Can a Violent Video Game Create a Violent Behaviour?
 |
| From: http://www.techspot.com/article/629-do-video-games-make-you-violent/ |
It is my opinion that video games play an important role in children's behaviour. This is because in the act of playing the individual becomes a virtual character, and they feel like they enter a virtual world and are active in what they do. A lot of video games have been said to ‘cause' unwanted behaviours. Maybe the most popular is GTA Vice City, a game that is based on criminal acts, where the gamer plays as a character who is free to perform killings and robberies on the streets of the city.
Video gaming is the kind of media that represents a meeting point between the effect model and the uses and gratification model (i.e., two points of view to research and study the audience's behaviours in front of a particular media). The two models present the following features:
a) effect model: children and adults can be influenced passively in what they do, so that gaming could induce violent behaviour. The contents, in this model, are "injected" into the mind of the viewer;
b) uses and gratification model: children and adults may want to escape a kind of reality which makes them bored, so they are active and feel free to choose what they want to do in their lives.
The meeting point could be the use of a medium that has been chosen for gratification but during the fruition passes certain content to the user .
 |
| Columbine High school From: http://columbine.wikia.com/wiki/Columbine_High_School |
One of the most important and serious criminal reports is the case of the Columbine High School in 1999, where two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot the crowd of students and professors who were in the building. This case is important because in some countries it brought up the issue concerning the laws controlling the distribution of video games. Furthermore, it seems that during the shooting the two assailants were calling each other through fictitious names from Doom, a first-person shooter video game. Moreover, Eric Harris seems to have founded a website with a completely customised version of Doom, where two gamers could virtually kill others who could not react. Leaving aside the paradox that in 2005 came out just a video game inspired by this tragic event, video gaming is not the only one to blame.
 |
| by Jimmi Turrell |
I believe that people willingly make a choice the moment they decide to use certain products: people do not only become violent when they start playing video games, but in most cases they are already violent to start with, and video gaming only increases their natural disposition. These facts show that there is the need, today more than ever, to educate people on the use of media, because putting an age limit to video games seems not to be enough. Children need to be followed by parents and teachers who should become their guide in order to make them become adults, and people who are critical of the media all around.
References:
Branston, G., and Stafford, R. 2010. The media student’s book. NY: Routledge. Chapter 14: From audience to users.
Gauntlett, D. 2005. Moving experiences: media effects and beyond. Eastleigh, UK : John Libbey Pub. Chapter 1.
2001, ‘Columbine families sue computer game makers - UK - May 2001’, BBC News. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1295920.stm
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento