Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

In her blog post ‘Grand Theft Innocence’, Mel Kheir depicts video gaming as an exceptionally violent medium with an incredible capacity to influence the behaviour of young players. According to Kheir, this role is ‘relatively ignored’ by both researchers and the mass media.

However, any examination of recent news media would reveal the falsity of this last statement. Since the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, the identification of the excessive use of video games as a primary causal factor in relation to aggression has been a staple of news reporting. From the reporting of a 16 year old who murdered his mother after a 90 minute argument which culminated in the confiscation of his PlayStation  (The Australian 2011. ‘Philadelphia teen confesses to bludgeoning mum who took away PlayStation’), to the 18 year old who stabbed a taxi driver to death whilst allegedly trying to imitate a scene from Grand Theft Auto IV (Reed 2008. ‘Thailand bans Grand Theft Auto IV’), it would seem that video game-related violence sells.

 

Whether or not there is an actual relationship between video gaming and aggression (And such a relationship is generally not supported by the current research (Unsworth, Devilly & Ward 2007, p. 383)) the overwhelming media focus on this issue has resulted in very little consideration being given to other factors which have been more positively linked to anti-social behaviour. These include the suffering of abuse and neglect as a child, low socio-economic status and limited access to education (Bensley & Van Eenwyk 2001, p. 244). Subsequently, the attention given by the news media to the influence of violent video games may be considered to present a factually incorrect and sensationalist image of youth-perpetrated violence.

This got me thinking:

a. Can the media’s sensationalist representation of video games and violent behaviour be considered a vital component of a moral panic surrounding the issue?

AND

b. What are the motivations behind such reports in the news media?

Developed by Cohen in his 1972 work on Mods and Rockers, the term moral panic represents an ‘exaggerated reaction… to the activities of particular social groups’ (Marsh & Melville 2009, p. 40). According to Cohen (1972, p. 9 cited in Marsh & Melville 2009, p. 41), this involves the establishment of a ‘condition, episode, person or group of persons… as a threat to societal values and interests’. As the general public’s knowledge and understanding of crime and criminality is largely based on what they see or hear in the news (Marsh & Melville 2009, p. 1), it is the news media that plays the primary role in the positioning of an issue as a ‘threat’. 

This process may be identified in the news media’s representation of video games as a threat to the safety and well-being of society. By placing significant emphasis on the impact of video games whilst reporting incidents of youth-perpetrated violence, the media may be seen to have established this medium as a contributing factor to the perceived disintegration of morality in society (Jewkes 2004, p. 58). In doing so, the news media appears to have generated ‘concern, anxiety, indignation’, or a moral panic, within the general public surrounding video gaming (Cohen 1972, p. 15 cited in Marsh & Melville 2009, p. 42).

The media’s production of such a moral panic is perhaps best exemplified by the reporting of the Virginia Tech massacre of April 2007, in which 23 year old Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 students and professors. While Cho’s history of mental illness was largely ignored by the news media, a significant number of news reports on the case asserted that it was Cho’s addiction to the game Counter-Strike that had precipitated his lust for murder. Interviews with anti-game activist and controversial attorney Jack Thompson were featured by most national news sources. In an interview with the highly ‘reputable’ Fox News, Thompson appealed to the empathy of readers/viewers, announcing ‘There are real people that are in the ground now because of this game. I have no doubt about it’ (Benedetti 2007. ‘Were video games to blame for massacre?’). Dr Phil, whose degree of influence over a large percentage of the American public is both astounding and frightening, also addressed the issue during an interview on Larry King Live, in which he claimed that drawing a connection between the massacre and Cho’s video-game playing is ‘commonsense’ (Benedetti 2007).

Jack Thompson on the VT Massacre and video games

If this sounds to you like a sensational response now, you will likely be further mortified at hearing that during the investigation, police concluded that Cho had little to no exposure to violent video games. No games or consoles were found in his dormitory, and his roommate claimed that he had never seen Cho playing a video game (Ferguson 2008, 25). It therefore seems resoundingly apparent that, for the news media, instigating a panic in the public surrounding violent video games overrode any obligation to report the actual facts of the case.

