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Just a very short post, since the media are currently going ape-shit on video games (again ...), and just as it always is, are flinging around more bullshit than actual facts.
The current accusation is that video games cause rape.
Indeed:
The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games.
Of course, it's Fox News claiming this. And the Guardian is cleaning up after them, thankfully:
It is, quite frankly, an astonishing claim – staggering on so many levels, many of us will have had to check it several times to ensure we were reading it correctly. It assumes that sexual violence is on the rise in the US (very difficult to prove for a multitude of reasons), and that games actually contain sexual scenes – which they very rarely do. It is a confident statement, light in ambiguity; if it had been made after rigorous first-hand research by an academic of worldwide standing, it would be actual news. But it wasn't, it was made by the author of Bad Boys: Why We Love Them, How to Live with Them and When to Leave Them.
Hours after the news hit, game site Kotaku was barracking Lieberman for her sources and an explanation – which it received. In a sense. Then Game Politics posted a story in which the psychologist claimed she had been slightly misrepresented in the Fox article, but went on to cagily reiterate her argument – that sexually violent games are connected with aggression, and by extension, sexual violence. Tellingly, when Kotaku presented her with statistics from the US department of justice that showed a decline in reported rapes since 1973, Lieberman responded by suggesting that rape statistics are "known to be variable and unreliable", thereby invalidating her own central proposition.
The sad thing is that the mass media still believe that they can cause scandals by boiling up some unverified facts about video games retold by self-appointed experts (that exist in Switzerland as well) and hoping they can get away with it since only the "nerds" know about games anyway.
They really baffling thing is: why do the mass media keep on giving those nutcases a platform to spew their misinformation? It's not just 20 Minuten, but Blick am Abend as well that has now featured at least two (positive!) stories on physiognomy, a strand of pseudo-science that was especially popular with the Nazis ... I mean – W T F?!
Just a very short post, since the media are currently going ape-shit on video games (again ...), and just as it always is, are [flinging around more bullshit than actual facts][2].[1]: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/feb/16/bulletstorm-fox-news-controversy[2]: http://www.20min.ch/news/kreuz_und_quer/story/28291392The current accusation is that video games cause rape.Indeed:> The increase in rapes can be attributed in large part to the playing out of [sexual] scenes in video games.Of course, it's Fox News claiming this. And [the Guardian is cleaning up after them][1], thankfully:> It is, quite frankly, an astonishing claim – staggering on so many levels, many of us will have had to check it several times to ensure we were reading it correctly. It assumes that sexual violence is on the rise in the US (very difficult to prove for a multitude of reasons), and that games actually contain sexual scenes – which they very rarely do. It is a confident statement, light in ambiguity; if it had been made after rigorous first-hand research by an academic of worldwide standing, it would be actual news. But it wasn't, it was made by the author of Bad Boys: Why We Love Them, How to Live with Them and When to Leave Them.> Hours after the news hit, game site Kotaku was barracking Lieberman for her sources and an explanation – which it received. In a sense. Then Game Politics posted a story in which the psychologist claimed she had been slightly misrepresented in the Fox article, but went on to cagily reiterate her argument – that sexually violent games are connected with aggression, and by extension, sexual violence.
