J.P. Gee (2007) found that videogames engaged children in powerful ways. In 2013, Apple reported that from June 2008 to May 2013, 50 billion types of application software (apps) had been downloaded from the Apple store (Miller, T. & Monaghan, C., 2013). Games
comprised 16.98% of application software downloads, followed by educational apps, which accounted for 10.83% of all app downloads (“Most Popular App Store Categories,” 2013). Educational videogames are highly marketed to and consumed by children. Wolf (2007) reported that students were being introduced to games and digital media at increasingly younger ages. They wanted to do more than just watch media; they wanted to create and interact with media (Hutchison, 2007).
Squire (2011) reported that educational games entered classrooms at a staggering pace as educators rushed to integrate iPads, tablets, and laptops into educational settings to keep up with 21st century learning goals. The rush to integrate these technologies created concerns about corporate interests selling and developing videogames that addictively stimulated children through violence and media marketed blitz campaigns (Grossman & Degaetano, 1999). Kutner and Olson (2008) found that it had become critical that students have the skills not only to critically analyze educational videogames, but also to be able to understand and design
educationally meaningful games of their own that countered hegemonic marketing messages and voiced concerns about stereotypes and violence in games.
Critical Media Literacy
In this study, I examined the effects of a violence prevention videogame- creation curriculum on the development of fourth graders’ critical media literacy awareness. The
pertinent literature included discussion of the history of videogame creation and its relationship to the theoretical framework of critical media literacy and symbolic interactionism. The literature also included a summary of current thinking about the effects of videogames on children’s thinking and behavior.
History of Critical Media Literacy
The Media Literacy 1.0 that developed in the 1980s and 1990s focused on the power and influence of broadcast media such as film, television, and corporate advertising (Torres & Mercado, 2006). In his work, Teaching the Media, Len Masterman (1985) argued that a new model of media literacy curriculum was needed that went beyond analyzing the power of
broadcast media. Masterman (1985) argued that in order to understand how meaning operates in media, students needed to engage in its actual production using its language and representations to create media products (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012). The idea of using media to reshape the public sphere emerged in the 1960s, the early years of media literacy (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012). David Buckingham (2006) and Jesus Martin-Barbero (1987) held that media education could be used as an empowerment tool, but their views remained a marginal position
(Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012). Media literacy curricula in the late nineties and early two thousands was still focused on evaluating and analyzing media text and movies and had not yet embraced the more active creation model of media production (Buckingham, 2003). Media education centered on analyzing broadcast media, radio, and magazines to determine the answers
to questions related to what was on the screen, who made it, and how the viewer responded to it; but did not focus on what counter messages could be created and how, or on a viewer response to such messages (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012). Media production tools were both expensive and difficult to access. The technological advances in the late nineties and early two thousands were not yet mainstream enough for students to create media easily and inexpensively (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012). In foundational media literacy texts, the interpretation of texts and the interests of their corporate producers were the central issues that dominated the field of media literacy. Media production by students was not addressed in media literacy curricula.
The 21st century brought an explosion in the expansion of communications media, and an enormous change in public access to media creation tools. With this communication expansion, arose the idea that media production should be an integral part of media literacy (Sefton-Green, 2006). A new field of media literacy that included active production of media, critical media literacy emerged. Hands-on interaction and participation in media consumption and production increasingly became the norm rather than the exception. Henry Jenkins (2006) described these practices as part of a culture of convergence. This aspect of culture of convergence was “one where there are more opportunities for young people (and others) to express themselves through digital media” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 41).
If there was “a central thread running through contemporary definitions of critical media literacy, it was that literacy should involve not only interpreting but also creating media texts” (Hoechsmann & Poyntz, 2012, p. 16). Developing citizens with critical media literacy required explicit examination of media texts in educational settings to help children gain insight into their own values and the world they inhabit, as well as instruction on how to create counter media
messages. Hoechsmann & Poyntz (2012) wrote of the media-saturated world in which children lived that went beyond what they learned from their parents and teachers. The concept of critical media literacy expanded on the standard notion of media literacy by requiring it to include media production as an integral component. Analyzing media was not enough to empower children; they also had to learn to create and respond to messages if critical media literacy was to be
effective. Critical media literacy involved the ability to analyze media texts and their relationship to dominant and powerful institutions, as wells as, the opportunity for young people to use creative media production to deliver their own messages and visions of the world (Buckingham, 2006).
Roger Silverstone (2004) believed that critical media literacy must always have a moral agenda. Critical media literacy enabled young people to become active contributors to the public worlds shared in cyberspace. O’Neill (2009) wrote that young people could affect the common good through participation in media creation.
Critical Media Literacy Awareness
People generally looked at media as consumers, giving little thought to subtle media messages they experienced and their impact. Critical media literacy awareness required users to analyze videogames and other media to understand the motivations of the producers and the effects the media have on people who use it. Some of the aspects of critical media literacy that became important for people to understand were violence, marketing, and Kellner’s and Share’s five factors of media literacy.
