Looking back, this is longer then I intended, and rambles a bit, Ill try to clean it up as much as I can.
There seems to be 2 qualities that go into makeing a really sensational controversy. They appear potentially threatening in a somewhat believable way, and being widely unknown to the public. Remember the Killer Bee scare? It was scary, and no one knew much about them. It became a big thing. People were ignorent of how computers worked, and Y2K gained a bunch of press. Dungeons and Dragons have some of the funniest ignorent watch groups percieving a threat. We don't know all that much about terrorists by and large, so thats scary too. Along comes Video Games. Talk to the average parent, and there ignorence on computer games can be downright comical. Its easier to be afraid then to understand. So video games become a scary unknown, ripe for controversy.
The idea of video games being dangerous is somewhat believable too. I personally think that 8 year olds shouldn't be allowed to play GTA, I think thats a bad influence an a young childs life, and I also know that it happens quite regularly. The kneejerk fear is pretty easy to see, people don't want there baby pretending to graphically kill people. Fair enough. However, it is often overlooked that to play these games, you need to have a system that costs a few hundred dollars, a game that costs around 50, a means of purchaseing the game, enough knowledge to set up the system, and a place to play at home. Chances are, all of these things are directly in control of the parent. If you let your child have all these things, then it is your duty to make the cursory effort required to know what sort of games your child is playing. You can't tell me you didn't know the game was innapropriate. It likely had guns and dead people on the cover, or you could watch it for a matter of seconds. So you have some irresponsible parenting, and all these other people assume that since they don't understand video games, that the irresponsible parents are simply victims of circumstances. Suddenly, this sounds like something every parent should know, a danger lurking in the shadows, and certainly something that will get people to read or watch whatever news there doing. Video Games are marketable news. And video games are just now starting to gain a prominence where the scapegoat can fight back.
Speaking of ignorence, theres also the matter of studies that, "Prove" that video games cause violence. That idea angers me both as a gamer and as someone with a Psychology degree. Its so easy for the Media to take a study, assume its absolute, and run a story on it. But these studies are junk. Some will say that video game players are more likely to be violent. Maybe its because gamers tend to be viewed as geeks, who tend to get picked on and teased, and therefore more likely to retaliate. Maybe a kid whose already violent looks to a violent game as an outlet. Theres plenty of more likely explainations then games causeing a violent hypnosis that urges players to kill. Other studies try to imitate a sort of Bobo doll study, and see if video games raise levels of aggression, and find that they do. Sound legitimate, but theres a big difference between noteing aggression on a survey, and being more likely to hurt someone. Theres many kinds of aggression. If you use this to condemn video games, then I raise this same criticism against all sports, and I have much better evidence that they are the root of violence (Soccer riots anyone?). The only study that would be relevant in showing a causal link between video games and violent behavior would be by forcing one group of kids to play video games, and the other half to not, and seeing which group behaves more violently. That might provide a moderate amount of evidence if done correctly, and is flagrently unethical and impractical. Its so easy to assume that the researchers know what they are talking about, but a lot of times they don't. Trusting a professional is not always a good idea.
So do I think the media attacks video games? Sometimes. But I think its out of ignorence and laziness. They run what seems marketable.
