Focus Group

28 people aged 11-16 watched 20 minutes of footage from Fallout 3 (a game that features segments of very intense violence).

Mock: Question 1

Plan:

Introduction- Establish question, name textual analysis (Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Fallout 3)

Name method of resarch (eg: google [search Violent games cause violence]), What source does it give me (secondary/academic/varied), number of hits (395'000)

Answer:

My topic is Crime in the Media with the hypothesis Does the desensitization of violence in video games encourage people to commit crime?

The texts I decided to analyze were two 18 certificate games and one 15 certificate: Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Call of Duty: World at War.

My first method of research was to use the search engine Google to try and get a wide range of secondary sources to draw information from. I typed Violent games cause violence into the search bar and was presented with 395'000 results. From looking at the first few results I found I had a mix of academic and more public/popular opinion and criticism. Two results caught my attention; the first was http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/goldstein.html which is an academic secondary article and the other was http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723 a popular opinion article. Both articles spoke against the idea that games cause violence and were very good sources as one provided me with a scientific view point from a recognised proffesor and the other (although biased) provided me with a number of obvious points speak against my hypothesis. I accessed both these sites through google on November 6th 2008.

After finding two very different sources that oppose my hypothesis I decided to look up Jack Thompson on Wikipedia as I had heard of his campaign against violent media in the past. Although the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(attorney)#Disbarment_proceedings (accessed November 17th 2008) did give me plenty of information on Jack Thompson and his work it gave me very little information to support my hypothesis; It simply gave me a few points on which Thompson based his campaign (Need to mention type of theory he seems to follow).

After using websites I decided to look into another source by using newspapers. Using the archive section of my local library I found an old issue of the Daily Mail (April 30th 2008) which had a story of a stabbing outside a game store during the midnight launch of Grand Theft Auto 4. Although there is no real evidence to support the idea that games cause violence the article does present many connections and it is presented in a clear and professional manner.

I then decided to follow up the newspaper source with book sources; Contexts (by Karen Sternheimer) and Studying Videogames (by Julian McDougall & Wayne O'Brien). Contexts generally contradicts my theory and simply writes off games influencing violence as nothing more then a scapegoat. Studying Videogames (page 59, Chapter 3) gives views and evidence for both sides of the argument. 

After reading up on several secondary sources I decided to look into getting my own primary sources. A chose three games that all contain extreme violence to analyse and see if any of them had content that could influence users. 

I first decided to analyze the game Call of Duty: World at War to gain a certain level of perspective on the matter of extreme content in games and how necessary it is for the experience. CoD:WaW  is a WW2 game based within real battles and situations, it uses a very detailed gore engine that allows character models to be mutilated horrifically; limbs blown off, organs exposed by explosions and other such movie grade violence. However unlike other games that would feature this violence CoD was only certificate 15 rather then 18. This is because the violence within the game is pivotal in painting a realistic picture of real world events. I'm using this game as a case study because it will give me a certain level of perspective on my other case studies that use violence as nothing more then a feature from which to enhance and sell the game and let me see why there would be a different level of psychological influence. 

Next I decided to look at a more questionably violent game to get a complete contrast to CoD:WaW. The game I decided to look at was Gears of War 2 by doing two comparison play sessions with myself and someone else. Analyzing GoW2 from two different points of view gave an idea of how desensitizing regular exposure to violent media can be. 

The results I got from the binary player study of Gears of War 2 has strong elements of the Culmination Theory. it is also very similar to a Research study conducted by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman which seems to rely on the idea of Culmination Theory. However my analysis of GoW2 could also follow the theory of Reception Analysis because both of us took different thoughts and feelings from the play through.

For my final textual analysis I created a focus group to study the effect of violence in Fallout 3 on a varied sample of users. The sample consisted of 28 people aged 11-16 who were given a questionnaire asking them there age and how much they play videogames. The rest of the questions resolved around what they thought of the violence and how it made them feel. The reason I used 11-16 year olds for a game certified 18 was because most of the media focus of violent crimes caused by games is committed by youths too young to be playing the games. 

As well as textual analysis for my own primary sources I thought that emailing the makers of these more violent games to ask why they feel the need to implement such content and to see whether or not they think there is any truth behind such theories. I emailed Bethesda games Studios and Epic games asking them about their opinions and experiences involving violence in video games. Epic failed to reply and Bethesda simply said they couldn't comment at this time; both emails were sent on December 6th 2008.                                                                                        

Hypodermic Syringe- old and out dated

Two Step Flow

Culmination Theory- This is the first stage of my research into my hypothesis. This theory in a nutshell suggests that if a person is subjected to the viewing of many violent films over the years it could effect there view on violence making them less sensitive to the aspect and effects of it or maybe even make them a violent person.

Uses and Gratifications- Blumler and Katz’s uses and gratification theory suggests that media users play an active role in choosing and using the media.  Users take an active part in the communication process and are goal oriented in their media use.  The theorist say that a media user seeks out a media source that best fulfills the needs of the user.  Uses and gratifications assume that the user has alternate choices to satisfy their need.

