As I started to read more about game studies I started to notice how it plays the same role of media that rap music and the news does. These forms of media are heavy impactful on the masses. As I mentioned before the same way that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ can influence their consumer’s perspectives is the exact way rap music can with identical context. One example where both forms of media narrates history is the Los Angeles riots. Many different opinions were developed throughout these incidents, and the depictions of this content effect how history portrays cultural backgrounds. Gerald Voorhees article explores the impact of different media depictions of American culture turmoil.

Voorhees mentions in his article, “Monsters, Nazis, and Tangos”, that “What they found is that concern about novel media forms is a historical constant, a phenomenon attributed to uncertainty regarding the potential of technologies that “embody the possibility that accustomed orders are in jeopardy” (Marvin 1988, 8). And while these studies point to concerns about how media technologies reconfigure communication processes, a similar set of issues arises regarding innovations in the communication norms that constitute genres. For instance, Springhall’s (1998) work on moral panics examines public fears manifest in response to a variety of media forms: the penny dreadful, gangster film, horror comic, and rap music. Notably, it is not the book, the film, the comic, or the record—in other words, not the technology of the medium—but the genre and its conventional contents” (Voorhees). Voorhees’ take on this matter conveys the impact rap music has as a form of media the same way a blockbuster movie does. Depending on the time and place of history music can have the same impact on millions of people just like war propaganda. Furthermore, the impact of the rap song “Fuck da Police” by music group N.W.A(Ice Cube, MC Ren, Eazy E, Yella, & Dr. Dre) was revolutionary in the minority communities in Los Angeles. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s tensions grew between police and minorities. The N.W.A’s song narrates the police brutality and racial profiling that black men had to endure all over the city. This led to public outrage and riots that resulted in a state of emergency. Their usage of rap as media influenced their listeners so much that even law enforcement began to blame the lyrics of the song on the increase of violence towards police officers. Tensions grew and police were trusted less by the black communities in Los Angeles & nationwide.

            In contrast, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’, depiction of this historical time held an impact on me years well after the incident took place. Personally, I noticed the hostile interactions between the African-American main character Carl “C.J” Johnson and the police officers. The narrative of this made me feel like police officers were crooked and infamous. Growing up to be a police officer was a dream of mine until I started to become exposed to this type of media. As a kid I started to think it wasn’t cool to be a police officer anymore, because of how they portrayed in the game. Overall, this conveys the similar impact that video games and rap music possess.

Works Cited:

1. Guns, Grenades, and Grunts : First-Person Shooter Games, edited by Gerald A. Voorhees, et al., Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/buffalo/detail.action?docID=1078336