Cambridge to study computer games

Retrieved from [BBC] on 11/02/2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8500657.stm

Computer games and comics are to be analysed alongside the time-honoured classics of children's literature at a new Cambridge University centre.

The ideas children pick up from books as well as other sources will be studied at the university's new centre for the study of children's literature.

Academics argue that books, films and other media, reach children in a way that their teachers and parents cannot.

The centre will be part of the University's Faculty of Education.

The faculty's current teaching programme covers material including ABC books, folk and fairytales, as well as classics like Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

'Trash is popular'

The new centre is being expanded to cover the representation of young people in films and video games, along with children's comics.

On the literature side, modern best-sellers like Harry Potter and the Twilight Series of vampire books will be covered as well as classics such as Alice in Wonderland and Little House on the Prairie.

[Mors]