Reception Analysis

Notes for Exam

"Studying Videogames"

pg 59, chapter 3

"Contexts"- White, middle-class killers retain their status as children easily influenced by a game, victims of an allegedly dangerous product. African-American boys, apparently, are simply dangerous.

Jack Thompson

Cultural Policy-Recently, attention has turned toward the violence in video games. It seems reasonable to many people that if passively watching violence in movies and on television causes aggression, actively participating in violence in video games should have an even greater effect. Surely, so the argument goes, spending hours shooting images of various creatures and of human beings and watching them blow up, break apart, scream in pain, spew blood all over, and so on must have a harmful effect on those who play - it must teach them that violence is acceptable, that it is a way to deal with problems, perhaps make them insensitive to real violence, and thus cause them to be more aggressive and more violent themselves.

More notes

Jamie Bulger

Fallout 3 banning- real life drug references

Daily Mail- GTA4 stabbing

 

Bully- 

Reply: Bethesda Games Studios

I received a reply from Bethesda games:

We are sorry but that is not something we can commit to at this time. Thank
you for your interest.

What Other Sources I Need.

Primary Sources:

1. Focus group/Questionnaire 
2. Textual Analysis

Secondary Sources:

1. More Newspapers/Journals/Magazine

Jamie Bulger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Bulger

(4/12/08)

Does the desensitization of violence in video games encourage people to commit violent crime?

For years almost all forms of media entertainment have come under scrutiny and prosecution as a cause for real world violence.  In recent years video games have been the main focus of attention in the case that violent and aggressive media causes similar behaviour in real life.  However the whole debate has been rather shallow up to now, do violent video games really desensitize and as a result cause violent crime in the real world?

 

Jack Thompson campaigned against violent game content for years and believed them to be the source to mainly terrible crimes over the years…(more information)

 

However Karen Sternheimer (of the American Sociological Association) completely disagrees with the theories that people like Thompson supports and believes video games are just the new scape goat for people to assign blame to the horrendous acts commited by youths. Furthermore she also considers there to be racist undertones within this theory:

 

“White, middle-class killers retain their status as children easily influenced by a game, victims of an allegedly dangerous product. African-American boys, apparently, are simply dangerous.”

 

On April 30^th 2008 the Daily Mail reported on a stabbing that took place at the midnight launch of controversial game GTA4. A 23-year old man was stabbed outside the Gamestation store in Croydon while waiting in line for GTA4. Many witnessed believed the incident to be a publicity stunt for the game as "It was a scene straight from the game itself”. Although it is not stated whether or not the game was the reason for such an attack it is very possible it wasn’t just about someone influenced and desperate for a violent game as many people have been attacked and even killed at late night launches for popular products.

 

Also the violence alone cannot be the main cause for certain acts, other content such as drug use, glorification of criminal activity, etc have also been looked into for causing violence and make far more sense.

 

Even certain governments take the content in games far more seriously then others, like Australia who do not even have a “mature” or “18” rating for games. There content rating system only goes as high as 15 so as to limit the amount of “adult” content in games. Fallout 3, a game set in a post apocalyptic Washington DC after the world has been ravaged by nuclear war. The reason why the game was band was not because of its violence, its disturbing theme of the apocalypse but because of the use of real world drugs. Although the drugs don’t share the same names they have near identical visual look.

 

(Examples of video game crimes normally stem from people from unstable backgrounds)

(Jamie Bulger case- although not a game it is a key example of how the media may cause violent behaviour, although their backgrounds also make more sense for such an act.)

Of course video games are not the only form of media that has suffered critisim, movies have been a favourite of critics for the causes of violence. One example of this is the Jamie Bulger case where two boys killed a young child as a result of supposidley watching the film Childs Play 3 numerous times. Many opinions of several scare mongerers was that the film influenced the children to kill Jamie Bulger. However it is also understood that that both Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had very traumatic family backgrounds which more then likely contributed to the act they commited.

 

 

Ever since the release of games like Doom video games have been the target of much critisim and the popular theory that the violent media encourages its audience to violent crime. However over recent years that theory has been dismissed again and again by scientists and other specialists; the only real support for such a theory only comes from the news mediums looking for a story and an explanation for such horrible acts.

 

Friday Lecture Notes: Christia Van Raalte

I attended a lecture:

5 theories 

Operating procedures of the BBFC- Seven points: Theme, Language, Sex & Nudity, Violence, Imitable Techniques, Horror, Drugs.

General Media Violence- Child's Play 3 (The Jamie Bulger case) Was it the film or their family backgrounds.

Car Advert (poster)

Christia Van Raalte (Principle Lecturer)

The Great Censorship Debate

Passive/Active viewer- Passive (Take everything), Active (Take in only what they find interesting)