Consoles & Carnage
A few months ago I was contacted by a couple of high school students claiming they were making a documentary about video game violence. I gave them some of my time and answered their questions as thoroughly as I could. Now, in record time, they’re finished and have uploaded the documentary to YouTube. I’m very proud to link to this… these teens made an excellent, unbiased, and well crafted primer on video game controversy, fact and fiction. In fact, they outdid the mainstream media in most cased. (And I’m not just linking to it because I’m used as an expert in the video!)
And not just me. I’m joined by the voices of Fordham Media Studies Prof. Paul Levinson, Josh Golin of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Jay Senter of Common Sense Media and Dr. Doug Gentile of Iowa State University.
Here’s the video:
Congratulations and thanks from The GamerDad go out to Denver School of the Arts students Jake Lackner, Katie Aldworth and Maxine Gallegos. I’m proud of you guys!
-Andrew S. Bub
GamerDad.com
November 18th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Some nice stuff there. Watching the video clips of the games reminded me why I don’t play most of the games in that genre… uggh.
I found the guy from Iowa state to have some pretty telling data… in his peer & teacher survey –> the kids playing violent videogames tended to become more violent & aggressive over the course of the school year.
While there’s all kinds of variables to worry about there (do kids playing violent video games get less parent interactions, less peer interactions, etc….) I still found that blub pretty telling.
November 18th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I don’t Matt. That’s a LOT of variables. My first question is “What’s the trend for Metal Heads?” “Comic book fans?” “Football watchers?” “Chess Club?” Next comes: “Could it be because this already aggressive person (implied by a love of violent games) gets more aggressive as the school year elapses because he’s acclimating and interacting with people on a daily basis? Building grudges? Arguments? Familiarity breeding contempt?”
You see something “pretty telling” and I just see the same old tired “correlation” standing in for “causation” —- again.