Media Panic!! :O

In this post I will talk about a particular media panic and explain what exactly a media panic is.

Media panic is a term often used to describe criticism against a new medium or media technology. and we also have a Moral Panic.. A Moral Panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. these go hand in hand when applied to modern media culture.

One industry that has seen many criticisms and targeted by mass media to induce a media panic is the computer games industry. It is often the computer games industry that takes much of the heat from news papers, televised news readings, online articles, radio etc. With higher authorities such as politicians and opinion leaders thinking that video games stimulate violence, crime, sexual crimes, even mass murder. But in this very interesting article http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-5831007-7.html, it explains that how after studying the effects of online gamers over a months period of playing, there is no viable link between violence and computer games. this being said, the scientists that carried out the study said, that there is no telling what the long term effects could be, but there is no strong indication of violent behaviour in computer gamers after playing a violent game.

This is good news in my opinion, because no longer can politicians turn to video games when there is a national tragedy, then just slate the games industry for making people do this, all it gets is bad publicity from the mass media, by telling the crime fearing people basically, video games = anti social behaviour, and on a larger scale, aggressive attacks, murders, etc. In other words, scaring the people even more, until maybe one day, nobody leaves there house in the fear that, they open there from door and they will get murdered.

Only recently, I read an article that blamed the Moscow bombings on the cult video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, where in the game there was a highly controversial scene in an airport, which was identical to what happened in Moscow. I think this was only a matter of time before this was blamed for something that happened. This is stupid in my opinion, why isn't the same thing said in the films industry? they get off Scot free, while a weaker industry takes the entire blame for something like the Moscow bombings (along with many other cases). this article pretty much sums up this paragraph - http://www.1up.com/news/russian-airport-bombing-connected-modern-warfare-2-media

As technology becomes more advanced, especially for gaming, this means games get more realistic, and as games get more realistic, they (more than likely) will get aimed towards a more adult audience. This is were the Video games rating act 1994 comes into effect. I cant understand, why 12 year olds are allowed to play games with an 18+ ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating by their parents, but then when violent or graphic images are portrayed, the game gets the blame.. HELLO!!! Wake up, parents! This personally annoy's me, on many levels. The game is for adults (clearly, if the rating is 18+), it even comes with warnings on the back of the box that says, "Sexual themes", "Intense Violence" etc. But as soon as there is an uproar about a game by parents, the media speculate everything around the game, giving bad publicity, and causing fear in something that people don't really understand, it gives people biased and wrong knowledge and information that these things are bad, and nearly, persuading people to be 'against' something they know nothing about. Which is unfair, because people are like sponges and blank canvasses... They want to believe it is bad, so they can blame something for when anything goes wrong.