Henry Jenkins

In the article below literature professor Henry Jenkins argues forcefully that video games are a new and emerging art form, not "cultural pollution," as some claim. The director of the Program in Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Jenkins compares video games to silent pictures. Like videos, movies were reviled and dismissed in the 1920s, in part because they were too violent. By commenting on the content and technique of early films, serious film critics helped to mold movies into a respected art form. Jenkins hopes serious critics will play the same roll for video games. Like any new art form, he concludes, video games are controversial; they also are still evolving and maturing and most certainly will have a significant impact on culture.