Blog- o -Mania

     I found this blog assignment rather interesting than a normal paper final work that I often receive from my instructor by the second half of the class's semester, not sure if other think so too (:D) . Instead of swapping paper and grading each other (often just scan through all the lines to find mistakes) , you have a chance to read more than just thoughts and "bookmark" the idea of your classmate if you like it. 


     After went through the blog's addresses, here is the final list of blogs which I recommend : 

• Dandelion in Advertising Field - Maksym Khavrashchuk

Using dandelion to portrait unethical advertising, how it harm the society with its seems "harmless" idea was the main topic Maksym was trying to deliver to the blogger reader. 

• Privacy and Social Net Working - Seonghee Ahn

Seonghee's blog discussed how Facebook- as one of the current hottest website affect people's time consuming and  the privacy of personal information that every user store online there. 

• Just picture it - Julia Ni

A must visit blog if you are interested in photography. The definition and value of photography were stated well by Julia. Read to find out more. 

• Sex vs Violence in Media - Niklas Knott

Niklas claimed the effect of media on people, more specific here children; especially the use of violence and sexuality in television. He also provided many videos and pictures of commercial to support the ideas.

• Love & Romance in Mass Media - Lucie Bergerova

A rather interesting topic of how love and relationship are portrait in mass media. Also, how it changes the original and traditional way of a relationship works. 


References:
http://thefilmfellas.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/henry_recommend.png

Introductory

Nowadays, since the world has become more hostile and with the improvement of technology , people can change their way of communicate and interact with each others. Online video game was created and designed for that purpose. 

This blog as a part of a “Media Literacy Project” within the course Media and Society, is trying to expose some main issues which caused by online video games such as addiction, violent, depression and aggression in young people. Besides the negative effect, there is also positive effect which was found by scientist will also be mention on the post. 

“ Are video games a serious problem which needs to be addressed or is it simply a part of the development of our digital society?“. Read to find out the answer. The blog will provide the reader information with different kind of media such as news, books, online research studies, videos and pictures.  

Enjoy. 

References:

• http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20080307/Picture_1.png

A mere documentary or the society's wake up call ?

     Documentary is not an extremely catchy phrase compare to other blockbuster’s film category as it requires the interest of a person and some sort of thoughts instead just some flawless entertaining. Nowadays, documentary is not only make based on the professional studies but also personally by certain people who have experienced the problem and to share their story to help others whose also suffering it. When an issue is shown in documentary , it often shows as negative and shocking that people tend to realize how the "reality" actually is. But, is documentary always success to deliver to the audience the truth ?

     The recent short documentary film “IRL- In Real Life“ which was made by Anthony Rosner- a third year film student of University of Creative Arts, showed a shortcut of six years of his life on WoW- World of Warcraft before he called it a quit. The short film got quite many attention after it was posted in youtube website as the video grossed over four hundred thousand views. It shows perfectly an overlook of what a player can do in Warcraft’s world  as how the game attracted so many people since 1994. His life was not perfect, as everything has its consequences. The more Anthony achieved in his own digital world, the more time and joys he missed in reality. After became a heart-broken, spent one gap year in Norway to play Warcraft instead of attend the college and after a total of six years playing game; he had to admit the problem and overcome his own addiction. ("Wordpress," 2012)

   It was perfectly clear what agenda the director want the audience to have after watching his video. Online video game, more specifically here Warcraft, was designed to be addictive and it can harm a person’s health, make them isolated themself from social life and cost the player a lot of time and money.  

References:

• Interview: Anthony rosner director of “irl – in real life [Web log message]. (2012, February 2). Retrieved from http://tumblingdicemedia.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/interview-anthony-rosner-director-of-irl-in-real-life/ .
• (2012, January 15). youtube. (2012). [0]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrKjNwejhfg .
• 
  

Cause without Effect is Possible

    The online video aames industry is a potential business with high income, especially on violence genre. The realer the violent screens and actions, the better they sell. It introduces to the player a different world compare to the real one, as violent is “legal” and  “unpunished”. 


     It increased the aggression and confusion to the younger people as they cannot distinguish what is acceptable in a real society. There are studies proved that, besides acting more aggressively, young people also developed more negative thought and often desire to learn and commit such crime in real life.

   “ Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations," said Dr. Anderson. "In the short run, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. Longer-term effects are likely to be longer lasting as well, as the player learns and practices new aggression-related scripts that can become more and more accessible for use when real-life conflict situations arise.” (Willenz, 2000)

Further readings to get better ideas of this issues.

References:

• Shin, G. (2008, January 04). Retrieved from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723
• Willenz, P. (2000, June 23). www.apa.org. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games.aspx
• http://i.haymarket.net.au/News/IMG_19800110_133552.jpg

Fatal Addiction. Who to blame?

    In March, 2010 in Seoul (South Korea), a first legal case regarding Internet addiction in Korea was taking place; in which a couple, Kim Jea-Bom (41) and Kim Yun-jeong (25) , was found guilty of starving their 3 months old baby to death while busy raised a virtual child in Prius Online, a 3D Fantasy game.

 “While the couple fed and lavished gifts on their virtual child, Anima, allowing her to acquire magical powers as she grew, their real daughter starved in their single-room apartment. She was fed nothing but powdered milk two or three times a day, before and after her parents' marathon gaming excursions.

   The court heard how the couple, who met through an online chatroom, arrived home one morning last September after spending another night at a PC bang to find Sa-rang dead. The infant, born prematurely, weighed just 5.5lbs when she died.“ (McCurry, 2010)

    The case was simply shocking and caused many attention not only from the local media but also the national one. But, who to blame in this tragic incident, the game itself or the uneducated irresponsibility parents ?

