Over the last 20 years, information visualization became a common tool in science and also a growing presence in the arts and culture at large. However, the use of visualization in cultural research is still in its infancy. Based on the work in the analysis of video games, cinema, TV, animation, Manga and other media carried out in Software Studies Initiative at University of California, San Diego over last two years, a number of visualization techniques and methods particularly useful for cultural and media research are presented.

Faculty of Criminology, Justice and Policy Studies

This dissertation examines how games have been construed legally and publicly and compares the nature of games to the de facto legal criteria: in order for games to receive free speech protection, games must inform and communicate. In Chapter I, I review the literature surrounding the effects of violent video games. This literature review serves as a foundation for the rhetorical nature of the legal controversy since the controversy has no clear-cut answer to the effects of video games. Instead of a clear "Yes"€ or "€œNo"€ answer, game effects researchers can only posit "Maybe"€ and "No"€ findings. Game antagonists employed long-shot and shoddy research to argue their case that violent games produce violent people. The next two chapters lay a foundation for justifying why games have become increasingly controversial to date. In Chapter II, I outline a history of games and argue that games became communicative in the early 1990s. As a response to graphically communicative games and congressional bullying, the video game industry created a self regulatory rating board which should have quelled the public controversy. It did not. In Chapter III, I argue that Columbine changed the face of the game industry in the eyes of the public, as a matter of public morality. Before 1999, the public viewed games in a positive light, embodying one of America'€™s pastimes and helping the disabled with their motor skills. After the events at Columbine, the public saw the video game industry as an unruly and rogue force. In Chapter IV, I explain the legal hurtles the game industry faces in becoming protected speech. While video games have become communicative and informative, they likely will not receive free speech protection because of the public scapegoating of the industry during the last two and a half decades. I conclude by discussing the latest Grand Theft Auto "€œHot Coffee"€ controversy and how game developers remain gun-shy about the free speech issue.

This study investigated the relationships among children?s creativity, computer games, natural play, TV, and their structured activities daily after school by the analysis of their time spent on computer games, and the other components with the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT), using the statistical methods of MANOVA and SEM. Activity 5 of Verbal Form B and Activity 2 of Figural Forms B of the TTCT were used to measure students? verbal and figural creativity scores. Two hundreds and thirty eight 3rd and 6th grade students from one rural and one urban school in the Republic of Korea were studied. The study also examined whether any variables (i.e., gender, grade, location, achievement, genres of computer games and parental Social Economic Status) affected children?s creativity scores and computer game usage. Children using computer games heavily showed significantly higher scores on the scale of Figural Originality than those with moderate usage. Highly structured activity students had significantly higher scores on all Figural TTCT scales than did the moderately structured activity group. There was a significant location difference on Figural Originality and Figural Elaboration, parental SES, and time spent on TV. Time spent on free play did not show any differences on any TTCT scales. Time spent on TV was differently correlated with the Figural TTCT by parental SES. Third graders obtained significantly higher scores than 6th graders on all the Verbal TTCT and Figural Elaboration scales. In this study, the subjects showed a significant preference for Role Playing Game (RPG) and Casual games. Gender differences on preferences of game genres, time spent on computer games and starting period of computer use were found. The MANOVA among genres of computer games on the TTCT scores was significant. The path models showed that the parent factor had strong correlation with children?s figural creativity and the play factor was correlated more with verbal creativity.

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