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Annotated Bibliography Do violent video games cause aggressive behavior in teens?

Michael Wendler Professor Malcolm Campbell English 1103 February 21, 2012

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Annotated Bibliography Gallagher, Michael. "Video Games Dont Cause Children to be Violent." usnews.com. U.S. News & World Report, 05 May 2010. Web. 26 Feb 2012. This article ran on the US News & World Reports website in May of 2010. This article came out following a California Supreme Courts decision to not allow a ban on video games to younger players. The author, Michael Gallagher, is the CEO of the Entertainment Software Association which helps game developers protect their rights to promote and sell their products. This means that Gallaghers motives could be slightly biased, as it is his job to promote games, but the evidence he cites in argument are all factual and well documented. He shows where the rights to develop video games have been challenged and in all cases they were upheld in many states due to the First Amendment right of freedom of speech. Also he shows how the video game industry has moved to protect kids, and it is a parents choice about what games their kid plays. I would use this article to show that video games have been challenged in the past, but the highest court in the United States has seen no evidence of their danger, thus they are still allowed to be sold. Also it presents the idea that kids may not be violent from video games, but from other forms of media as stated in the article. Knickerbocker, Nany. "BCTF supports campaign against video-game violence." Teacher Newsmagazine. May 2001: n. page. Web. 28 Feb. 2012. This article is from the monthly published report of the website for the teachers union in British Columbia, Canada. In the article, the teaching union has decided to support the claims that video games cause violence. They have made this assumption because as the number of video game players has rose, the number of bullying incidents have also

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increased. This article also states that the teachers union has joined forces with other concerned organizations to form the Coalition Opposed to Violent Entertainment. This organization is aimed at trying to limit teens exposure to violent games. Also the publication shows instances in mass media where video games have been blamed for violent acts. In this case it was a school shooting in Kentucky, as well as the infamous Columbine shooting. This article will be used to show the perceived image that video games cause violence. It is somewhat biased as the publishing organization is in a coalition against violent games, but can still be used as they represent a trusted union of professionals in Canada. Vedantam, Shankar. "It's A Duel: How Do Violent Video Games Affect Kids?." npr.org. National Public Radio, 07 Jul 2011. Web. 21 Feb 2012. This article is about two studies done by different professors about teenagers reactions to playing violent video games. One study was done by Chris Ferguson, a psychologist at the Texas A&M International University. Based on his findings video games are not going to cause teenagers to create major violent acts, but more of a change in a teens perception of morals. The other professor, social psychologist Brad Bushman at The Ohio State University used a set of pictures to see how players of violent video games reacted. The pictures showed 2 different violent acts and used sensors in the brain to see if there was a reaction. Players of violent video games were numb to the images. Based on this article I could use this to in my argument that violent video games do not cause teens to be violent, but there has to be a different underlying factor. The article was written by Shankar Vedantam, a writer for NPR. It can be trusted because NPR is a nationally recognized and trusted source of information.

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Willoughby, Teena, Paul J. C. Adachi, and Marie Good. "A Longitudinal Study Of The Association Between Violent Video Game Play And Aggression Among Adolescents." Developmental Psychology (2011): PsycARTICLES. Web. 24 Feb. 2012. This article is the findings from a study down by psychologists from Brock University in Ontario, Canada. This study was to look into the apparent relationship between violent video games and aggression in teens. The study was a multi-year look into high school students and their video game preferences and their trend towards aggression. The study found in students that played violent video games over the 4 years of the study had rises in their trend towards aggressive behavior. This source would be helpful in showing that video games have been studied and there is some evidence towards an association in violent video games and aggression, but the study does not go as far to call it causation. The article can be trusted as the University is a high power research university with various other trusted scientific publications. Also the lead psychologist, Dr Willoughby has partook in various other scientific studies and has had the work published.