New Foundings from Research

Initial approach: Relationship between violence in entertainment media and school shootings

New foundings: 3 shootings mentions about violent video games (Evan Ramsey - Doom, Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold - Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, , Seung Hui Cho - Counterstrike)

And yet, the public believes the video games play a large role in shootings.

There is a large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows.

From the article published by MIT Professor, Henry Jenkins,
"According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low.

Eric Zimmerman describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the "magic circle." The same action — say, sweeping a floor — may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions. Media reformers argue that playing violent video games can cause a lack of empathy for real-world victims. Yet, a child who responds to a video game the same way he or she responds to a real-world tragedy could be showing symptoms of being severely emotionally disturbed. Here's where the media effects research, which often uses punching rubber dolls as a marker of real-world aggression, becomes problematic. The kid who is punching a toy designed for this purpose is still within the "magic circle" of play and understands her actions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent play leads to more violent play. "