War between effects and meaning
Tuesday, 11th January 2005 Henry Jenkins, Professor, Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Download video (wmv) In 2003, a U.S. Federal Court Judge ruled that video games did not constitute a means of expression and therefore were not protected against government censorship. A group of 32 international media scholars filed a brief protesting the decision but they basically constructed an argument against the "media effects" tradition. What would an affirmative argument for video games look like? How can we build the case that video games express ideas? How might we draw on research from the serious games movement and especially from work on games for education to address this question? What further steps are needed to generate a more meaningful games culture? |