Do Violent Video Games impact society? E&W Research Evan Baumgart and Wesley Seale

Research Topic The purpose of this ethnographic case is to discover the central focus for why people charge the video game industry with having such a strong influence on the violence we observe in our community. The researchers are interested in the perception of survey respondents and scholars alike in relation to the role violent media, specifically violent video games, plays in society. This subject is important in Mass Communication and Public Relations because without more in-depth research on the topic, media creators run the risk of alienating their consumer base.

Research Questions RQ1: Is the video game industry solely responsible for the violence witnessed in today’s society? RQ2: How is the video game industry dealing with violence in the video games? RQ3: How does a younger demographic deal with deal with video game violence?

Qualitative Research Two in-depth interviews were performed by researchers. One interview was conducted with a 35 year old Hispanic male who plays video games daily for at least an hour. This interview contained only open ended questions about the participant’s video game history and experience. The second participant is a 17 year old Caucasian male who plays video games about 7-9 hours a week. This interview was also structured in an open ended manner with as few leading questions as possible. Both participants stated that they did not feel violent video games were a problem and that other media had a larger influence.

Quantitative Research The quantitative research method used was a survey created on surveymonkey.com and administered using a combination of Facebook and the social media site Reddit. The survey was open from March 24th through April 12th. The survey consisted of ten questions, beginning with warm-up questions, then flows into a mix of demographic/transition questions, and concluded with more intricate in depth questions. At the time the survey closed it had 97 respondents

Analysis Demographic: Gender :48.98% Female (48 Respondents) 50% Male (49 respondents) 1.02% Other/Prefer not to say. Age: 11-20 yrs. 21.43% (21 respondents) 21-30 yrs. 52.04% (51 respondents) 31-40 yrs. 13.27% (13 respondents) 41+ 12.24% (12 respondents) with one respondent preferring not to answer. Ethnicity: 80. 61% Caucasian. 14.29% Latino 2.04% African American with 3.06% preferring not to answer.

Analysis Demographic (Cont)

Analysis Cross Tabulation

Analysis “At what age were you first exposed/drawn to violent video games?” Mean: The mean for this question fell within the higher end of the 5-10 age range, which was 44.33% of respondents. Median: The median of this question was within the 11-15 age range, making up 31.96% of the responses. Mode: The mode of this question is also within the 5-10 age range

Analysis “How likely would you be to let your children play violent video games?” Mean: The mean of this question was the response “Depends on the game” which made up 41.84% of responses. Median: The median of this question fell within the same response as the mean. Mode: The mode also fell under the same response.

Analysis In the past 7 days, roughly how many hours have you spent playing video games (e.g. gaming consoles, mobile phones, computers, etc.)? Mean: This question had a mean of 2.81 so it fell mostly within the answer choice 1-3 hours which was 23.71% of responses. Median: The median was 3.00 and fell in to the 4-7 hours a week range. Mode: The mode also fell in to the 1-3 hour range.

Social Media Outtakes Total Page Likes: 72 Highest Post Reach: 104 people reached Monday, April 6th 2015. It was an APA article on media violence.

Social Media Outtakes

Social Media Outtakes

Conclusion Limitations Time Constraints Narrow Demographic Reached Lack of Survey Depth Due to Question Limit Access to Interview Respondents Changes Start Survey Earlier Promote Survey More Dedicate More Time to Facebook Page More In-Depth Survey More Interviews

Conclusion Managerial Implications: More research needs to be done on the subject of media violence and its relation to real world violence. Without a deeper insight in to the effects these types of media, it is difficult to say where research should go from here. From a public relations standpoint, video game companies, as well as other media sources, should consider the studies that link violent video games and other media with real world violence and not ignore the problem as is the current industry norm.