Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry. Playing into both the cost and profit circulating within the industry is the advertising content disseminated to consumers. Like other entertainment media, advertising derives from the content itself—film trailers tout some of the best moments of the picture, for instance. However, the content of video games is uniquely tied to the industry’s advertising goals and whom the industry deems to be part of its target audience. In essence, AAA games—those developed by large production companies—are made and advertised based on the target audience. And this audience, historically, has been homogenized, limited by gender bias to only include young males. As such, video game advertising poorly represents …show more content…
However, some correlations exist, supporting the need for further examination. Chong et al. (2012) refers to Cultivation Effects in two segments: first-order and second-order judgments. The former emphasizes the viewer’s expectations of the real-world environment and the probability of events occurring, whereas latter includes individual beliefs and values held. While Cultivation research demonstrates support more so for first-order than second-order, the interactivity of the gaming medium may affect cultivation effects (Chong et al., 2012). However, given that game advertisements are typically presented in video or still format—online, broadcasted, and in print formats—the possibility of cultivation effects mirrors TV as opposed to …show more content…
The Entertainment Software Association’s annual report for 2015, however, shows that women comprise almost half of all game players (“2015 Essential Facts,” 2015). The possibility remains that by limiting the image of gamers to this tight nice categorization, we are excluding people who could be gamers comma presenting them with a notion that they do not belong in the game stereotype and therefore cannot be considered gamers. Unfortunately, the notion that only certain demographics can be considered gamers continues to be perpetuated by advertising within the
The gendered patterns in advertising that Craig outlines in his essay still exist today, in commercials of how men and women are portrayed. In Steve Craig’s, “Men’s Men and Women’s Women,” it is stated that large advertisers and their agencies have evolved the pseudo-scientific method of time purchasing based on demographics, with the age and gender of the consumer generally considered to be the most important predictors of purchasing behavior. Therefore, Craig argues that computers make it easy to match market research on product buying patterns with audience research on television viewing habits, eventually building a demographic profile of the “target audience.” According to an article titled Web Advertising: Gender Differences in Beliefs, Attitudes and Behavior, previous research suggests males and females exhibit different beliefs about and attitudes toward traditional media advertising along with different advertising-suppressed consumer behaviors. Craig talks about how in John Fiske’s book, Television Culture (1987, Chs.
Rajecki, D. W., Dame, J., Creek, K., Barrickman, P. J., Reid, C. A., & Appleby, D. C. (1993). Gender Casting in Television Toy Advertisements: Distributions, Message Content Analysis, and Evaluations. Journal Of Consumer Psychology (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 2(3), 307.
Men and women both drive cars, it’s a simple necessity to be able go to work for most people, however, from the commercials on television, one would assume that men are the primary purchasers of cars. In Steve Craig’s essay, Men’s Men and Women’s Women, he analyzes four commercials to illustrate how advertisers strategically targets the viewers. Craig argues that advertisers will grasp the attention of the viewer by the gender ideals that both men and women have of each other. Not only do advertisers pick a target audience demographic, but they also will target the audience at specific time to air their commercials. By analyzing an Audi and Bud Light commercial, one can see that Craig arguments are true to an extent but it appears that commercials have gone from an idealized world to a more realistic and relatable stance. for are still [true, however it seems that commercials may have altered to appear more realistic.] [relevant to an extent. This is to say, it appears that advertisers may have altered their commercial tactics. ]
The history of video games began in early 1950s, and it continued in development until today. video games gained popularity as movies and T.V shows, and like movies which producers focus on the story plot, each character role, and the way they are being represented, videogames have the same concerns, especially character 's role and, representation, because most of players will not care about the game’s story, they just want to have fun playing the game, but the player will play as a character, or meet other characters from various gender, and that what make game designers care about the gender and, characters representation. and by the way of presenting gender, it will control the number of players of both genders, because it could connect to their life. games industry made researches about what both genders want in their game,
Video games have been around since 1958, and ever since then video games have developed more. With video games becoming a bigger industry, there have been more people purchasing and buying more and more video games. For examples, up to 2001, “roughly 79 percent of America's youth played video games, many of them for at least eight hours a week” (Layton). Furthermore, in 2008, “97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games” (“Video Games”). With a growing industry, there has been more competition between video game companies. The companies that make these video games try to make a huge profit by appealing to people’s likes. In 2008, “10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence” (“Video Games”)
In this male driven era, women are perceived to be fragile and submissive. This, in turn, affects the purpose and outcomes of the products offered by the gaming industry. Production companies strive towards games that recognize males as alpha models that control the realms of the universe. Females, if at all included, are recognized as delicate flowers that need to be rescued or as seen as the ultimate prize. In the Sex Roles journal, the authors emphasize, “Female characters rarely appear, and that when they do, they are mostly in a submissive, secondary role” (Jansz & Martis 2007). Gender stereotypes are evident in most AAA games, such as GTA 5 and Temple Run. However, the few exceptions lie within indie games such as Even Cowgirls Bleed where women take the main lead. The representation of gender stereotypes in games is studied through the analysis of Temple Run and Even Cowgirls Bleed.
