Ready,Aim, Fire! Violent Video Game Play and Gun Controller Use: Effects on Behavioral Aggression and Social Norms Concerning Violence

In addition to individual risk factors, recent findings surrounding the effects of violent video game play have provided compelling evidence that the contextual features of games also contribute to increased outcome aggression. The current study focuses on the relationship between violent video game play and the use of gun controllers on both social norms related to aggression and real-life behavioral aggression. As predicted, both violent video game play and gun controller use were positively related to behavioral aggression. The implications of these findings are discussed along with their influence on future research in this area.     

Moral Foundations Theory and Moral Reasoning in Video Game Play: Using Real-Life Morality in a Game Context

Although research has indicated that moral decisions are made during video game play, less research has examined moral reasoning during play. Using a think-aloud protocol, participants’ decisions and reasoning were recorded during game play and coded as either strategic or moral. Players’ reasoning was also coded using Moral Foundations Theory. Results indicated an almost equal percentage of strategic and moral reasoning; the salience of several individual moral foundations predicted moral reasoning during play. Video game experience was positively related to the use of moral reasoning, which can be explained by relating reasoning to rational and experiential processing during game play.     

Social Context and Video Game Play: Impact on Cardiovascular and Affective Responses

We examined if cardiovascular and affective responding to video game play changed across social context or with game content. Male participants (13–22 years old) played a violent or nonviolent video game. Each participant played the game individually, competitively against a male partner, and cooperatively with the partner. There was no effect of social condition on heart rate (HR) or diastolic blood pressure (DBP). Participants had significantly higher systolic BP (SBP) when playing individually and competitively than when playing cooperatively, probably because play was more continuous. There was no impact of game type for HR or SBP. DBP was significantly higher for participants who played the violent game, perhaps because participants found the violent game more exciting and enjoyable. Participants who played the violent game rated the experimenters more positively than those who played the nonviolent game. Participants found game play more exciting, enjoyable, stressful, and frustrating, but less boring and relaxing, when they played competitively or cooperatively than when they played individually. The results are discussed in terms of the general aggression model.     

How Violent Video Games Communicate Violence: A Literature Review and Content Analysis of Moral Disengagement Factors

Mechanisms of moral disengagement in violent video game play have recently received considerable attention among communication scholars. To date, however, no study has analyzed the prevalence of moral disengagement factors in violent video games. To fill this research gap, the present approach includes both a systematic literature review and a content analysis of moral disengagement cues embedded in the narratives and actual game play of 17 top-ranked first-person shooters (PC). Findings suggest that moral disengagement factors are frequently embedded in first-person shooters, but their prevalence varies considerably. Most violent video games include justifications of the portrayed violence, a distorted portrayal of consequences, and dehumanization of opponents. Implications of the findings for research on violent games are discussed.     

Play It,Learn It,Make It Last: Developing an Online Game to Create Self-Sufficient Library Information Users

ABSTRACT

Library orientation at an academic health sciences library consisted of a five-minute overview within new student orientation. Past experience indicated this brief presentation was insufficient for students to learn about library resources. In 2014, an effort was made to supplement orientation by developing an online game aimed at enabling students to become self-sufficient through hands-on learning. A gaming model was chosen with expectations that competition and rewards would motivate students. Although the pilots suffered from low participation rates, the experience merits further research into the potential of a broader model of online library instruction in the health sciences environment.     

Game Mechanics Matter: Differences in Video Game Conditions Influence Memory Performance

We collected behavioral evidence to support the hypothesis that video game conditions have varying influences on hippocampus-dependent memory. Results indicate that participants who played in the video game conditions with clear reward mechanisms performed better on a declarative memory task than those who played in the video game conditions without reward mechanisms. Those who reported spending more time gaming weekly also performed the task better than those who reported spending less time gaming weekly, suggesting that gaming might have short-term and long-term effects on the hippocampus.     

Models for Aggressive Behavior: The Attributes of Violent Characters in Popular Video Games

Americans are increasingly concerned about video games, presumably due to the amount and graphicness of violence they contain. Social Cognitive Theory suggests that people are more likely to imitate characters they see as attractive or similar to self. To date, however, little research has examined attributes of violent characters in video games related to this issue. This content analysis examined 10 minutes of play from 60 of the most popular video games. Adapting the coding scheme from the National Television Violence Study (Smith et al., 1998 Smith, S. L., Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Colvin, C. M. and Donnerstein, E. 1998. National Television Violence Study: Vol. 3. Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara study, 5–220. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.  [Google Scholar]; Wilson et al., 1997 Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Donnerstein, E.Smith, S. L. 1997. National Television Violence Study: Vol. 1. Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara study, 3–268. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.  [Google Scholar], 1998 Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Donnerstein, E.Smith, S. L. 1998. National Television Violence Study: Vol. 2. Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara, 3–204. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.  [Google Scholar]), various demographic and contextual features of violent characters and violent interactions were assessed. The results show that violent game characters have attributes that are likely to increase the extent to which some players perceive them as attractive and similar. Moreover, these violent characters engage in aggression that is presented as justified or graphic.     

