Video Game Controversy

Sociologist and the author, Karen Sternheimer, in her article, “do video games kill?” (2007), argues that media and politicians are quick to blame video games when teens kill. She supports her claim by first talking about politicians and other moral crusaders frequently create “folk devils,” individuals or groups defined as evil and immoral, then both politicians and news outlets felt that video games were the ones to inculpate, also news reports showed little importance to the broader social contexts, and finally dubious about the juvenile justice. Sternheimer’s purpose is to persuade in order to show that video games is not the only explanation as to why teens kill. She creates a professional tone for students, teachers, parents, politicians

Whether violent media content leads to real-life violence is always debatable. And in recent years, school shootings have made video games a new focus of public concern and scientific research. In public opinion, video games cause more aggression in comparison to traditional violent media contents because video games have more features of interactivity, "due to the active engagement and participation of players" (Hummer and Wang et al. 137). But more and more reports tell us that video games are not the main cause of school shooting issues; rather it is the negligence of parents, schools, and communities.

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

The article Do Video Games Kill? by Karen Sternheimert, brings up that the media unfairly targets video games as the root of violence among youths. In the article she first draws attention to politicians and their labeling of video games and the people who play them. She writes that "Politicians and other moral crusaders frequently create folk devils," [Sternheimert].

Since video games have been introduced, video games have been accused of contributing too many atrocities, and acts of violence. News outlets paint video games as being a source of which some acts of violence happen. Yes, violent video games have become more popular, meanwhile becoming controversial, but still there exist no links between aggression and video games. The University of Bologna says that “owning videogames does not in fact seem to have negative effects on aggressive human behavior” (Koffler par.7). Meanwhile, news outlets keep on missing the point on how beneficial video games are. Video games do not contribute to violence, can be educational, and they can improve us in different ways.

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

In society, video games have been criticized as an inducer for violent in children. The ongoing debate instigates research on the correlation between video games and violence. In Craig Anderson’s article, “Violent Video Games and Other Media Violence, Part II”, the author criticizes the opposing side and states that violence in media reflects violent behaviors in children. John Glynn’s article, “Guns and Games”, reasons on the benefits of video games and points out the true perpetrator for violent behaviors of youth in the United States to be the gun culture.; While Glynn’s article contains some form of pathos, there is a lack of pathos in Anderson’s. Both articles utilize logos and ethos. However, Glynn offers a more well-rounded argument to support that video games are beneficial and are not the true cause of aggression in children.

People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for

Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?

Bloodshed and aggression is everywhere; in magazines, in the shops, on the TV, on websites like YouTube as well as in video games. Yet, why is it that those video games are assumed to be the biggest media source responsible for the violent outbursts of different individuals? Is this really the case? Every eight out of ten homes in the United Kingdom own a existing generation games console and video games have become a extraordinary source of education when helping kids to learn, such websites like educationcity.com or the VTech Learning System that teach kids literacy, numeracy and the sciences through their games. However, it seems an American politician called Joe Biden deemed that violent video games should be taxed just because some

The issue of video game violence seems to be a hot topic right now after several shootings have occurred and made a connection to the shooters being video gamers. In looking at past research it is apparent that there seems to large amounts of research that contradict one work to another. Although I would have been interested in conducting a poll of the publics opinion regarding the use of violent video games and their connection to mass shootings I was not able to conduct the research. However, for this paper I chose to conduct a literature analysis to see what research has been conducted and to seek out gaps and themes in this research.

Why do people blame video games? The media most likely blames video games for the increase of violence because it's like judging a book by its cover, people in the media are adults who have never even played modern day video games so they do not understand how the video games would impact themselves. Reporters would just take one quick look at a video game and if they see anything bad they will immediately label it as something negative that its main purpose is

The advancement of media is one of the greatest accomplishments of our time, helping spread news globally at incredible speed; however, the media may not always prove such an unbiased or well-informed view on everything. Video games seem to be one topic the media tends to have a highly bias opinion against. The media tends to emphasis the connection of teenagers who commit crimes with playing violent video games yet, violent video games are highly played throughout the world. Ferguson, author of “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The release of Grand Theft Auto came with a storm of negative news media attracting controversy over violent content and concerns about the effects it might have on its players. The media generated frequent stories drawing connections between video games and violent behaviour, headlines

Video games are the most popular form of entertainment and they are enjoyed by people from all age groups. Playing video games can have tremendous impacts on the different age groups, most importantly on the youth. The impact of video games on the youth has many different sides and it is a highly debated topic. One side feels that it has no impact on the youth and is only a game in which the content is meant to be enjoyed. However, the truth is that video games have a detrimental impact on today’s youth, especially violent games, and this is the position of the other side. This side believes the violence in video games is one aspect of