The Morality of Play

Abstract

Over the last several decades, video games have become one of America’s most popular pastimes. Sadly, little academic work has studied media coverage of video games during this transformation. Williams’ analysis of news magazines’ coverage from 1970 to 2000 offers the only research into this topic. However, the video game industry has significantly changed since 2000. To remedy this gap, I examine video game coverage in The New York Times over the last three decades. During this period, evaluative articles primarily treat video games as a major threat. However, a small subset of articles rejects this portrayal. During the 1980s and 1990s, this alternative account identifies video games’ functional benefits. This narrative changes in the 2000s to celebrating video games’ artistic merits. My work contributes to the social construction of technology literature in general by documenting how civil society’s cultural understanding of children and entertainment influence the specific narratives The New York Times attaches to video games.