Violence Awareness
Researchers looked at violence in media for its potential to create a cultivation effect in which individuals exposed to media violence experienced increased fear and saw the world as more violent than it actually was (Gerbner et al., 1993). Researchers described effects of viewing violence in media including increased aggressiveness and antisocial behavior, increased fear of being a victim, increased desensitization to violence and the victims of violence, and an increased appetite for more violence in entertainment and real life (American Psychological Association
Commission on Violence and Youth, 1993). Grossman and Degaetano (1999) found that the
violent imagery in games such as Call of Duty raised concerns about the danger of exposing young people to media violence. Kutner and Olson (2008) demonstrated a correlation between aggressive behavior and children who played violent games. Ghose (2012) reported that with the increase in videogame technology, schools experienced an increase in physical and social
bullying, device addiction, antisocial skills, and a lack of personal communication skills to solve interpersonal problems (Ghose, 2012).
Marketing Awareness
Barbaro (2008) raised the concern that marketers had begun to target children with advertisements to be lifetime consumers. Marketing techniques included using gender
stereotypes, violence, and connections to children’s feelings to sell products. Ghose (2012) felt that children internalized and acted out these values in social groups or appeared in school with anxiety, depression, and socially isolating behaviors. Part of the solution suggested was to introduce a critical media literacy curriculum that addressed the conflict between the positive and negative sides of technology (Pavlova, 2005).
Analyzing videogame trailers can make children aware of how marketers have used violence, images, and their feelings in advertisements to sell and excite them about games. Children can make the connection between violence and stereotypes in media, and they can then think about how they act, how their peers act, and the possible real life consequences of imitating violence and stereotypes. Pavlova (2005) found that children could then respond to these
messages by learning to technically create their own videogames and create alternative messages of social justice.
Kellner’s and Share’s Five Core Concepts of Critical Media Literacy
In their explanation of critical media literacy, Kellner and Share (2005) required that students develop critical thinking skills to understand how exposure to popular media shaped their worldviews. They listed five core concepts that constituted critical media literacy (Kellner & Share, 2005). The concepts and five related questions have become the standard for teaching critical media literacy skills and have been used by the Center for Media Literacy (2007). In this study, students used Kellner’s and Share’s five core concepts of critical media literacy to analyze and create videogame trailers.
Marketers’ messages to gain profit and power awareness. The first core concept
posed by Kellner and Share (2005) was that media messages were constructed to gain profit and power. The key question concerned the reason the message was sent. Messages are sent to create a demand for commercial products or to get people to take certain actions. An example is a violent videogame, which uses action characters to convince young boys to buy it. If a child does not buy or play the game, he is socially excluded from his peer group. In a study on the effects of videogames, the Kaiser Family Foundation (2002) found that children who played more
videogames had a greater numbers of friends, because it was important to know about certain videogames to socially interact with peers.
Users’ different experiences with media based on background and viewpoint
awareness. The second core concept posed was that different people experience the same media
message differently. The pertinent question addressed how and why different people understood the same message differently (Kellner & Share, 2005). People from different cultural
backgrounds, socio-economic groups, or genders interpreted the same media message differently. Based on their backgrounds, what might different people see, think, hear, and feel when they see a media message?
Corporations’ branding through inclusion, exclusion, and stereotypes awareness. The
third core concept was that media products have embedded values and points of view (Kellner & Share, 2005). The key question addressed the lifestyles, values, and points of view that were represented in or omitted from a specific message. In every message, certain people were included while others not in the target audience were excluded. Media incorporate brands and logos in their messages to appeal to a target audience in order to sell products to them. Violent images and ideas may be incorporated into a brand to excite and attract young people to play videogames. Designers incorporate elements that cause adrenaline to excite and addict viewers to the feeling playing and watching a game creates.
Branding may attract and promote violent lifestyles, values, and points of view to attract a target audience. Violence has been a common branding tool because violence is universally understood. Thoman and Wright (1995) indicated that branding was used to create stereotypes and to get young people to buy goods to fit into socially popular categories. When looking at a
media message, children should think about what is being branded, who is being included in the target audience, who is being excluded, and why.
Gender and racial stereotypes branding in videogames and the videogame industry.
Stereotypes perpetuated in videogames and in the videogame industry have included
discriminatory images and exclusion of females and minorities, and inclusion of stereotypical roles of males. Culture and media such as violent videogames reinforced a popular cultural script that manhood was about obtaining power through violence (Ghose, 2012). A stereotype for girls was that power can be obtained through gossip, sexualization, and manipulation of other females (Kafai et al., 2009). These media images can become the idealized roles for children who are immersed in them. Conversely, many boys have been left out of the picture when it comes to traditional educational environments. Games may hold the key to bring boys back to literacy. Carr-Chellman (2012) revealed:
The results are startling: In the most recent set of tests administered by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) across 65 countries, boys scored lower than girls in basic literacy skills in every country tested. In fact, while girls caught up to boys in math, they soared ahead of boys by 39 points in reading. It would be better to look for ways to engage boys in their own learning to ‘empower them rather than channeling their energy into behaviors that schools might prefer.’ Three ways that gaming could be used to engage boys in learning would be to create better educational games, to use existing high-motivation games in the classroom, and to allow students to create their own games. Game integration into a K-12 environment, particularly at the elementary levels appears to be a way to include active kids and boys. Some boys as well do not fit into the
stereotype of the sports kid or overly athletic child and this role model can be overly shown in games as well. All children can learn, and games give a voice to those who do not fit the traditional mold of factory schooling. (p. 13).
