Chapter 2 Culture and the Media

Scholarly Article:

"WELCOME TO THE DARK WORLD OF GRAND

Theft Auto: San Andreas—where killing cops

earns you points, not prison."

—CBS Evening News

"What parents can do is recognize the games

for what they are—rubbish—and teach their kids

to resist indulging in their dark, degrading virtual

worlds. And the rest of us can call out the mak-

ers of these games for what they are: vultures."

—Chicago Tribune

"Videogarrtes can teach you all kinds of ways to

kill. You can pick someone off with a high-pow-

ered rifle, reach into a human chest and rip out a

beating heart, or tum someone into a chicken."

—Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Can a videogame lead to murder?"

—Ed Bradley, 60 Minutes

"All videogames are violent."

—Donny Deutsch, The Big Idea

Few would argue that the mainstream news

fnedia not only covers "hot-button issues" but

also creates them. Like comic books and hip-hop

music before them, videogames are currently

fueling a firestorm of media controversy. But are

CBS, Donny Deutsch, and Ed Bradley actually

informing their viewers—or just inflaming their

fears in a culture already on edge?

Many, certainly many in the videogame industry,

believe rt's the latter. There's no shortage of

gaming coverage, but it seems that what's out

there, outside of enthusiast coverage, focuses

disproportionately on certain kinds of games or

on partial infonnation that does no justice to the

industry's successes.

Patricia Vance, president of the Entertainment

Software Ratings Board (ESRB), is no stranger to

the business end of media's videogame-beating

stick lately. She believes the mainstream media is

cherry-picking facts about gaming to show the

industry in a bad light. "Few games are M-rated

[for Mature content]," she points out, "but that's

the type of game the mainstream media always

shows when they want to drive home any point

about videogames." In fact, only 12 percent of

the games released so far in 2005 have been

rated M, but they have clearly dominated main-

stream news coverage on gaming.

The ESRB rating system is presented in two

parts: rating symbols, which suggest age appro-

priateness for a game (there are six of them in

total, pointing to games suitable for every age

from early childhood to adult), and content

descriptors, which indicate elements such as

violence, foul language, or other potential media-

baiting naughtiness, like sexual themes. In

September 2002. the Federal Trade Commission

stated, "There is much in the game industry's

rating disclosure requirements that merits dupli-

cation by others."

"Enforcement of M-rated game [sales] is a lot

stricter than saies of R-rated DVDs at stores,"

says Vance. Of course, after the Grand Theft

Auto Hot Coffee debacle, many mainstream

media outlets called the system into question;

however, while there were many reports on the

sexual content "contained in the game," there

was little mention of the fact that accessing that

content required the player to unlock it using a

file that had to be downloaded from the Internet

for the PC version of the game, or by entering a

series of codes into a separate application such

as GameShark or Action Replay Max on the

console versions.

MONSTERS IN THE CLOSET

Where, then, are the expressions of outrage

about minors gaining entry to R-rated movies?

Why are games vilified right now? Seth Schiesel,

videogame reporter and columnist for The New

York Times, says it's simply a generational issue,

"The first thing to understand is that very few

people in mainst^am media are actually gamers

themselves," Schiesel explains. 'There's a much

broader gap of understanding than you tradition-

ally find for other types of entertainment. A lot of

the people running media outlets right now are of

a different generation. They didn't grow up play-

ing games, and the notion of doing so is alien

to them. Right now, the decision makers are

simply too old to have grown up with games as

part of their cuiture. The guys running media right

now are in ttieir 40s, so they don't have the same

frame of reference."

That gap is mirrored in the population watching

the news, too. Attitudes toward gaming vary

greatly with age. In the United States, close to

half the population plays PC games or

videogames; however, most piayers are under 40.

According to media research firm Nielsen, more

than 75 percent of gamers fit that description—

they are the generation that started playing

games as kids, and they've continued playing.

Reaching across the gap is tough. "Games are

compteteiy different from ali other types of enter-

tainment," Schiesel explains. "They're much hard-

er to explain to an audience that has no point of

reference. Anyone can watch a movie or televi-

sion, read a book, or watch a piay and draw their

own conclusions. It's very difficult to ask some-

une who has never played a videogame to under-

stand—particulariy if they just don't have the abil-

ity to experience what you're talking about. It's

like trying to describe the difference between the

colors red and blue to a blind person."

"People think of videogames as toys," Vance

says. "They saw them years ago and still think

games are for kids." As a result, the gaming worid

isn't considered to be a source of legitimate regu-

lar news. In fact, the biggest complaint of many

game-sawy journalists is that their editors,

because they lack an understanding of the sub-

ject matter, refuse to acknowledge videogames

as legitimate.

"Much of the mainstream media, our newspa-

per included, has not yet elevated videogames to

the level of coverage that is given to movies,

books, or TV," explains USA Today entertainment

reporter Mike Snider. "That's despite the fact that

it's a multibillion-dollar industry that rivals box

office and surpasses book sales."

