3 ARTICLES REGARDING VIDEO GAMES AND VIOLENCE

ARTICLE #1

TITLE

Blaming Video Games for School Shootings Is Misguided, Dangerous

DESCRIPTION

Given the terrible events that have happened regarding violence in school and church shootings, we all want to understand the causes and the ways to prevent such occurrences from ever happening again.   Politicians blame violent video games as the reason rather than other factors in our society and the ease of attaining guns.  The author of the article points out that  “Consistent with this research it has also been found that countries that consume more video games have lower levels of violent crime than those devoid of this media.”  The article examines the attitudes and studies surrounding the issue of whether playing video games is the cause of the violence.

SOURCE

Rolling Stone, February 16, 2018 , By Patrick Markey, Chris Ferguson

LINK TO RESOURCE

https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/video-games-school-shootings-w516863

(Tiny URL)  http://tinyurl.com/y9q97t52

ARTICLE #2

TITLE

Do Video Games Lead to Mass Shootings? Researchers Say No.

DESCRIPTION

In this recent article, the authors review the school and church shootings that have happened since Columbine.  They review what many politicians and others have pointed to regarding video games and violent media as the causes of the violence.  The research into whether the actual cause is video games have been found not to be so.   Not only does the research point out that video games are not the cause, but the Supreme Court cases examining the issues related to the topic are discussed and lead to the same conclusion:  violent video games are NOT the cause of the mass shootings.

SOURCE

New York Times, February 23, 2018, by Maya Salam and Liam Stack

LINK TO RESOURCE

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/us/politics/trump-video-games-shootings.html

(Tiny URL)  http://tinyurl.com/ybokpset

ARTICLE #3

TITLE

News Media, Public Education and Public Policy Committee

(Division 46 — Society for Media Psychology and Technology)

DESCRIPTION

This article on the topic of the link between violent video games and media comes from Division 46 (Society for Media Psychology and Technology).   The group provides both definitive statements regarding the issue as well as recommendations to those who deal with the issue as part of public policy.  “Journalists and policy makers do their constituencies a disservice in cases where they link acts of real-world violence with the perpetrators’ exposure to violent video games or other violent media. There’s little scientific evidence to support the connection, and it may distract us from addressing those issues that we know contribute to real-world violence.”

Students interested in the topic and who plan to major in any of the professional fields related in Psychology, journalism, media, and/or public policy should take the time to read the article carefully and use it as a resource on the topic.

SOURCE

The Amplifier Magazine (Division 46 of the APA), June 12, 2017, Ferguson, Klisinan, and others

LINK TO RESOURCE

https://div46amplifier.com/2017/06/12/news-media-public-education-and-public-policy-committee/

(Tiny URL)  http://tinyurl.com/yba35d85

CLASS DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

•Begin with a discussion and review of Social Learning Theory and the work by Bandura.  What types of “aggression” are studied by these theorists?  Can the work be generalized to school violence and shootings?  How is this type of generalization problematic?

•For discussion after reading the articles:  What exactly do the various studies point out regarding the link between video games and school shootings?  What are the findings?

•Have the students compare their own subjective opinions on the issue to the objective research evidence findings.  Can they understand the origin of their own subjective opinions?  Can they be moved to change their attitudes if they believe that the video games are the cause after reading the articles and discussing the research?