UNIT 4 Coursework

Friday, 10 October 2014

research

Media texts
Main Focus- Grand Theft Auto 5

Other Media Texts
Call of duty modern warefare 2-2011
Watchdogs 2-2014
tomb raider-2013
saints row 4-2013
last of us- 2014
mortal combat

TV documentaries
BBC- addicted to games- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R83287N6kFg&safe=active
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE-5sm_Iqts

ABC- are video games to blame for the increase in violence

Academic text/books
Barrie Gunter: the effects of video games on children: the myth unmasked (1998)
James Newman: Playing with video games (2008)
Nancy signoriell: Violence in video games: a reference handbook (2005)
Grand theft childhood April 2008
Violent video games effects on children and adolescents
game over for childhood (2012)

bibliography
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/31/grand-theft-auto-5-torture-violence-video-games- About Grand theft auto violence about the sake of the violence

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/staying-in/video-games/gta-5-torture-row-teachers-2278689- Grand theft auto torture row- teachers slam Grand theft auto

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10312420/GTA-5-the-violence-debate.html- Violence in video games debate.

http://kotaku.com/grand-theft-auto-blamed-after-eight-year-old-shoots-gra-1201375715- Grand theft auto blamed for shootings

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-a-video-game-lead-to-murder-04-03-2005/- article about: did grand theft auto lead to violence

http://gac.sagepub.com/content/3/3-4/264.short- The meaning of race and violence in video games

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=9XB3AgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=violence+in+video+games&ots=2nkBVvEE-c&sig=UhRzsWGxS-VpBpSuWhrprSfPrP4#v=onepage&q=violence%20in%20video%20games&f=false- Book which are linked to video games which contain violence.
http://pss.sagepub.com/content/12/5/353.short- Journal about violence in video games.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018709905920#page-1- Examination about violence in video games.
reports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbq5xUNm1iw- Youtube self made documentary giving their opinion about violence in video games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N9SZ8ETpVM- Project about violence in video games

http://www.vox.com/2014/9/16/6152541/video-games-violence

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Working tittle
Are video games like 'Grand theft auto v' becoming increasingly violent and what effect do they have on audiences?

angle

Are younger audiences being affected by the increase in violence in video games? the increase in violence in video games has it effected how younger teenagers act in society. Is this just a moral panic of the 21st century or is further regulation required. How the gaming industries have changed over the years? Who do they really target? Impact on the age regulation. Is buying the game to easy?

hypothesis

Is violence in Grand theft auto increasing? How has the game developed over the years since first release in 1997. Video games are psychologically damaging for young people. Are parents blaming the game for most crimes?

Linked production

The first idea is to have news style documentary about violence in video games. In this documentary I will explain the violence in video games and hows affected younger teenagers.

Migrain

Representation

negative Parents representation
Male dominance- males causing violence and leading the game
stereotypical
stories not accurate- blame game

Media language

Mis-en-scene provide how USA was in the 90s and how gangs acted
CLAMP
Illegal drug usage
illegal bank robberies
Clothes- visualisation of gangsters in America.
In game violence being portrayed.

Media institution

Main institution involved- rockstar production
similarities with saints row same institution
engine by Rage
Distributed by optic disk
game engine- euphoria

Media audiences

Primary demographic- 13-30
personal relationship with the 3 characters.
Class E- demographics
reformers and strugglers

Genre

Male dominance
Sexism
treating females
personal troubles in game

narrative

In game story- equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium on every mission every game solved by the hero- main character

recurring theme as they always go home to eat or sleep.

SHEP

Social-

Changed the way we think about gaming industries
Changed the way we think about younger teenagers who are addicted to video games- think they may harm somebody
Some extent restricted our thinking towards the USA

historical-

Grand theft auto is based on real gangsters- http://gamerant.com/grand-theft-auto-5-screenshots-real-life-gangsters/
Setting is in real cities in America and real roads.
coverage of gangs and how they are in real life.

Economical-

when every new grand theft auto comes out high amounts is spent on advertising
Most expensive game ever spending 170 million on marketing and development
Smashed most financial records- breaking 2 financial records fastest entertainment property to gross 1 billion dollars and fastest video game to gross 1 billion dollars

political-

Political corrupt society in game is having a bad effect on Americas politics.
Grand theft auto is blamed for some crime issues
This came could be used for the US military to de-sensitise killing according to Glenn Beck

Issues and debates
Representation and stereotyping-

Media technology and digital revolution-

Ownership and control-

regulation and censorship-

media affects-

theories
Gerbner cultivation Theory- http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/short/cultiv.html

Ronald Barthes- The Signifier and signified- Denotation and connotation http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/articles/barthes_five_codes.htm

Stuart Hall- Dominant and preferred reading, Negotiated reading, oppositional reading.
Lines of appeal brand values- http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/advertising/advertising.php?pageID=analysis

narrative structure- Todorov
Demographics

VALs- Values, attitudes and lifestyle

Physchographics

The hypodermic needle

Two step flow theory

uses and gratifications

Richard Dyer- stereotyping

http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience

Media texts
Main Focus- Grand Theft Auto 5

Other Media Texts
Call of duty modern warefare 2-2011
Watchdogs 2-2014
tomb raider-2013
saints row 4-2013
last of us- 2014

TV documentaries
BBC- addicted to games
ABC- are video games to blame for the increase in violence