"I don't think it's entirely fair to say ail of the

mainstream media demonizes games," says Chris

Monis, director of content development at CNN

Money and writer of the popular Game Over col-

umn on CNN.com. "There are some reporters

who are quite wise about the way the industry

works. There are some who don't quite under-

stand it, and there are some who are only looking

for headiines. The problem is, the ones who write

something that's contrary to the opinions of most

gamers are the ones who get attention online.

Let's face it, you rarely see hordes of posts about

something Geoff Keighley writes for Business 2.0

or N'gai Croal writes for Newsweek, though the

two of them know the industry better than many."

It's only when gaming is piggybacked onto

other "legitimate" nevtre that it gets covered—and

that usually happens when there's a scandal. To

wit: the Hot Coffee story.

"When a national figure like Hillary Clinton takes

an interest in what's going on, there's no way to

ignore that," Schiesel explains. "Something like

that is a news event that has to be covered, and

it draws attention to the games industry in ways

that force questions to be asked." It also adds

fuel to the fire for critics of the industry, who hard-

ly need more ammunition, and makes for easier

headlines at media outlets that don't have Vne full

perspective on the game business.

By John Davison 

                                 Does Pop Culture Turn Us Into Consumer Slaves? - Stephen Sewell       

        Song Lyrics :                                                 

 Destruction of all internet

No more... funny video
No... fat man.... hitting computer
No more... joke list
KOMPRESSOR send mail
Forward to all
For 50 ways... 50 ways to destroy mass media!

Destroy mass media!
KOMPRESSOR destroy mass media!
Destroy mass media!

No citcom, no recorded laughing
No catch phrases
No broadcast radio, no disc jockey
No morning talk show
No newspaper, no editorial
No sports section
No Dave Barry, No Anne Landers
And no more funny dog comic!

Destroy mass media!
Destroy mass media!
Destroy mass media!
Marmaduke destroy mass media!

Break all satellite, knock out of orbit
Falling... into ocean
Fish get signal, for constant news broadcast
Advice... for investment
Fish stock purchase, for capital power
Fish... rising up
Capital power, for fish rising up!
Fish rising up... to destroy mass media!

Destroy mass media!
Ocean fish, destroy mass media!
KOMPRESSOR destroy mass media!
Destroy mass media!
Fish destroy mass media!
Marmaduke destroy mass media!
Joke list destroy mass media!
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KOMPRESSOR destroy mass mediaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Other websites on the topic: 

http://hubpages.com/hub/Mass-Media-Influence-on-Society This website discusses how mass media has changed over the years with the technological advancements that have take place.  It also talks about the influence it has over society, especially when it comes to young people.  

http://www.pollutionissues.com/Pl-Re/Popular-Culture.html This website focusses mainly on how popular culture affects the environment.  It also discusses the effects of popular culture on commercialism, language and love. 

                                                

                                     Word Search 

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Popular culture: The beliefs, practices, and objects that are part of everyday traditions.

Mass media: Channels of communication that are available to wide segments of the population –the print, film and electronic media.

Counterculture: subcultures created as a reaction against the values of the dominant culture.

Global culture: The diffusion of a single culture throughout the world.

Cultural relativism: The idea that something can be understood and judged only in relation to the cultural context in which it appears. 

Subcultures: The cultures of groups whose values and norms of behavior differ to some degree from those of the dominant culture. 

Dominant culture: The culture of the most powerful group in a society.

Values: The abstract standards in a society or group that define ideal principles.

Beliefs: The shared ideas held collectively by people within a given culture about what is true.

Norms: The specific cultural expectations for how to behave in a given situation.

Chapter 2 Culture and the Media: 

I chose chapter two because I found it extremely interesting and the most applicable to my life.  Because of my age and where I am at in life I feel that I am always being bombarded with mass media and constantly experiencing and being exposed to popular culture.  This chapter discusses all of these issues including how the media affects society today.  I also found reading about counterculture very interesting. I was able to relate it to my high school years when there were quite a few individuals who took part in counterculture styles and activities.

I have specific reasons for including everything that I did in my post.  To start off with, I chose a picture of the cover of a "Vanity Fair" magazine because of the fact that magazines are a huge source of popular culture and is considered mass media.  The affect they have on people of all ages is incredible. They contain so much information, ranging from how one should dress to what new technologically advanced computer people should buy.  The scholarly article I chose to include talks about the affects of video games on society.  it focusses mainly on the danger of having so much violence in our children's games.  I chose this article specifically because I personally think violent video games are extremely harmful to society, especially since children and young people are mostly playing them.  The video I incorporated in my post talks about how pop culture tells us what we need to have to be happy.  This includes things such as new stylish clothing, flashy cars etc.  I found his take on how popular culture affects society to be refreshing and informative.  The song lyrics I chose were written by someone who seemed to be extremely tired of mass media and I enjoyed hearing what the artist had to say about it. When it came to finding websites that talked about the subject it was not hard.  I found two great websites that discuss two very different matters when it comes to mass media and popular culture.  Finally, the words I chose for the word search represent chapter two the most accurately and helped sum up the ideas I incorporated in my post.