Assignment 5: Research Of Potential Topics

By: Abigail Menzies

Beauty or brains Impact of video games on today’s society

Two strongest topics for a documentary

In today’s society would you say that beauty is now seen as more valued than having brains?

Beauty vs. brains

http://youtu.be/h2uxXtQSxuw

•The debate of ‘would you rather beauty or brains’ has been said to be going on for years•Some psychologists say the answer to this seems to differentiate depending on the gender. (from dailymail.co.uk)

Some men rather brains over beauty whereas some women rather beauty over brains

From this daily mail article (2012) it shows men rather women to have brains over beauty

Brains vs. Breast 2012 Survey

41% of 2,089 women preferred larger breast than high intelligence

Brains Beauty

8 out of 12 chose brain 4 out of 12 chose beauty

People’s responses to would you rather brains or beauty

(answers from twitter.com and askfm.com)

Beauty may not be valued more but the media glorifies beauty rather than intelligence

• For example; children beauty pageants socialize little girls into taking great importance on appearance

(From irishexaminer.com/lifestyle)

Basically says the over emphasis on beauty will cause the girl’s in the beauty pageant to grow up in society viewing themselves as an ‘object of beauty’ waiting to be looked up on and judged

• There has been many criticisms of children beauty pageant such as ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’. One critic said “The extreme focus on physical appearance, can have a negative effect for these girls in the long run”(www.starpulse.com/news)

•In relation to this, fairytale storybooks teaches us from a young age about the ‘beautiful or lovely princess’, children are never told of her being the smart or brainy princess. •Through this children are taught that beauty is more important than brains from a young age.

“snow white grew up and when she was seven years old she was so beautiful”(from pitt.edu/~dash/type 0709.html)

•The stereotypical way a fairytale princess is presented is:Long hair Rosy cheeks Red lips Pale skinSlim waisted

•This stereotypical image of fairytale princesses not only exaggerates the importance of beauty but creates the idea to many young girl’s that this how they should aspire to look

•Another example of the media glorifying beauty over brains is through celebrities.

Celebrities like Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga and Rihanna prefer to endorse in cosmetics and clothing lines rather than promoting college programs and the benefits of education

• There are also many celebrities that have become successful without finishing school. To some having the talent of singing or acting is a form of beauty.

• These celebrities who are role models to many young people give the idea education isn’t that important as they are successful without it

Both Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera both left high school to pursue a singing career(from smosh.com & wikiepdia.com)

Nevertheless beauty may be glorified through the media but there are still a vast majority today that understand the importance of being educated

•Also in other places in the world, there has been also be an increase on those going on to further education

•In this year (2013) it has been said that there are now more people going to university in the UK compared to past years (2011-2012)•Statistics show that 49.3% of young people in England entered higher education this year which is the highest rate on record that is only a little below the 50% mark the government vowed to reach(www.theguardian.com/education/2013/apr/24/students-higher-education-almost-50-per-cent)

In Finland, 80% of their young women are now going to university.

In the US, there are now 15% more hispanics enrolling to college this year

•In addition to this, there are now also many celebrities that are now going back to university, such as Kristen Stewart and Taylor Swift who both dropped out of school to pursue acting and singing careers(from hollywoodlife.com)

•This all shows that to some extent shows brains is still valued in today’s society by many including both celebrities and non-celebrities

Kristen Stewart never got to complete college as she left to become an actress however she’s going to UCLA to study English lit as she wants to get a proper education(http://www.enstarz.com/articles/23361/20130813/robert-pattinson-kristen-stewart-split-inspires-go-back-college-attend-ucla.htm)

•Even though there are many celebrities today that have become successful without finishing school, there are also many that have gone back to further education to study Celebrities who went back to

college:Shakira – History of CivilizationShaquille O’Neal – BusinessJames Franco – EnglishSandra Bullock – DramaMichael Jordan - Geography(http://www.youniversitytv.com/news-edgy/4878-celebrities-that-went-back-to-college)

Impact of video games on today’s society

• As technology advances and develops so does the quality of video games as they become more interactive and life-like, causing these games to have a huge impact on people’s lives

• There has been a lot of controversy about the impact video games has on society.

