, critical and creative
media literacy, creative production as research, and educational videogames. It reviews the project’s objective to foster critical reflection and creativity among those involved in developing the game and hopefully to extend
media literacy education to the broader public. It summarizes the development of the game itself and describes the its narrative and mechanics. The article concludes with some initial findings from the experience based on responses from those involved in the project and a discussion about the potential for using educational games for critical
media literacy education.
Recommended Citation
Thevenin, B. (2020). Dark Ride: Disneyland. Using educational games for critical media literacy education. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 12(1), 100-122. https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2020-12-1-8