Theshadow129x
01-22-2008, 07:19 AM
I'm studying to be a reporter/Journalist. Everyone who knows me, knows this. But I just saw a video while at work on a topic that really made me in fact angry. It was about video games and sex and violence. Here's the clip to everyone so they know why I was against the segment.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/163925.html
After watching that I was pretty much offended by how things were presented by these journalist/ reporters and the panelists. They all came to the table with their two cents with little or no hands-on experience with the subject at hand. I was very offended by the lack of information these people had for their topc and I wrote an e-mail/ letter to fox news about the subject and I thought I would share with everyone here.
Dear Fox News,
I have to say that It is an honor to be able to write to your network. I am a Journalism student in my junior year in college and I watch you television daily in hopes that one day I can be part of your network as a reporter. However I do have true concerns about a segment that you shot recently.
About a week ago, you had a segment about a game named Mass Effect and you said it was a video game where sex was an objective of the game. When I heard how you pointed a finger at a small matter in the game I was pretty offended. I was offended due to the lack of hands on experience alot of your researchers and correspondents had when it came down to the subject of sex and violence in video games. The reporter that hosted the segment actually said she looked onto the website before the segment and saw the scene people were talking about where the sex was presented, yet she also claimed to not have hands-on experience with the game itself. I found this truly distasteful. The thing about journalism that I have been studying is that researched, especially hands on research, is a very viable thing when it comes to reporting on the topic. The fact that she said she just skimmed a website and not accurate for a journalist to have true experience on a topic such as this. Being a reporter is about doing long-term research on a topic and provide all kinds of evidence to support a certain conclusion that the reporter is working to uncover from their subject.
Also you brought on the show a woman by the name of Cooper Lawrence who said she too didn't have experience with the game yet she said she saw research that video games have a long lasting sensual and violent appeal to children. While I do respect her opinion, her research was simply flat. People have been violent long before video games came into the world. Long before Pong, the first ever video game created by Video Game creator Ralph Baer. I, too, have played video games my entire life and have never committed a violent act of any kind that was presented in such video games as Grand Theft Auto, Mass Effect, nor Halo, and yet video games are still pushed to make everyone believe it is the worlds worst invention that has been created.
I will say this based off of research and true facts that have been studied on video games and there defense. Video games have been actually said to help improve hand and eye coordination and also helps soldiers train for being in the army when fighting for our country. Video games are used as tools to for learning and studies have shown that kids tend to learn more through video games than they have through their teachers at school.
Furthermore there is a problem with the complete lack of panelists you had that expressed their thoughts on the video game industry as a whole. The thing is that Yes, there are mature themed games out there. However, your panelists said they were targeted at the young crowd. This is a nice assumption, but again as reporters and journalists assumptions aren't viable proofs to back-up an argument. Most gamers that are out there in the world are actually mature adults that have free time on their hands. The teenage crowd is actually a small percentage of the number of gamers out there in the world. The reason why more M-rated games are on the market is because gamer developers know their core audience is with the mature audience and not the teenage backdrop. Video gaming is very expensive and the average 16 year old or younger doesn't have the money to buy the video games, where as the average 25 to 36 year old does have the money to buy video games seeing as most are likely working for their entertainment. The video game industry knows this is where their market share lies, not with a 9 to 16 year old crowd in which most children in this age group isn't able to get a job right now because of economic problems.
To further stretch the argument, the finger is never really pointed at the people that matter most when it comes to children coming into contact with this games that people deem hurtful to children's moral compass: the parents. The problem is that when it comes to video games and the internet, these things can be filtered without any problem. Websites, content, words, expressions, signs can all be filtered on a computer so children don't become exposed to things that aren't appropriate for their children. The same goes for video games where its just like the games having a rating just like a movie. When a child wants to see a movie and they can't get into the feature without a parent its because there is material in the film that the MPAA deems inappropriate for children of a certain age. The same has been done with video games with the ESRB. The problem is that most parents don't take the time to read what the ratings mean when it comes to knowing what kind of game the child is getting into. To further push the envelope, a lot of parents can be blamed for the simple fact that they do not teach their children the difference between reality and fantasy and this too can prove to be a viable thing to stop children to saying and doing terrible things they deem appropriate from what they have seen or heard. All forms of entertainment are measured to have the same effect on a person whether if its in writing, painting, motion capture, or music. To blame one form of entertainment for moral degradation in our society is completely wrong. All forms of violence, speech, and acts on the world begins with the parents on how they correspond with their child when they are brought into the world; video games are not the result of it, they are being used as a scapegoat so that blame will not be pointed in the direction in which it is deserved.
Overall, I must say that when such segments are placed on a channel that claims to be full of facts and non-biased but go against everything they say they stand for actually hurts the credibility of station. This is one of the reasons why reporters and journalists are considered to many as biased, its because alot of todays news bringers go by little research and hands on experience with the subjects at hand. I do hope that in the future, when I become a reporter, things can be completely different.
Thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed my feedback.
Santez Henderson.
tell me how do you all feel on this subject and what I wrote.