Academic text/books
Barrie Gunter: the effects of video games on children: the myth unmasked (1998)
James Newman: Playing with video games (2008)
Nancy signoriell: Violence in video games: a reference handbook (2005)
Grand theft childhood April 2008
Violent video games effects on children and adolescents
game over for childhood (2012)

Internet Links

reports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbq5xUNm1iw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N9SZ8ETpVM

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Feedback

Great topic but question needs to be sharper/clearer
Good to see media language being used- would be good to link mise-en-scene to the question
is there any evidence of real life crimes copying GTA?
Record and stats/financial aspects are important but need to link it to the question/ violence ... media debates.
Big questions here about regulation and censorship
blame the game in each case (rather than gun, control, parenting)
Daily mail article is relevant- but surely the problem is parents not the game.
use of online comments- good source of research provides contrast with theory/academic sources
similarly with other cases- there is an incentive to the blame in each case.

WWW:

Good use of articles
The use of the online comments in the presentation
Using Records/statistics to back your point
Media Language being used
GOOD TOPIC

EBI:

Need to make the question more clearer
Link mise-en-scene to the question
Link Records to the question
Make the articles point more clear
Need to look at other aspect of the violence not just the game e.g. parents

The first thing that I will have to do is make the question more sharper and focus the question on one side. I will have to look at the articles that I find in more depth and look at the other sides of the article e.g. The game might not be the only issue affecting parents it could be parents. I can't just blame the violence on the game and have to look at the other issues.

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

In Grand Theft Auto Women are represented as the weaker sex and the women don't cause any violence which may be the reason why women aren't affected and don't come up in the media as much as males. In the game males are represented as the strong sex and this is why many young teenagers copy their hero's in real life because of all the problems that they cause in the game and the people who play the game want to do what they do in real life. this could be a major factor in why violence has increased due to video games. In the media it is accurate that the male is the more dominate that is the dominate reading in Grand theft Auto.

In Grand theft Auto the video many different types of people are being represented. One thing that is being represented is the country America and the representation in the game just gives the country bad publicity as there always news about people robbing banks, killing people etc. and this something that the County America doesn't want to be associated with as these are serious crimes. Prostitutes in this game have such a bad representation that they have had protests to ban the game overall.

From this you could connote that they're very bad people in the USA as some of things that happen in this game are based on real life. It gives a bad reputation of the people in America as they love drugs and love to pay prostitutes and plan to cause problems in society. You could say that the rock star production have created the black person as the villain who is harming society and all the gangs in the game contain black people and these people are always creating a new equilibrium and the police contain white people restore peace in the community.

The target audience for this game are teenagers over 17 as the restriction for the game is M which is for mature audience which is over the age of 17, however I believe that the industry promote this game towards parents of younger children. The facts are that they the game comes out on a Friday and all the special offers are on at supermarkets including ASDA and sainsbury and this is the day where parents do their house shopping and their children create the buzz about the game so in the end the parents will buy the game as it be's at a very cheap price. It's almost like the tobacco industry. On the box it says it's for people over the age of 18 but these bosses promote towards younger people. This links to increase in violence as the games contains more violence and children get addicted and want to try what the characters do in real life.I believe that the industry target the class A,B and C because most parents come into these categories and they want the parents to buy the product for their Kids. This is also targeted at D as these are students.

This article backs up it's points with strong evidence. This articles is from the daily mail and was published on the 14/08/14 and the main point is why do children have access do these video games and the daily mail have put the blame onto the parents as they are the ones who buy the children the video games. In this article some parents admit that there children play these video games including grand theft auto and call of duty. This article is targeted at parents as it states why parents allow their children to pay these games and ignore the age limits and this a very serious situation and this could be one of the reason why violence has increased with younger children/teenagers as it is very easy to gain access for these games. This is why millions have been put into research to see why violence has increased and a big factor is the use of video games. Gaming counsellors have said that video game addiction is strong as drug addiction and this could be a reason why violence has increased due to the amount in video games. The whole article is related to the video game grand theft auto. There is such strong evidence that violence in video game has increased as more cases are being made in the media and so many serious things have happened including: a kid shooting his Grandparent.

This article which was published in the telegraph and the topic is the GTA is deliberately trying to downgrade women which 100% correct. The starting sentence is that GTA V's treatment of women aims to make its audience feel uncomfortable. I agree with this point as the three main characters are 3 dominant male's and these 3 men don't care about women as they have sex with them anywhere and prosistitutes are all over the city which has a bad representation of women. The games expert believes this has bad representation on men as no women were included and this is why the blame is lead on to males about violence because the game is about three males.

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

In Grand theft Auto the main thing that is being represented is the crime and violence in the slums of the big cities and the game wants to show how bad society is and what they do is put: crime, violence prostitution in the game to show how severe the situation is in some of the big cities. However in the game there are many other things that wrong with society as they rob banks, rob cars and kill people with guns. One interesting situation in grand theft auto is how the police are being represented in the game. The police rules aren't strict enough and the police officers can kill anyone. Also you leave jail, after killing somebody, in 24 hours. The only affect the character has that the police fine him. This is just a negative affect on the USA and USA police officers. This is also odd because you would want to represent the police as dominant, Powerful and to have some dignity, however in GTA is completely the opposite as police seem powerless as you leave jain within hours. They also have a bad representation on the government in USA because it shows how bad some areas in the USA are and the nobody takes any action- this gives us a negative view of the USA.