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Computer
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Articles - Magazine Articles - Newspaper
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Wide Web - Unpublished
Journal Articles
There has been only limited
discussion and analysis of computer games in academic journals both here
and overseas, but what is actually available does go far in providing some
answers to the questions asked in the eBrief topics. Most prominently,
these articles tend to address the violence and/or
degradation accusations. They also address stakeholders
in the debate and issues surrounding player demographics.
Article writers come from all sides of the debate.
Beavis,
C. (1998). Pressing (the right?) buttons: literacy and technology, crisis
and continuity. English in Australia, 123, 42-51.
Beavis argues that schoolteachers
should not shun new technologies such as computer games as a means of teaching
their students literacy and other useful life skills. The games should
not entirely replace traditional teaching aids, nor should they be introduced
into the classroom with little sense of caution. Teachers are encouraged
to adapt to and use new technologies rather than resist them, especially
seeing that such technologies can make lessons more relevant to children
and increase their motivation to learn.
Dietz,
T. (1998). An examination of violence and gender role portrayals in video
games: implications for gender socialization and aggressive behavior. Sex
Roles: A Journal of Research, 38, 425-442.
Sexism, racism, and encouragement
of violence is common in video games - as they are in most media - according
to the author of this study. Such adverse themes negatively impact
upon children to the extent that they are probably more liable to perpetuate
such negative beliefs and actions in the real world. The author concludes
that much more research needs to be conducted in this area.
Lumby,
C. (1997). Panic attacks: old fears in a new media area. Media International
Australia, 85, 40-46.
Cohen's
moral panic theories are just as relevant today as they were decades
ago, writes Lumby. She readily applies them to numerous contemporary
concerns such as computer games and the Internet and links movements to
protect children with movements to excessively control them. The
persistence and political power of those who promote censorship should
not be underestimated.
Marshall,
P. D. (1997). Technophobia: video games, computer hacks and cybernetics.
Media
International Australia, 85, 70-78.
As technology encroaches
into modern life, considerable resistance is forming against it by those
who are somehow unwilling or unable to adapt to such change. Marshall
contrasts the youthful culture of technological embracement with the older,
traditional, and mainly adult/parent culture of technological caution or
rejection. The video gaming and computer hacking subcultures are
given particular attention in this article.
Scott,
D. (1994). The effect of video games on feelings of aggression.
The
Journal of Psychology, 129, 121-32.
One psychological study examined
the commonly believed assertion that children who play computer and video
games have greater chances of becoming aggressive in the real world than
children who are not participants in this pastime. The study found
no scientific evidence to support this assertion. Results were determined
via questionnaire after the study's subjects played selected aggressive
games.
Sneed,
C, and Runco, M. A. (1993). The beliefs adults and children hold about
television and video games. The Journal of Psychology, 126, 273-83.
Another psychological study
involving the use of questionnaires found that adults and children hold
different beliefs about the affects of television and video games.
In general, adults believed both media had more negative effects on children
than did the children themselves who largely rejected such criticism.
The authors call for more studies to be conducted into these issues, particularly
into any differences between male and female opinions.
Sternberg,
J. (1997). Generating x: lifestyle panics and the new generation gap. Media
International Australia, 85, 79-90.
Sternberg links intergenerational
conflict between the baby boomers and Generation X to moral panic over
various issues in which age tends to be a factor, from musical tastes to
video game playing. In doing so, he emphasises the fear, distrust,
and incomprehension that can exist between age groupings in modern society.
Wark,
M. (1994). The video game as an emergent media form. Media Information
Australia, 71, 21-30.
An overview of the history
and culture surrounding video and computer games shows the rapidly rising
popularity of this new form of media that defies most attempts to restrict
it. The author is supportive of these new expressions of media and
urges society not to react adversely in a moral panic.