Visual Ethnography

The visual shows a young boy around the age of 13 playing a video game. By looking closely at the visual it shows the kid being the centerpiece of the picture, he is the brightest object. Looking by the kid’s actions he seems to be very drawn to the game, his eyes shows that the game that he is playing seems to be very interesting to him. Opening the eyes that wide means that he is trying to interpret every detail the game is giving him causing him to be excluded out of the world around him. His smile shows the accomplishment that he is receiving excitement from whatever is going on in the game. The head and body has a tilt towards the focus of his attraction. This shows that he is excluding himself from his surrounding. By sitting on the edge of the sofa could mean is achieving a challenge that has him playing very intensely. By looking at the background,

it seems as though he is alone and that there is no one else in the room with him.
The top games of 2011 were Rage, Bulletstorm, Max Payne, Twisted Metal and Deus Ex 3: Human Revolution according to CNBC. Meaning every kid would want to get their hands on them as soon as possible. Looking by the names of these videogames, they all seem to be rated M. The rating stands for “Mature” and is tended for ages seventeen and up. These types of games have a lot of intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and strong languages. These descriptions would have a bad effect on kids that are not mature and old enough to play these types of games.

The audience can tell the boy is playing a violent game by first looking at the provider of this visual, Mediaviolence.org. The name of the site is very straight forward of what the argument is going to be about. In the photo the audience is persuaded the child is playing a violent videogame by adding the violent games of 2011 in the corner. Allowing the viewer to make the connections without directly saying it. This shows that mediaviolence.org has a standpoint on the argument being made already. Which is that violence in video games contributes to children’s behavior. All the games that are listed are M for mature which contain very graphic and intense language. The audience can clearly see from the visual that the boy is not even suitable to play this game or does not even seem mature enough to play these games. The way his body is positioned is showing that he loves to play these types of games.
The lighting shows it is daylight by how it hits the wall in the background.

But he is inside playing games instead of hanging with friends, doing homework, or being with family. He also could be lonely because the lighting is casted on him ad the left area is very dark that could lead to depression and anger issues. This could also cause him to act out and copy out bad things the video games teaches him, examples like using bad languages or hurting others. Gerard John says, “ Across generations, genders, and ethnicities. I kept seeing the same story: people pulling themselves out of emotional traps by immersing themselves in violent stories.” Going along with the violent story plots within the video games and how it teaches children it is right to act this way. Many of the games have bad languages, disrespecting authorities and nudity. Young children should not be trapped in such a world of disgusting and poor positive influences. The bad language is teaching children an ill way of speaking and how to use them to speak to other individuals. They will grow up not knowing how to properly communicate with

others.
John Leo says “Pilots train on flight simulators, drivers on driving simulators, and now we have our children on murder simulators.” This seems as what some kids practice, they try to act it out in real life. Just like the Littleton Massacre. The two teenagers cared out their attack the same way as the video games played. The audience gets a clear message from this by deeply considering that video games could have a very negative role in a child’s life and causes untreatable damage physically and mentally. Not all children think like this and most of them know what is wrong from right. To make a child learn life skills video games are a good way to do them but they have to be slowly introduced to things that could affect them negatively.
In conclusion mediaviolence.org is trying to convince their audience that children who play video games are exposed to violence. Trying to make a concern by implying violence in a video takes a toll in behavioral issues. Automatically drawing in viewers into thinking in what ways can video games impact people. Suggesting that the viewers needs to make a clear stand point on to do something about this issue being presented.