So why is it so vital to the news media that the massacre is seen to have been caused by an addiction to video games? According to sociologist Dr Sternheimer, it is because this is an ‘easy answer’ (Benedetti 2007); it allows people to attribute the event to a single factor, video games, rather than questioning the role of more complex factors, including structural inequalities. This may be aligned with the news value of simplification, as Chibnall (1997, p. 207) highlights the need for reporters to eliminate the ‘shades of grey that lie between the black and white’ in a story in order for it to be easily comprehended by readers/viewers.

Your garden variety gamer

Through presenting an oversimplified version of events, the news media may be able to more clearly define the moral boundaries of society. This involves the establishment of a division between ‘us’, the moral and respectable (the general public), and the ‘them’, the deviant and undesirable (video game addicts) (Marsh & Melville 2009, p. 49). The product of this may be seen to be the uniting of communities in their fear and rejection of the ‘other’.

In addition, the moral panic concerning violent video games may also provide an opportunity for politicians to appear as though they are taking real steps to reduce violent crime (Ferguson 2008, p. 32). Rather than needing to tackle a complex array of ingrained social problems, politicians are able to introduce legislation and policies focussing on the censorship and restriction of video games in order to maintain their legitimacy. In Australia, this can be identified in the draft guidelines for an R18+ video game rating which the federal government claims, if introduced, would ‘provide better guidance for parents and remove unsuitable materials from children and teenagers’ (Mawby & Johnston 2011. ‘Sex! Drugs! Violence! R+ draft guidelines released’).

It can therefore be seen that the news media’s routine association of an addiction to gaming with acts of aggression perpetrated by young people surmounts to an attempt to instigate a moral panic in society concerning violent video games. The success of this simplistic, sensationalist reporting in doing so, however, is yet to be explored. I theorise that moral panics surrounding video games have been effectively initiated by the media surrounding singular, significant acts of violence, such as school shootings. As these events have drifted in and out of the media’s spotlight, it is likely that a moral panic concerning the issue has undergone a repeated process of dying down and re-emerging again later in response to a new incident.

If you hate Jack Thompson as much as I do, enjoy!

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Benedetti, W. 2007, ‘Were video games to blame for massacre?’, MSNBC.com, 20 April, viewed 31 May 2011, < http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220228/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/were-video-games-blame-massacre/>.

Bensley, L. & Van Eenwyk, J. 2001, ‘Video games and real-life aggression: Review of the literature’, Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 29, pp. 244-257.

Chibnall, S. 1977, ‘Press ideology: The politics of professionalism’ in 2010, Crime and Media: A Reader, ed. C. Greer, Routledge, London, pp. 203-214.

Ferguson, C. J. 2008, ‘The school shooting/violent video game link: Causal relationship or moral panic?’, Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, vol. 5, pp. 25-37.

Jewkes, Y. 2004, Media and Crime, Sage Publications, London.

Marsh, I. & Melville, G. 2009, Crime Justice and the Media, Routledge, New York.

Mawby, N. & Johnston, M. 2011, ‘Sex! Drugs! Violence! R18+ draft guidelines released’, Herald Sun, 26 May, viewed 31 May 2011, < http://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/sex-drugs-violence-r18-draft-guidelines-released/story-e6frfrt9-1226063238175>.

‘Philadelphia teen confesses to bludgeoning mum who took away PlayStation’ 2011, NewsCore, 16 February, viewed 31 May 2011, < http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/philadelphia-teen-confesses-to-bludgeoning-mum-who-took-away-playstation/story-fn3dxity-1226006749169>.

Reed, J. 2008, ‘Thailand bans Grand Theft Auto IV’, BBC News, 4 August, viewed 31 May 2011, < http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7540000/7540623.stm>.

Unsworth, G., Devilly, G. J. & Ward, T. 2007, ‘The effect of playing violent video games on adolescents: Should parents be quaking in their boots?’, Psychology, Crime & Law, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 383-394.