Introduction


Thursday, May 29, 2008

Essay





Do violent games and movies make kids killers?



1501Art New Communications Technologies

Dane Weeden

2678945






It seems that everytime a student at a high school in America pulls out a gun the left wing of society rushes to his room and finds that he once played the skeet shooting level in Barbie's Pony Island Adventure. The military would certainly hope that the catalyst for killer is in video games. But is this really a viable and realistic theory. Can playing video games or exposing yourself to violent media really make it easier for you to kill someone.


Although it may be a surprise to many, violence was around even before radio was around. When considering the actions and social reactions of humans in the past, regarding violence, is it not far to say that as technology has come into humanity, violence has dropped dramatically.


A journalist by the name of Grub Smith carried out an investigation for national geographic about the ability of solders to kill other human beings. The documentary came to the realization that only 2% of solders could actually willingly kill another person. The first half of that 2% were considered to be free of empathy towards there fellow man, and therefor had the ability to kill without mercy or restraint, they enjoyed the killing. The other half of the killers were inspired to kill in defense of their fellow soldiers.


Of course the army by now has picked up on this and have developed new training methods to overcome the natural instinct to 'not kill'. These new training programs have proved successful and as a result the US and British military have a very high kill rate in man to man combat as opposed to less organized or funded armies.


It seems somewhat doubtful that the US army would give the secret ingredient that gives them the advantage in combat to a game designer or a movie director. Statistics clearly show that killers are born, and are very hard to make. If the US army has only just figured out how to desensitize humans then surely games and movies are a little way behind.


Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern California, says that violent video games do not cause violent youth. Sternheimer refers to a list of other moral panics that have emerged about youth culture in the past, those being cars, radio, movies, rock music, and even comic books.

She argues that the real causes of youth violence are often overlooked. We would perhaps see our society as perfect and stable and it is this violence from games that is disrupting it. However, as Sternheimer points out, it is often our already unstable social environment that may cause the violence. She refers to poverty, neighborhood instability, unemployment, family violence and mental illness as major causes in youth violence.


Sternheimer also raises a very important point, that the white middle class isn't the only group in the world that plays video games. So rare is it to hear a case of an African American young male shooting someone and hearing video games get blamed. This raises the question of the effectiveness of studies that have concluded that video games make killers.


Richard Kuklinski is a convicted mafia hit man who is now spending life in jail. He admitted to killing over 200 people. He was never been exposed to video games yet he killed people without fear or remorse. In an interview with Dr. Park Dietz, a world-renowned psychiatrist, Kuklinski asked why he was capable of feeling nothing from killing someone. Dietz explained that he was born with just the right combination of personality disorders, Paranoia and Fearlessness. These are what made him a killer.


Its hard to see, after all these cases of killers been driving by revenge or just being born killers, how its possible to simply say that video games and violent media cause youth to be violent. Surely in such an act of extremity every little detail comes into play. It seems as though video games are used as a scape goat to ignore the reality of how life can treat some people. Perhaps some people are more effected by video games than others but if a person lacks the ability to distinguish between simulation and reality than that person is socially different long before they picked up a controller.


It is interesting to consider that if video games really did create killers, why is the US military so desperate for more troops. Surely in our game and media filled world people would be lining up for a chance to riffle of few bullets into the enemy. The truth is that the human body really does know the difference between whats real and what isn't. Perhaps when virtual reality becomes a part of society, if it ever does, then we way not be able to tell whats real and whats not. But for all the tough talking that anyone can do, unless your born a weapon, it's not easy to pull the trigger.

References


Violent Games Don't Cause Youth Violence, Says USC Sociologist

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2007/02/28/violent-games-dont-cause-youth-violence-says-usc-sociologist


National Geographic: The Truth About Killing (2005) (Grub Smith- Host)

http://dirtyliberalwords.blogspot.com/2005/08/truth-about-killing.html


The Iceman and the Psychiatrist

http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/iceman/synopsis.html



Pincus, Jonathan (2002) Base Insticts: What Makes Killers Kill W.W. Norton



Lewis, D O (1998) Guilty by Reason of Insanity: A Psychiatrist Explores the Minds of Killers Ballantine Publishing Group New York










Sunday, May 25, 2008

3D worlds v IM

Theres alot of differences between something like msn messenger and second life. MSN could be compared to a phone call or sending txt messages. Visual elements complete change to situation and the way you react, theres a reason a video call is more expensive than a voice call on your mobile. Its easy to make a fake hotmail and put someone elses image as your display picture so to say that people on MSN are more real would be wrong. But the fact is that there is less room for you to make up stuff on msn. All you have is your word and a picture.

In a virtual world you can make yourself thin, in shape and even black or white. Surely though, anyone who goes into a virtual world knows what there getting into. You know that all the people are going to be fake and the few that arent fake are probably too boring to talk to.

In regards to the social aspect, MSN is like going to a friends party and virtual worlds are like going to a night club alone. The people you talk to on msn are only there because you have added them or they have added you and you have accepted it, so generally you know most of the people on your list and theres no one you try to avoid because you can just delete them.

The people you talk to in virtual words and mainly complete randoms. They don't need your permission to talk to you and you generally cant make them go away. It is this socially environment in which annoying people flourish.

So all in all i would take msn over a virtual world anyday, unless i was super bored and super lonely and had super low self esteem.

Word and Excel

I did business communication technology in high school so im all Microsoft office savy. We did mail merges and all that sort of thing so all this stuff was just bringing back memories. Funny thing is i remember learning the stuff in year 10 and thinking wow that would be useful, yet i have never used it untill this point. So it has yet to prove itself useful for any purpose.....

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Essay Outline

Do video games and media desensitise us?

Much argument has been made that violent video games and explicit media have made current generations much more accepting of violence in reality. It has also been put forward that exposure to such media makes people more aggressive. Not only accepting violence but instigating it.

The army would certainly hope this to be true and they have strongly believed in using military games as not only a recruiting tool but on another level a training tool. The military would also dearly hope that violent video games gives unexperienced troops more confidence in situations that have never, in reality, been involved in.

The other problem that the army have faced and would no doubt hope that violent media would solve is a human’s ability to kill. Interviews with veterans have revealed that most of them never even shot to kill. It has been claimed that, usually in a company of 100 men, there would 2 men capable of doing the killing. The rest either never shoot to kill or pretend to load the guns as an excuse.

These testimonies were taken some time ago. So how has that changed since past wars and how do soldiers react to killing these days. There’s no doubt that violence has become much more accessible in media. Anyone with a camera phone can film there to school friends fighting and then quickly upload it to Youtube. But does watching that really make it easier to punch someone in the face the next day?