     According to the Korean government, about two million ( nearly one out of ten online users ) are addicted to the internet  (McCurry, 2010) . Million dollar was spent on addiction treatment and to open counseling centers, also from September 2010, there is restricted for gamers who are under 18 from midnight to 8am in most 19 popular game online sites. However, there is increased number of older player rather than young teenager.

     It is rather difficult if there is only the restriction from the government since South Korea was known as the world most wired nation with 90% of homes has high-speed connection which give an easy way to the game online players to fuel their addiction  (McCurry, 2010) . Moreover, there is no penalty for company games if the rules is broken because the government is in charge of promoting gaming, according to Eo Gee-jun, president of the Korea Computer Life Institute.

    Then, isn’t it necessary to educate citizens and raise their awareness about this addiction?

References:

•   McCurry, J. (2010, July 13). Internet addiction driving south koreans into realms of fantasy. Retrieved from 
• (2010, April 5). youtube. (2010). [0]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdDmp_Ak1no

There is always light in the end of the tunnel.

     You read it right, there are not only negative effects of online video games but there are also positive side too. 

“Today, a growing area of brain research suggests modern fast-paced action video games — in particular first-person shooter games — may sharpen your vision, improve your attention and working memory, and develop your fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.”   (Bavelier, 2009)  

These studied showed that playing game frequently is a way that it helps to exercise the brain.  The research from Nottingham University prove that playing certain video games can help the player achieve in one hour what eye patches achieve in four hundred hours. Moreover, the researchers at the University of Rochester found that first-person shooter video games improve the visual skills by increasing the brain’s capacity to spread attention over a wide range of events. (Video games are good for you )

However, game online are addictive and not all video game are created equally to help people achieve exactly those functions. 

References:

• Thomp, C. (2009, 11 20). Takeaway. Retrieved from http://www.pri.org/stories/science/technology/benefits-of-video-games-1741.html
• Bavelier, D. (2009, June 24). Abc science. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/06/24/2607577.htm
• http://www.abc.net.au/reslib/200906/r389683_1820997.jpg

Make Love, Not Warcraft.

     Now, take a break from all the blog's reading and have some fun with Southpark - a show most of us are familiar with.

    "Southpark" is an American animated show which often portrait society's serious problem in a dark sense of humor from a point of view of four "8 years old" kids from Colorado town. With the addiction problem from online video games, especially here with World of Warcraft, Southpark didn't fail to impress the audience. 

      Let's see what they will bring to us this time.

References:

• (2008, november). pp2g. (2008). [0]. Retrieved from http://www.pp2g.tv/va3txYXM_.aspx

A serious problem? Or simply a part of the revolution into the digital society.

“ Are video games a serious problem which needs to be addressed or is it simply a part of the development of our digital society? "

    Online video game is a part of million transition from a local society to more digital world domain. Different than just a chatting room, with online video game; the player can interact with other people from all over the world with their “subtitle“ character. With the improvement of technology and especially the birth of 3D, the player while playing a game can get even a realer feeling of “digital world“. There is always something new to play due to the fact that online video games are being updated on daily or weekly basis. Player can have a substantial fun without even leaving the house. He can create his character however he want, and be whoever they think they desire to be in real life. The more time they spend playing the game, the cooler they look. They believe that if their character will have a higher social position in the game, their social aspects will also improve.They feel good i this online world and deny to deal with their real life. They are slowly drowning in the fantasy world. Is that called a comfor of modern society or just simply dependent on it?

    The game gives the people a feeling that they are doing something useful, that they are achieving something rather than just sitting and doing nothing. It differs from real life where when individual stumbles in business or personal life he deals with consequences. They cannot just leave and start all over again like in online video game. The player feels rather secure online where he decides whether he desires to deal with a problem or just start again, And when he chooses to deal with it he does so while sitting behind the computer He does not have to deal with a real situation face to face. In reality, online games players tend to abandon themselves, their health, job, social life and more.

   To conclude, older generation has a extremely difficult time trying to understand the things we embrace in everyday life such as rocknroll and television. Are online video games merely a next big thing to deal with? There are many questions  to be answer, but  there is one to fit to the answer. This issue will be around for A while and everyone will have to face it sooner or later, however it is safe to say that when it is finally integrated in the society, the way we do things will change. This might be an issue but not a problem, people just need to realize how addictive this games can be rather than take sides and blame each other. 

References

• http://lawaonline.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/internet-drawback/teenager-with-computer300.jpg
• http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs12/f/2006/333/0/0/Sypmtoms_of_Game_Addiction_by_Davio.jpg

Reading Guide.

•             For those who interested in online video game  addiction and the treatment, I would recommend this reading: Understanding Online Game Addiction and Treatment.  to further understand the natural of the addiction and be aware of it.

• ·         ESRB, in other words, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, is designed to help especially parents to buy game for their children: ESRB . This tool has been using since 1994 to help the parent to specify each type of game.

• ·        This website introduce a new type of online video games, instead of violent actions and crime; they introduced missions to save the world with goal as a peace maker for player to achieve, : Games for Change . The website was recommended by ABC New York News to help reduce aggressiveness in youngster.

• ·          Violent Video Games: Myth, Facts and Unanswered questions. Focused on “Myth and Facts” of video games, it mostly focused on the aggressiveness in young people, problem with their health and others topic that are connected with Video Games.