Researchers and educators have advocated videogames as a powerful tool for teaching curriculum (Gee, J. 2007; Van Eck, 2006). Videogames excite and engage students in ways that traditional curriculum does not. However, concern about stereotypes in games has raised concerns for the use of these games in the classroom. Mou and Peng (2009) stated that the potential impact of commercial games in the classroom due to stereotypes must be considered by researchers and educators.
Mou and Peng (2009) found that the majority of leading characters in games were white males. The disproportionate number of male avatars has been one reason that fewer girls played games than boys (Hartmann & Klimmt, 2006). Kafai, Heeter, Denner and Sun (2008) found that females account for only 42% of online game players, but make up 71% of those who used puzzle and card playing games. Mou and Peng (2009) also found that females and minorities were underrepresented in commercial videogames. Lachlan et al. (2005) found the exception to be black males incorporated into sports games as leading characters. Female characters
increased in games, but tended to appear as assistants or in supportive roles to males (Kafai et al., 2009).
In addition to the imbalance in game character diversity, the role models these characters offer have been limited. Giles and Maltby (2004) found that children and adolescents looked to role models in media as they developed their gender role identity. However, female avatars often wore sexy, revealing attire with either extremely thin or overly voluptuous body
images, while males in games were normal or masculinized (Kafai et al., 2009). In addition, Edgett and Rupp (2012) wrote that overly masculinized males can be a problematic stereotype for males who also do not fit into traditional gender roles. Even in commercial games such as Wii Fit and in educational apps, stereotypes were included that affected the development of children’s and adolescents’ identities (Mou & Peng, 2009).
The lack of minorities and limits on female roles in games raised concerns because these underrepresented groups have not reaped the benefits of gaming. Cooper (2006) wrote that games were a gateway to computer literacy and technology careers. Gaming has had positive aspects related to social science and cognitive development to which females and minorities in the future would not have access if they did not participate or feel represented (Durkin, 2006; Gee, J. P., 2007; Lee & Peng, 2006; Lieberman, 2006). Clark and Gorski (2002) speculated that female reluctance to
choose computer and technology classes that influence career choices could be attributed to the lack of women and minorities in games.
Media producers’ creative language and artifacts awareness. The fourth core concept
was that media messages were constructed using a creative language with its own rules (Buckingham, 2006). The key question has been an attempt to identify the techniques used to attract viewers’ attention. Media authors have chosen visual images, changes in lighting, angle of camera shots, music, colors, and characters to create an effect on the viewer. In the most
common videogames, violent acts, motivating language, quick film cuts, flashes of color, exciting music, and voice-over narration have been creative techniques used to attract a player’s attention. Kellner and Share (2005) noted that critical media literate students should be able to identify the creative techniques used in videogame trailers to attract viewers’ attention. They should be able
to explain their choices of critical media techniques in their own productions, and how those devices will attract the audience.
Media authors’ purpose and perspective awareness. The fifth core concept identified
by Kellner and Share (2005) was that all media messages were constructed. The key question focuses on the nature of the message and who created, authored, or sent this message. Critical things they mentioned to analyze included the author’s background, the message they created, and their motives. Someone had to put the pieces together to construct or create the product. People created or constructed all media and made choices about what they included in their media production and message. When analyzing media products, students should be able to identify the messages being sent and the authors’ reason for sending them. As creators, children should also recognize their own messages and be able to choose nonviolent social justice messages to create media products such as videogame trailers.
Critical Pedagogy, Social Justice, and Critical Media Literacy
Freire (1998) expressed that
It is extremely urgent that the power and effects of the media should be subjected to serious debate. As educators with open minds, we cannot ignore it. In fact, we must use it, but above all, we must discuss what is going on, what is being said and shown. (p. 123) Technology shapes ideas and visions and a critical approach is needed to analyze and determine when the media is manipulating these ideas and visions. Darder, Baltodano and Torres (2009) found that critical reading of technology was necessary because of its incredible
transformative power. One huge difference between the technologies of the past decade and earlier media in the decades before has been the individual access that people have to creating
and viewing content in iMovie, Twitter, Blogs, and You Tube. This access can open people up to new views. Teachers should not only strive to transfer knowledge but also to “create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge” (Freire, 1998, p. 30). Critical media literacy offers students an opportunity to have their voices heard in media. This is important not only for getting students’ voices out, but also for sending out messages that are critical to social justice issues. The concept of social justice requires that we identify messages of dehumanization and capitalism being marketed to humanity. Pavlova (2005) said that it also requires that we use the media to create counter messages.