Critical Investigation proposals reloaded

http://unit4courseworkblogsragz.blogspot.co.uk/- By Raghav Sharma

Working title

What impact do the graphic representations of violent, sexist content in popular video games, such as GTA5, have on their audiences?

Angle

Rockstar as a company has a huge history with creating controversial games; this began with the first GTA Game that was released in 1997 generating headline news. It was condemned in Britain, Germany and France due to “extreme violence’’ (IGN) was out right banned in Brazil.

Hypothesis

Games like Grand theft auto are subliminally damaging to children’s minds, acts of violence have become the norm on games that show popularity with youth. It can be argued that if laws were not in place restricting the sale of violent games to children under the age of 18, that gaming conglomerate would target the youth as this is where majority of sales come from as this is the primary demographic. GTA is physiologically damaging allowing for a huge increase in crime since the realise of the game, many crimes have been committed all in the name of GTA, law suits and murders all the way up to bank robberies, time and time again GTA would pop up in the court room with lawsuits blaming the company for damaging their mind set.

Linked production piece

A video game that has the opposite representations to GTA e.g. woman are presented in a postive light rather than sex objects.

SHEP

London Riots: with teenagers being the primary subjects in this criminal activity, it can be argued that the media planted the seed of crime
911 Bombing: Terrorist activities and how they link with media and represented
Madalin McAain: Kidnapping and abduction and how this is glorified in games
Gun Crime (wollich): the murder of innocent individuals in the name of religion

Issues/Debates

Representation and stereotyping – The stereotyping of black males in media, including games, black males are always made to be the primary criminal protagonist
News Values – Howe the news portrays crime, and glorifies religious criminal activity, planting seeds in the mind of the youth
Ownership and control – leaving the blame of crime in the hands of family and careers when most of the time there is a wider picture
Regulation and censorship – the age restrictions on games and the possible addition of another category (21)
Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century – how different media platforms that are not yet regulated can affect the youth and subliminally effect the minds of the unwary
The effect of globalisation on the media – women and their representation in the media and how this is different round the world

Theories

Hypodermic needle model- Bobo doll
Laura Mulvey’s 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'
Marie Winns 'The Plug in Drug' 1977

Media texts
Grand Theft Auto V

All Previous GTA games 

Other media texts

BBC NEWS
SKY new
FOX News