Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
Lecture Notes
Chapter 10: Social Media and Video Games: Becoming Part of the Story
Learning Objectives
1-1 Identify and describe the five basic characteristics that make social media social
1-2 : Describe the individual contributions to the invention of video games made by each of
the following people: Alan Turing, William Higginbotham, and Ralph Baer
1-4 Provide three examples why video games can be considered a form of mass
communication
1-6 Explain how video chat and social media are not the only platforms people can use to
social distance, and provide examples of other technology being used to communicate
while apart
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Social Media: Sharing Our Lives Online
A. Social media: social networks that connect individuals or groups over a common
platform
B. Five basic characteristics that make social media social
i. User-generated content—Social networks are not websites where you go just to
consume content; you go there to create it
ii. Comments—The communication does not just flow from one creator to other
C. Popular social networks: Pinterest, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp
D. YouTube
i. Founded by Chad Hurley, Steven Chen, and Jawed Karim
ii. Goal was to create a platform for easily sharing videos
iii. See Table 10.1
E. Facebook
i. Creator: Mark Zuckerberg
Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
F. Instagram
i. Founded by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom
ii. Changes
a. Image options
b. Highlighting sponsored posts
c. Acquisition by Facebook
G. Snapchat
i. Popular among young people
ii. Difficult to make money off its structure
H. Twitter
II. Development of Video Games
A. Turing Test: the point at which people could no longer tell if they were interacting with
another person or with an artificially intelligent machine
i. Alan Turing
B. First video game: Tennis for Two
C. 1961: MIT students created Spacewar!
i. Used expensive equipment
ii. Baer and Sanders Associates
D. Atari Popularizes Video Games
i. Founded by Nolan Bushnell
ii. Pong: first successful game for Atari
a. Interested players because of interactivity with a screen
iii. Atari’s 2600 launched the home video game console market
a. Successful because of a large library of game cartridges
iv. Decreasing sales due to low-quality game cartridges and growing popularity of
the VCR
E. Importance of Arcades
Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
iii. Pac-Man and other demographics for gaming
a. Popularity of Pac-Man
F. Nintendo Revives Home Console Market
i. Video game console surge in 1985 with the Nintendo Entertainment System
ii. Strict control over the production process
iii. Super Mario Bros
iv. Nintendo Game Boy
G. Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox
i. Sony PS: dominant system manufacturers
a. Tomb Raider
b. Continuing improvement of processing power
ii. Microsoft Xbox
a. Sports and first-person shooter games
a. Halo
b. Built for online gaming
iii. Nintendo focus on appealing to everyone
a. Wii and Switch
III. Conflicts Over Video Games
A. Inciting fear and controversy
i. Death Race and Custer’s Revenge
ii. Mortal Kombat
a. Lead to congressional hearings
b. Led to a video game rating system
iii. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) franchise
B. Pokémon
i. Pokémon: kid-friendly combat-based games series
ii. Successful franchise
iii. Encourages social interaction among players
iv. Pokémon Go
a. Released in 2016
b. Augmented reality: use of real world space for a game
IV. Video Games as Mass Communication
A. Media content delivery devices
B. New venue for advertising
C. Site of entire communities
D. Highly profitable
Hanson, Mass Communication 8e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
E. Protected by the First Amendment
V. Video Games as a Spectator Sport
A. Streaming on Twitch
B. Battle royale games: a large number of players enter a digital arena to fight to the death
until only one player or team is left standing
i. Fortnite
a. Most popular streamer: Tyler “Ninja” Blevins
C. ESPN and Hulu broadcasting of eSports
i. eSports: organized team competition in video games for spectators
VI. Video Games in Contemporary Culture
A. Enormous success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the COVID-19 pandemic
i. Impact of a “place” in game
ii. Potential for online interaction