Other Issues in Media and Society

In the past couple of days I came across those couple of blogs that investigate other issues in media and society and are worth looking into: 

Violence and Video Games

blog by Brian Connolly

http://brianconnollymedia.wordpress.com

This blog, focusing on finding a link between video games and violence, points out the key ideas concerning the issue. There indeed is a link between children playing video games and their engagement in violence. The fact that a child is exposed to gaming for many hours each day is an important factor in their reality perception, even though, they are able to distinguish between reality and the virtual world. On the other hand, video games do have their advantages such as mental improvement, education, exercise and others. The blog further explains the connection between gaming and real-life violence and provides a much deeper understanding of the topic, while considering many different points of view. 

Reality TV, Really? 

by Nick Downing

http://xdowningn.wordpress.com

Nick's blog with a main concern in TV and its distortion of how reality is perceived, focuses on women's body shape and the definition of perfect and also on gender roles and stereotypes assigned by TV. Television (certain shows or broadcasted events) can have a drastic impact on how people perceive women, forcing them to stick to a certain body type in order to look perfect and therefore meet the social standards. Regarding gender roles, Nick points out that for example advertising is showing boys play with cars and girls with dolls, which can be easily perceived as role modeling for children. The blog is clearly explaining a very complicated media issue and makes it more understandable. 

The effects of sexism in the computer entertainment industry

by Michael Hašek

http://mikehasunyp.wordpress.com

Michael's blog covers a very interesting topic of women's involvement in mostly gaming industry and how they are discriminated against. The blog covers both female developers and game characters and looks into the problem of female characters being portrayed as helpless or as sex objects. The issue has not been talked about much, that is however changing, as there are many more people concerned about the issue. Recently, there has also been an increase in the number of female characters in video games, which suggest a step forward. In his blog, Michael is looking into a rather interesting problem that has only recently started to be taken seriously and explains why it should be seen as such. 

Are You Sure That You Eat What You Want? 

by Natalia Khozyainova

http://negativeinfluenceofmediaonfood.blogspot.cz

This blog investigates the impacts of media on what we eat. Natalia focuses on how certain types of advertising, such as the "sex sells" type, influence and manipulate what we want to eat. It also focuses on media's effects on eating disorders, such as anorexia. On the other end of the spectrum, she looks at obesity as a medical condition and that a possible cause is fast food advertising. Another interesting area Natalia mentions, is children being confused by fast food commercials, as they can be promoting their food as healthy which is not the case. The blog foreshadows an interesting topic, which in reality is much broader, but provides a good starting point for further research.