Why and Who Should We Listen To?

Along with the Mass Media comes a mass variety of authors and voices. As you probably already know, there A LOT of articles spewing out of the mouths of lawyers, gamers, doctors, and even a whole bundle of bloggers! AND: they all have different view points, stances, and agendas. But who shall we trust to speak? How do we find out who to trust and why? These are great questions to ask because this happens to be part of the first step of finding out which articles are scholarly (credible), and which are not.

Take a look at the analysis of these two authors – questions to keep in mind are: Is the author writing within his expertise? What is the subject that he is writing about? Does the author have a good, honest reputation, or does he stick closer to a hidden agenda? Who is the reader identified with (organizations, businesses, etc.)?

Dave Grossman

Dave Grossman served a very wide range of military service with which he was ranked Lieutenant colonel, one of the areas included Professor of Military Science at Arkansas State University. He is now retired as an author who is specialized in the psychology of killing. [This is VERY relevant to violence in video games, don’t you say?]. He has now written several book about video game violence and the media such as: On Combat: “The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace,” “Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill : A Call to Action Against TV, Movie and Video Game Violence,” and “A Boy and his Tank.” He also specializes in the effects of violent stresses that produce physical effects on the human body. To top it off, Dave continues to teach military and law enforcement officers about techniques that he has studied for better results in lethal encounters.

Brad E. Sheesh

Brad E. Sheesh is an expert social psychologist who graduated from Indiana Purdue University. He is the author and co-author of eight scholarly, peer-reviewed articles that are published in several scholarly journals that deal with human behavior, their thinking patterns, and what affects them such as: “Agreeableness, Empathy, and Helping: A Person x Situation Perspective” for the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, and “Deciding to Defect” for the Journal of Psychology of Science, which is an article describing the detrimental effects of violent video games on children.

These examples are here to show you what things to look for in a credible author and speaker. Those are the guys to turn ears towards, not to people who suddenly wake up with a “new idea about the components of politics and science” – although, nobody is stopping you. ;)