Contextual

     Since my last post I now have a much clearer idea of what I am doing for my essay. We have a scheduled meeting with our CS tutor Sharon tomorrow therefore I completed a draft version of my essay today ready to take in. I decided on the question "To what extent can gaming culture impact the military?" By saying gaming culture instead of just gaming it allows me to look at things such as transmedia and participatory culture , see Henry Jenkins TED talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFCLKa0XRlw, and how this can also impact the military. One particular example that stood out to me was the British army's "Start thinking soldier" campaign that combined a variety of advertising to lead audiences to an interactive quiz/simulation of battlefield events.


To summarise the points I look at within the essay:
     Training- to what extent can gaming be used to train soldiers. How can this save lives, equipment, environment and therefore improve public image
     Recruitment- How can gaming culture be used to draw peoples' interest to a career in the military, can this this cast a wider net to maximise recruiment and locate a new audience.
     Propanganda- The positive and negative effects when the military is seen to use gaming as an enticement for enrolling in the military, how the public percieves this.
      Public perception- should games be used to train to kill?
     Medical- How can gaming be used to treat those affected in the line of duty or even prepare them for future warfare.

     These are some of the sites I have found essential to the structure of my essay.

http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/springer+select?SGWID=0-11001-6-1152421-0This 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/mar/18/video-games-propaganda-tools-military

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvMZHrjfC_c

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/11/19/video-games-effective-form-of-recruitment-for-army.aspx

http://www.military.com/video/forces/military-training/military-training-via-video-games/2243219051001/

http://kotaku.com/5898342/us-government-turns-to-gamers-for-new-military-and-scientific-solutions

http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/us-army-spends-32-8-million-on-propaganda-videogame-657121

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/711092/homefront-and-propaganda-in-video-games-what-are-they-trying-to-tell-you/

    I was able to obtain first hand quotes as mentioned in my last contextual post, and these will be included within my essay however I will not be posting them on my blog.