Video Games as They Are Represented in Russian Animated Series for Children

Video Games as They Are Represented in Russian Animated Series for Children


Orlova N.K.

Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Sociology FCTAS RAS, Moscow, Russia 640410@mail.ru

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For citation:

Orlova N.K. Video Games as They Are Represented in Russian Animated Series for Children. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2019. No 11. P. 90-99




Abstract

Video games have long been part of our daily life. They are one of the popular hobbies bringing together millions of people around the world, a booming industry with a total of billion-dollars income, a subject of scientific studies by specialists from different fields of knowledge: philosophy, computer science, psychology, sociology, art history. The participants of other discourses – political, pedagogical, journalistic, etc. – take the similar interest for them as well. Mass and traditional media (cinema, literature) are also involved in video games discussion, and thus contribute to the constructing and broadcasting of related meanings and representations. Even animated series for pre-school and primary school-age children have not been immune to the topic. Considering the predominantly negative nature of the discussions circulating in the Russian public space, we decided to find out how exactly video games are represented in domestic cartoons. Do these representations correspond to reality, or are they a projection of social fears, typical of video game discourses focused on adults?


Keywords
social representations; animated series; video games; game studies; social fears

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Content No 11, 2019