• Here are some of the few positive and negative effects:

Positive Effects Negative EffectsImprove concentrationHelps build memoryAllows quick thinkingMake young kids more creativeNew gaming technology encourages being fit and heath

Promotes violenceNegative portrayal of womenLeads to lazinessCan become an addictionNew technology has better quality that can blur the difference between reality and fantasy

http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games

•Video games such as mortal kombat and call of duty have been said to have a negative influence on young children causing them to be aggressive due to structure of the game: kill the opponent, get rewarded.

One of the main negative influences video games have on society (especially the youth) is violence

Jo Frost’s Video Game Experiment•Jo Frost believe video games play a huge role in young boy’s lives and cause them to be less senstitive•A group of boys were interviewed by Dr Gentile who would knock over a jar full of pencils on to the floor, in order to test the subjects' capacity for empathy. •Of those who played the violent game, only 40% helped to pick up the pencilshttp://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2010/feb/10/games-controversy

http://youtu.be/gG1rbfVsyIQ?t=4m35s

“Blaming video games for problems in society gives us an illusion of control over things we can’t control,”Christopher Ferguson (professor of psychology & criminal justice at Texas university)

Nevertheless, some people don’t believe these violent video games have a negative effect

Studies have found that violent can be therapeutic and help calm teens

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2403032/Violent-video-games-like-Grand-Theft-Auto-DONT-harm-children--therapeutic.html

In addition to this violent influence, video games also give negative portrayals of groups within society

• Role playing games like grand theft auto have been said to be highly influential on people’s lives especially young people as its comical reflection of the American culture and many gamers feels they can relate to the lifestyle shown in the game.

• Strong language, brutality, drugs and prostitution are just some of the themes in the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

Women in gta are degraded into sexual objects and are usually seen walking around in the game as prostitutes

The main character in gta: san andreas (CJ Johnson) reflects the negative stereotypes of the black youth today for e.g. is part of a gang and comes from a dysfunctional family

• Through the development of technology, video games now have more of a sense of realism causing them to be more addictive as its blurs the line between fantasy and reality

Video game addiction

Grand theft auto in 1998 Grand theft auto in 2008

Games like grand theft auto become life-like every time a new game is released

• Video game addiction has now become a serious mental health problem among young kids.

• Video game addiction is an excessive or compulsive use of computer games or video games, which interferes with a person's everyday life.

• This addiction can contribute to a lack of healthy functioning in kid’s for e.g. family life, health, moral values, and school performance.

• ADD or ADHD was 2 times as likely to have been diagnosed in children addicted to video games.

http://www.kidpointz.com/video-game-addiction

Nevertheless in the last few years video games could be argued to have a positive impact on society

• New technology like the Wii fit and the Kinect enables and encourages people of all ages to become more active and keep physically fit while still having fun

“They found that 60 year olds who played a custom-designed video game for 12 hours over the course of a month improved their multitasking abilities to levels better than those achieved by 20 year olds playing the game for the first time”http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/04/brain-training-video-game-old-age

http://youtu.be/mL3y4noQ_CQHelen Mirren talks about the advantages of having a wii fit

• Brain training games like nintendo ds’ ‘brain age’ have been scientifically proven to help stimulate the mind and help those in areas such as literacy and numeracy

Which documentary mode would I choose?

Documentary Mode

Examples Explanation

Participatory Mode • Sicko• Food Matters• One Mile

Away

In relation to the target audience I would chose this mode because:• The filmmaker is present throughout the

documentary and participates so the audience will be able to hear and see the filmmaker’s views on the subject

Reflexive mode • Catfish I would chose this mode aswell because:• It shows the audience the making of the

documentary for e.g the filmmaker making calls to arrange inteviews etc

• This should show to the audience how hard it is to arrange interviews with certain companies when discussing controversial topics e.g calling up tlc to ask them why they display shows like ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ that exploit little girls