Economies of Engagement: Gamification and Platform Cultures
| Module title | Economies of Engagement: Gamification and Platform Cultures |
|---|---|
| Module code | CMM2016 |
| Academic year | 2025/6 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Dr Ad Deshbandhu (Convenor) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 11 |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 25 |
|---|
Module description
On this module you will explore how digital media platforms position themselves as services of content creation, curation, and information and find ways to capture and monetize global internet traffic. You will identify the building blocks of these platforms, services, and software, and examine the principles that govern them. By introducing ideas like gamification, platform cultures, creator cultures, and elements of immersion and engagement, the module highlights both the economic and societal implications of the global creator cultures that is beginning to codify as an industry. You will benefit by being able to both critically engage with engagement strategies used by contemporary media industries while also learning how to develop possible strategies for content designed for these platforms.
Module aims - intentions of the module
- To understand digital platforms, interactive environments, digital games, and gamification as socio-cultural artifacts and examine them as sites of interaction and engagement.
- To consider practices surrounding content creation, curation, gameplay, and platform activity as entry points to other societal and cultural concerns.
- To critically engage with notions of work, labour, play, leisure, gender, identity, performance, and the self when thinking about digital media platforms.
- To explore engagement and game-based extensions in everyday life - gamification, and game-based enhancements - from critical standpoints.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. Demonstrate understanding of digital platforms as socio-cultural artefacts, interactive environments, digital games, and gamification as acts of leisure and co-creation.
- 2. Demonstrate understanding of the labour that goes into making, promoting, and distributing content.
- 3. Demonstrate understanding of the underlying mechanics of digital media platforms and immersive environments and how they are applied to varying contexts like gamification.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 4. Apply knowledge of how platforms function to real time scenarios, strategies, and approaches.
- 5. Identify various components of a digital media product and explain how it is conceptualized and designed to engage with users.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 6. Demonstrate critical understanding of digital platforms to examine play but also extend to approaches of content creation.
- 7. Manage relevant learning resources, learning strategies and your own time confidently and independently.
Syllabus plan
This module introduces the idea of platform cultures, engagement economy, and grapples with dimensions of the affective economy. It will engage over its 11 weeks with aspects like:
- Political Economies of Digital Media Platforms
- Dynamics of content creation and modalities of content production
- Labour, work, and sustenance of platforms
- Theories and building for Engagement and Immersion
- Critical perspectives of gamification
- Introduction to playbour and the labour of users
- The inequalities in platform cultures
- Data and platform colonialism
- Digital exhaustion and the Digital detox
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 33 | 267 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 11 | 11 x 1-hour lectures |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 22 | 11 x 2-hour seminars |
| Guided Independent Study | 102 | Seminar preparation |
| Guided Independent Study | 165 | Research and assignment preparation |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reflective Journal | 1000 words | 1-7 | Verbal |
| Group Presentation Plan | 750 words or 10 slides | 1-4 | Verbal |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 75 | 0 | 25 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Portfolio (individual assessment) | 75 | 4,000 words equivalent (may include videos, audio clips, infographics, visualizations, etc.) | 1-7 | Written feedback |
| Group Presentation (group assessment) | 25 | 20 minutes (5 mins per student speaking time - group[ assessment) | 1-4 | Written feedback |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Portfolio | 4,000 words equivalent - may include videos, audio clips, infographics, visualizations, etc. (75%) | 1-7 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Individual Presentation | 5 minutes (25%) | 1-4 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Ørmen, J. and Gregersen, A., 2023. Towards the engagement economy: interconnected processes of commodification on YouTube. Media, Culture & Society, 45(2), pp.225-245.
Jarrett, K., 2022. Digital labor. John Wiley & Sons.
Poell, T., Nieborg, D.B. and Duffy, B.E., 2021. Platforms and cultural production. John Wiley & Sons.
Steinberg, M., Zhang, L. and Mukherjee, R., 2025. Platform capitalisms and platform cultures. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 28(1), pp.21-29.
Nieborg, D.B. and Poell, T., 2018. The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New media & society, 20(11), pp.4275-4292.
Nieborg, D.B. and Poell, T., 2018. The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New media & society, 20(11), pp.4275-4292.
Van Doorn, N., 2017. Platform labor: on the gendered and racialized exploitation of low-income service work in the ‘on-demand’economy. Information, communication & society, 20(6), pp.898-914.
Van Doorn, N. and Badger, A., 2020. Platform capitalism’s hidden abode: producing data assets in the gig economy. Antipode, 52(5), pp.1475-1495.
Gray, M.L. and Suri, S., 2019. Ghost work: How to stop Silicon Valley from building a new global underclass. Eamon Dolan Books.
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 5 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 07/02/2025 |