----- Added 3 Minutes later -----
Oh and let me say one more thing about this. They completely dont know any about the game because the sex scene is at the end and its only a 10 second scene. the child needs to go through 31 hours of gameplay just to get to that moment and the average kid wouldnt even play a game like Mass Effect, they would be too busy wanting something more straight for like halo.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/163925.html
After watching that I was pretty much offended by how things were presented by these journalist/ reporters and the panelists. They all came to the table with their two cents with little or no hands-on experience with the subject at hand. I was very offended by the lack of information these people had for their topc and I wrote an e-mail/ letter to fox news about the subject and I thought I would share with everyone here.
Dear Fox News,
I have to say that It is an honor to be able to write to your network. I am a Journalism student in my junior year in college and I watch you television daily in hopes that one day I can be part of your network as a reporter. However I do have true concerns about a segment that you shot recently.
About a week ago, you had a segment about a game named Mass Effect and you said it was a video game where sex was an objective of the game. When I heard how you pointed a finger at a small matter in the game I was pretty offended. I was offended due to the lack of hands on experience alot of your researchers and correspondents had when it came down to the subject of sex and violence in video games. The reporter that hosted the segment actually said she looked onto the website before the segment and saw the scene people were talking about where the sex was presented, yet she also claimed to not have hands-on experience with the game itself. I found this truly distasteful. The thing about journalism that I have been studying is that researched, especially hands on research, is a very viable thing when it comes to reporting on the topic. The fact that she said she just skimmed a website and not accurate for a journalist to have true experience on a topic such as this. Being a reporter is about doing long-term research on a topic and provide all kinds of evidence to support a certain conclusion that the reporter is working to uncover from their subject.
Also you brought on the show a woman by the name of Cooper Lawrence who said she too didn't have experience with the game yet she said she saw research that video games have a long lasting sensual and violent appeal to children. While I do respect her opinion, her research was simply flat. People have been violent long before video games came into the world. Long before Pong, the first ever video game created by Video Game creator Ralph Baer. I, too, have played video games my entire life and have never committed a violent act of any kind that was presented in such video games as Grand Theft Auto, Mass Effect, nor Halo, and yet video games are still pushed to make everyone believe it is the worlds worst invention that has been created.
I will say this based off of research and true facts that have been studied on video games and there defense. Video games have been actually said to help improve hand and eye coordination and also helps soldiers train for being in the army when fighting for our country. Video games are used as tools to for learning and studies have shown that kids tend to learn more through video games than they have through their teachers at school.
Furthermore there is a problem with the complete lack of panelists you had that expressed their thoughts on the video game industry as a whole. The thing is that Yes, there are mature themed games out there. However, your panelists said they were targeted at the young crowd. This is a nice assumption, but again as reporters and journalists assumptions aren't viable proofs to back-up an argument. Most gamers that are out there in the world are actually mature adults that have free time on their hands. The teenage crowd is actually a small percentage of the number of gamers out there in the world. The reason why more M-rated games are on the market is because gamer developers know their core audience is with the mature audience and not the teenage backdrop. Video gaming is very expensive and the average 16 year old or younger doesn't have the money to buy the video games, where as the average 25 to 36 year old does have the money to buy video games seeing as most are likely working for their entertainment. The video game industry knows this is where their market share lies, not with a 9 to 16 year old crowd in which most children in this age group isn't able to get a job right now because of economic problems.
To further stretch the argument, the finger is never really pointed at the people that matter most when it comes to children coming into contact with this games that people deem hurtful to children's moral compass: the parents. The problem is that when it comes to video games and the internet, these things can be filtered without any problem. Websites, content, words, expressions, signs can all be filtered on a computer so children don't become exposed to things that aren't appropriate for their children. The same goes for video games where its just like the games having a rating just like a movie. When a child wants to see a movie and they can't get into the feature without a parent its because there is material in the film that the MPAA deems inappropriate for children of a certain age. The same has been done with video games with the ESRB. The problem is that most parents don't take the time to read what the ratings mean when it comes to knowing what kind of game the child is getting into. To further push the envelope, a lot of parents can be blamed for the simple fact that they do not teach their children the difference between reality and fantasy and this too can prove to be a viable thing to stop children to saying and doing terrible things they deem appropriate from what they have seen or heard. All forms of entertainment are measured to have the same effect on a person whether if its in writing, painting, motion capture, or music. To blame one form of entertainment for moral degradation in our society is completely wrong. All forms of violence, speech, and acts on the world begins with the parents on how they correspond with their child when they are brought into the world; video games are not the result of it, they are being used as a scapegoat so that blame will not be pointed in the direction in which it is deserved.
Overall, I must say that when such segments are placed on a channel that claims to be full of facts and non-biased but go against everything they say they stand for actually hurts the credibility of station. This is one of the reasons why reporters and journalists are considered to many as biased, its because alot of todays news bringers go by little research and hands on experience with the subjects at hand. I do hope that in the future, when I become a reporter, things can be completely different.
Thank you for your time and hope you enjoyed my feedback.
Santez Henderson.
tell me how do you all feel on this subject and what I wrote.
----- Added 3 Minutes later -----
Oh and let me say one more thing about this. They completely dont know any about the game because the sex scene is at the end and its only a 10 second scene. the child needs to go through 31 hours of gameplay just to get to that moment and the average kid wouldnt even play a game like Mass Effect, they would be too busy wanting something more straight for like halo.