Graphic Violence as Moral Motivator: The Effects of Graphically Violent Content in News

Common wisdom holds that graphic media violence leads to antisocial outcomes. This common wisdom is reflected in the Society for Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. However, theory and research regarding moral emotions’ ability to increase moral sensitivity suggests that this type of negative content may be capable of yielding prosocial responses. This article describes this logic and tests its predictions in two experimental studies utilizing news footage of a mass execution conducted by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Results corroborate claims that graphic media violence can serve as a moral motivator. Higher levels of graphic violence led to stronger anger and disgust responses, which in turn predicted higher levels of (a) moral sensitivity, (b) desires for anti-ISIS interventions (including military and humanitarian efforts), and (c) eudaimonic motivations (i.e., seeking meaning in life). Important to note, no increases in negative attitudes toward Arab Muslims were observed. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Crafting Courses as Game Spaces: Examining Video Games Classes in Communication

The sudden rise in the number of games courses in Communication departments necessitates examination about how those courses operate, not only to define best practices but also to describe the phenomenon as grounded in communication. Through a series of interviews with games professors primarily located in Communication departments at various institutions, the study delineates the commonalities between game courses and discusses issues of course design, materials, and classroom facilities. The article examines these courses as game spaces to identify how games courses operate in fundamentally different ways than other courses in Communication. The article then outlines how games classes might improve by capitalizing on the strengths—as well as mitigating the weaknesses—of game spaces.     

Social Comparisons and Need Fulfillment: Interpreting Video Game Enjoyment in the Context of Leaderboards

This study examines how social comparison information provided by video game leaderboards may influence players’ retrospective judgments of autonomy, competence, and relatedness need fulfillment. Participants played a video game and were randomly assigned to receive no postgame feedback or were shown a leaderboard that placed them in the top or bottom quartile of players. Results indicate downward social comparisons increase enjoyment by increasing competence and relatedness perceptions. However, upward comparisons did not have an opposite effect, nor did either type of social comparison influence players’ autonomy perceptions. Implications for applying Self-Determination Theory to video game enjoyment in the context of social comparison feedback is discussed.     

Bridging the Gap Between Library Services in Academic Libraries: A Visiting Librarian Model

ABSTRACT

This article discusses an experience of the University of Central Florida (UCF) Library when hosting a visiting librarian from Tongji University Library in Shanghai, China, in 2015. Unlike most other visiting programs in the U.S., UCF's hosting experience offers a year-long, broad-based training in several functional areas facilitated by library administration and two bilingual librarians. The initial goals were to promote dialogue and understanding between the academic systems of the two countries, and ultimately to enhance the international users' library experience in their quest to study at foreign institutions. Through describing this visiting program and discussing its findings and assessments, the authors concluded longer term visiting programs like this can benefit both the visiting and hosting libraries and bridge the gap of academic libraries across the world.     

Platform Competition in the Video Game Console Industry: Impacts of Software Quality and Exclusivity on Market Share

This study examines impacts of the complementary products on platform competition, in the context of video game consoles. Using 10-year panel data, the results demonstrate that high-quality software has a disproportionately significant effect on hardware demand. The high-quality exclusive software is an important factor affecting consumers’ utility, and it tends to be developed in hardware manufacturers’ vertically integrated subsidiaries. In addition, this study also identifies that high-quality multi-homing software plays a role in platform growth in a platform’s later stage.     

Playing for Love in a Romantic Video Game: Avatar Identification,Parasocial Relationships,and Chinese Women's Romantic Beliefs

Previous studies have identified relationships between romantic media consumption and users’ romantic beliefs, but romantic video games (RVGs; i.e., games in which players attempt to foster a romantic relationship with a chosen game character, also called dating games or dating simulators) remain understudied. Using a cultivation framework, we conducted an online survey of female Chinese players to determine their consumption of the RVG genre, identification with their avatars, and parasocial relationships with the romantic targets they pursue in the game, as well as their beliefs about romantic relationships. Although the amount of time spent playing RVGs did not directly predict idealized beliefs about romantic relationships, the hypothesized mediation model revealed that it indirectly predicted romantic beliefs through identification with avatars and parasocial relationships with video game characters. We discuss the implications for studying romantic media, dating simulations, interactive narratives, and other video game genres.     

Do Morals Featured in Media Content Correspond with Moral Intuitions in Media Users?: A Test of the MIME in Two Cultures

ABSTRACT

The model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME) predicts that moral representations in media content can activate related moral intuitions in audiences, and that audience members in turn are influenced by their moral instincts to select content featuring corresponding moral values. This proposition was tested and confirmed in a two-phase study. Content analyses measured the frequency of moral domain representations in top-rated popular TV serials from India and the U.S., while an implicit measure (MF-AMP) gauged the strength of corresponding moral intuitions in viewers and non-viewers of these shows.     

新冠肺炎疫情下公共图书馆视频内容生产与网络传播研究——以上海图书馆为例

在疫情防控常态化的背景下,如何利用网络视频提高服务效能,是公共图书馆追求更高质量发展所需思考的问题.本文采用定量分析方法,通过对疫情期间上海图书馆在微博、哔哩哔哩以及今日头条三个平台所发布的图书馆视频数据进行分析,并对图书馆热门视频的特征进行识别.研究结果表明:以用户为中心、内容上满足用户信息需求和情感需要、形式上与平...     

Bridging the Gap Between Digital Measures and Digital Commons in Support of Open Access: Or,How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Human Mediation

Utah State University is home to a Digital Commons repository and an instance of the Digital Measures activity-reporting tool. The prospect of linking these two systems, such that content is automatically harvested from Digital Measures for upload into the Digital Commons, is alluring. Our initial efforts were abandoned due to lack of faculty permissions and low-quality metadata. However, with the passage of an Institutional Open Access Policy, we resumed investigation. We found that the process of harvesting from Digital Measures and uploading to Digital Commons could be streamlined, if not fully automated. Our initial harvest revealed that human-mediation is desirable.