Research published in scientific articles

My articles aim at an international audience. Hence, they are published in English in international, academic journals. Here, I briefly characterize a few recent articles. The complete list of my publications sits here (May 2021).

Recent articles and chapters

USER GENERATED CONTENT

Mosemghvdlishvili, L.M. & Jansz, J. (2018) Free your ‘most open’ Android: a comparative discourse analysis on Android. Critical Discourse Studies. DOI: 10.1080/17405904.2018.1554536

Van Eldik, A.K., Kneer, J., Lutkenhaus, R.O. & Jansz, J. (2019). Urban Influencers: An Analysis of Urban Identity in YouTube Content of Local Social Media Influencers in a Super-Diverse City. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02876

Yang, L., Mao, Y., & Jansz, J. (2018). Chinese Urban Hui Muslims’ Access to and Evaluation of Cardiovascular Diseases-Related Health Information from Different Sources. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 15(9), 2021-2027.

Jansz, J., Slot, M., Tol, S. & Verstraeten, R. (2015). Everyday Creativity: Consumption, Participation, Production, and Communication by Teenagers in The Netherlands. Journal of Children and Media, 9, 143-159, DOI: 10.1080/17482798.2015.1015433

Our large scale focus group study cataloged the diversity of online activities, including the ones amounting to creative production.

Mosemghvdlishvili, L. & Jansz, J. (2013). Negotiability of technology and its limitations: the politics of App development. Information, Communication & Society, 16(10), 1596-1618.

The emerging practice of app development for smartphones is analyzed using the perspective of Social Shaping of Technology.

Mosemghvdlishvili, L. & Jansz, J. (2013). Framing and praising Allah on YouTube: Exploring user-created videos about Islam and the motivations for producing them. New Media & Society, 15(4), 482-500.

YouTube is used as a platform for religious expression, as well as a platform for attacking Islam. We studied the overall message in videos tagged with ‘Islam’ and found a surprising balance between videos with a positive and a negative message.

GAMING

Jacobs, R.S., & Jansz, J. (2021). The present of persuasion: Research into persuasive game effects. In
Hera, T. de la et al. (Eds). Persuasive Gaming in Context (pp. 185-200). Amsterdam University
Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789463728805_ch10

Jacobs, R. S., Werning, S., Jansz, J., & Kneer, J. (2020). Procedural Arguments of Persuasive Games.
Journal of Media Psychology, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000278

Hafner, M., & Jansz, J. (2018). The Players‘ Experience of Immersion in Persuasive Games: A study of ‘My Life as a Refugee’ and ‘PeaceMaker’. International Journal of Serious Games, 5(4), 36-56. http://dx.doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v5i4.263

Van ‘t Riet, J., A.C. Meeuwes, L. van der Voorden, & J. Jansz (2018). Investigating the effects of a persuasive digital game on immersion, identification, and willingness to help. Basic & Applied Social Psychology, 40, 180-194. DOI: 10.1080/01973533.2018.1459301

The paper presents the effects of Against All Odds, which addresses the current refugee crisis. The paper is the result of a nice collaboration between the Radboud University and the EUR.

Neys, J. & Jansz, J. (2018). Engagement in play, engagement in politics: Playing political video games. In: Glas, R., Lammes, S., Lange, M. de, Raessens, J. and I. de Vries (Eds), The Playful Citizen. Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture (pp. 36-56). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

The chapter aims to show how digital games can be used to persuade an audience of a particular political cause. Our argument is embedded in theories on civic engagement and recent empirical research, including our own.

Van den Heede, P, C.R. Ribbens, & J. Jansz (2017). Replaying Today’s Wars? A Study of the Conceptualization of Post-1989 Conflict in Digital “War” Games. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 30, 1-22, DOI: 10.1007/s10767-017-9267-5

This is the result of the collaboration between historians Van den Heede and Ribbens and me. War games attract a large audience; in this paper we analyze how conflict is presented in the playful environment.

Jacobs, R.S., Jansz, J. & De La Hera, T. (2017). The Key Features of Persuasive Games: A Model and Case Analysis. In: Kowert, R. & Quandt, T. (Eds.), New Perspectives on the Social Aspects of Digital Gaming: Multiplayer 2. London: Routledge.

If we aim to persuade players, we need to know what game-properties are required. Our case based analysis of existing games highlights the importance of narrative persuasion and procedural persuasion.

Vosmeer, M., Jansz, J. & Van Zoonen, L. (2015). I’d like to have a house like that. Female players of The Sims. Academic Quarter. Journal for Humanistic Research, 11, 129-141.

A qualitative study showing how adult female players use the game to create ‘off time’ for themselves.

Neys, J., Jansz, J., & Tan, E.S.H. (2014). Exploring Persistence in Gaming: The Role of Self-Determination and Social Identity. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 196-209.

Self-determination theory is used to explain why many gamers continue to play in the face of insufficient reward and a lot of frustration. In addition to the motivations, their self-ascribed gamer identity turned out to be an important factor.

Neys, J. & Jansz, J. (2014). Games en Burgerschap [Games and Citizenship]. 4W: Weten Wat Werkt Waarom, 3(2), 22-29. 

The 4W online periodical by Dutch Kennisnet aims at a large audience of professionals in education. Our article briefly discusses the opportunities for using online games as tools for civic engagement. See also Neys & Jansz, 2010.

Reijmersdal, E.A. van, Jansz, J., G. van Noort & O. Peters (2013). Why girls go pink. Game character identification and game-players’ motivations. Computers in Human Behavior 29, 2640–2649.

Our second paper about GoSuperModel. The previous one (2010) investigated the successes of brand placement in the game. This one aims at understanding why the girls were attracted to the game and to what extent they identified with the avatars.

MEDIA & EMOTION

Jansz, J. (2015). Playing out Identities and Emotions. In: V. Frissen et al. (Eds.), Playful Identities. The Ludification of Digital Media Cultures (pp. 267-281). Amsterdam: AUP.

The focus of this chapter is on the opportunities offered by entertainment games to experiment with emotions and identity. Including the ones that are rare, or even abject in daily life.

Von Engelhardt, J. & Jansz, J (2015). Distant suffering: the mediation of humanitarian disaster. In: Anderson, R. (Ed.). World Suffering and Quality of Life (pp. 75-87). Springer Social Science Indicators Research Series. New York: Springer.

We present a conceptual model to analyze the responses of Western media audiences to images of distant suffering. We aim to challenge the ‘compassion fatigue’ thesis.