Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Violent Video Games and Media Coverage

So last week i brought up the idea of blaming school shootings on video games. Let's continue with that theme. My main area of research is on the psychology of playing video games, namely how video games make people feel and think. I will leave my personal feelings and findings out of this post because i don't want to persuade the group. CNN posted this article last semester. One interesting thing to look for when the media covers school or teenage shootings is that they will also put a quick one sentence mention that the shooter owned violent video games.

So before you post your comments on the topics, let's investigate the recent school shooting in Germany. Do a google search for "Tim Kretschmer, school shooting, video games" and see what you get. After reading some of those then post your comments. So what do you think about violent video games. Are they becoming too prevalent in society? Do they contribute to violence? Can we blame them for school shootings (as the media has done several times, especially at Columbine)? If they are a negative force for children, how do we combat that? Your thoughts please.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Where are our Pundits Leading Us

A lot of you may have seen Jon Stewart's (of the Daily Show) interview with CNBC star Jim Cramer in which Stewart basically accused Cramer and other CNBC hosts of bad journalism. You can see it here. One of Stewart's best points is that The Daily Show is a comedy show on Comedy Central whereas some of these other pundits are on News Shows. Does the fact that some pundits (like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann, and Rachel Maddow) are on news Channels, like Fox and MSNBC, mean that they should be held to a higher standard of journalism? How many of us believe that these people are good journalists? And is there danger in the almost cult-like devotion some fans show towards them?

For example, the man who recently shot several people in a Tennessee church, apparently wrote a letter beforehand claiming that he was shooting liberals to better the country. One of the items he mentioned in the letter was a book written by Bernard Goldberg who is a frequent guest of the O'Reilly Factor. Please follow this link to read the story and watch clips. What do you think of these shows? Are you a fan?

Some will argue that O'Reilly and Goldberg can't be blamed for the church shooting. I tend to agree. It is clearly an act of an insane person. But then again, don't we blame video games for school shootings? If we blame that medium for the actions of crazed killers, shouldn't we blame the actions of the church shooter on the media he consumed?

Blog Topic Coming

The blog topic will be posted by the end of the day. check back later.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Spring Break

No posting this week as it is Spring Break on campus.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Pack Your Bag

Hello all,
I once saw a news piece where a journalist asked the presidential candidates what book they would take with them to the White House. That's a neat question and it reminded me of that old question, "If you were stranded on an island........"

So here's my media related question to you this week. Write a short paragraph on each:

1. If you were stranded on an island, what magazine would you like to wash up onshore every week? And why?

2. If you were stranded on an island, what one movie would you like to take with you (in a portable dvd player, of course)? And why?

3. If you were stranded on an island, what one album/song would you like to be loaded on the mp3 player you took with you? And why?

Good Luck

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

No Post This Week

Originally i had wanted to skip the blog during midterm week, but i thought the editorial cartoon was such a good topic that i posted it anyway. turns out that it was a good topic and got a lot of you to respond. so this week we'll take a break. come back next monday for a new topic.