As civilization grows and the tentacles of mass media stretch into mankind’s mind from every direction, it is important to note the damaging effects of the images being shown to the masses. In a society where the model being used to sell products to the consumer is on average 20% thinner than the demographic of the consumers themselves (Abraham 3), it’s impossible to ignore the influence these marketing campaigns have on individual psyches. This is supported by the Dittmar and Howard Journal statement on the negative effects of media influence:
Common sense seems to dictate that commercials just advertise products. But in reality, advertising is a multi-headed beast that targets specific genders, races, ages, etc. In “Men’s Men & Women’s Women”, author Steve Craig focuses on one head of the beast: gender. Craig suggests that, “Advertisers . . . portray different images to men and women in order to exploit the different deep seated motivations and anxieties connected to gender identity.” In other words, advertisers manipulate consumers’ fantasies to sell their product. In this essay, I will be analyzing four different commercials that focuses on appealing to specific genders.
This journal article is entirely credible and written by two women who know what they’re talking about. This article discusses how video games form stereotypes about both genders and that they impact both gamers and non-gamers. Men are portrayed as aggressive and women are unsurprisingly portrayed as sex objects. A main issue with this is that video games are mostly played by the younger generation meaning these are the ideas being imbedded into the youth of the world. The...
Many video games portray women as objectified beings, purely used for sex appeal and to attract the larger male gamer population. We also see men idealised in a similar way as well – the males in video games are portrayed as muscly, brawny men. However, we rarely see a scantily clad man in a game, but there is a vast abundance of games which feature women wearing ‘sexy armour’, or a noticeable lack of substantial amount of clothing. This isn’t female-friendly as these games are made for men, causing women to feel alienated and uncomfortable.
Advertising surrounds the world every second of the day. This form of influence has had the power to influence how society views gender roles ever since men and women began to appear in advertisements. Through the exposure to many different gender portrayals in advertising, gender roles become developed by society. This stems from how men and women are depicted, which forms stereotypes regarding the individual roles of men and women. People often shift their definition of an ideal image towards what they see in advertisements. From this, they tend to make comparisons between themselves and the advertisement models. Advertisements tend to be brief, but impactful. The different portrayals of men and women in advertising show that advertisements
From this, it concludes that the media and online gaming can create and reinforce gendered behaviors. These video games affect the child's identity and their perception of others. In conclusion, the video games that contain sexual themes become more graphically portrayed. And the video games that use Damsel and Distress plots reduce women to a state of victimhood. The way female characters’ dress in the videogame reinforced gender-role stereotypes.
The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "Female gamers spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends, and male gamers spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends" ("Video Game Play Among Adolescents"). What can we understand from this evidence? The fact is that adolescents, male or female, are spending tremendous amounts of time each day sitting in front of a screen with a controller in hand.
Gaming has long been considered a male-dominated activity. There have been numerous scientific studies conducted to analyze the impact video games have on an individual and vice versa, however one of the most common discussions concerning the gaming community is sexism. With today’s growing audience and the popularity of smart phone gaming, it is a mystery as to why gaming has managed to keep its male-minded stereotypes. Most games reflect the sexist gender roles imposed upon gamers by society, however today’s response is a heated protest, some more dramatic than others. Most gamers are demanding more female protagonists, and developers are listening, but it’s a slow climb to equality in the world of pixels and fantasy. Let us discuss the surrounding influences of the video game community, some setbacks and remarkable breakthroughs in diversifying, and the ways gamers shape the games they play.
Advertising has influenced teenagers in a profound way. The influence of advertising has affected teenagers in a way they are persistently exposed by means of television programs, articles in magazines, product endorsement ads, and through the internet. Although teenagers are excessively exposed, how they perceive and process advertisements ultimately determines how they are influenced. With that said, the perception towards advertisements can be amalgamated between reality and fantasy, which evidently has both negative and positive impacts. Advertisers strategically capitalize on what is trending in youth culture which makes teenagers most pervasive to wanting to fit in. The societal culture in advertising plays a crucial role in the way teenagers