The Media Bias Against Video Games

In this Head to Head segment, Kotaku correspondent Amanda Glasser and Assistant Professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication Dmitri Williams discuss the media's often negative portrayal of the video game industry.

The cover why the media might be biased, as well as give reasons as to why some game publishers actually might enjoy the negative attention.

[thebudgetgamer]

keep the children away

:)

[iggypop123]

at first i thought this vid was about kotaku's bias in reporting

[no-spin]

same here

[buy a ps3]

Im glad someone addressed this i'm not a fan of G4 but i give them propts for bring light to this subject.

[Endorphin]

I think that gaming is by far the richest form of entertainment that I find myself drawn to today. I really hope that in the future that more people open up and accept video games as they accept watching movies and listening to music. We just saw last year that the video game business outsold the movie business which is something quite surprising because it shows that it is finally hitting mainstream.

[T3L3PROOF]

its true that games aren't for kids anymore, but ive been playing games since 96' and i haven't killed nor murdered anyone, and i never get in fights at schools, well only twice but it was some wannabe gangsters.

My point is that either through my whole life ive been playing M+ games and i do not feel my mind being corrupted by video games, sure its addicting but it doesn't make me want to kill someone.

and for the teens (like me) when they say that "sex" games influence us, its just cuz were going through a process where our enzymes go nuts.

[mastiffchild]

The double standards are now shifting as the gaming media become just as bad as the mainstream. You could argue that without the checks and balances (at least in newspaper reporting)in place for the largely web based industry that the chances for overreaction(though to different things), bias and basically shill sites are far more likely to happen. Historically that's a problem with any new media-it has little regulation and can fall prey to either sub-standard reporting(not getting the best by not competing wage wise)or to pandering wildly to the whims of parent companies or large advertisers(things which, for example, The NPC take care opf in England for "serious" written press). So for someone from Kotaku to be picking on what are now relatively few mainstream media "ZOMG!" moments due to under reporting/investigating while they're frequently accused of something far more insidious seems ripe to me.
The games media loves this subject as it's the ONLY one in which they can confidently claim any high ground because of their greater subject knowledge. What shows like this snippet ignore is that the nature of games has changed and the mainstream, to a huge degree, accept that the numbers on the box are there for a reason and that alone shows the adult content of todays "games"(a word which strangely only ever makes folk look down on our hobby/passion and not, say, a sport like football, Basketball or Gridiron)while the immaturiy of their own segment of journalism needs far more closely looking into.
Sorry for the wall o' text but it does slightly get to me when the generally crappy games media want to lecture more well developed areas of reportage for the slip-ups of a very tiny minority(these days). People in glass houses and all that, imo.The gamin community may have a lot to offer the mainstream to allay heir fears and misconceptions but our lousy media that engages in what verges on fanboy nonsense at times?Purleeze.

[gaminoz]

Interesting discussion.

Matrix style tech is the next "evil of society"...

[Grandreaper9999]

Too bad they didn't focus more on the bias that flies around on the net all the time. Kinda hoped they would bring up certain sites, catch them with their pants down on national television, give them a reason to b1tch. That was a complete waste of 7 minutes.

[cond3m3r]

The whole sex scene stuff on Mass Effect is like seeing it off of a movie. There are plenty of movies that have sex scenes or close to dirty scenes in rated PG-13 movies. Movies HAVE A RATING for kids not to see them, just like video games have RATINGS to prevent kids from playing games. Who's fault is it for letting a 10 yr old brat get a hold of a mature rating game...parents and probably the one who didn't check for ID. The point is that if the media is goin to be grouchy pants about deaths and sex scenes they should stare at the parents for letting it happen and not paying attention to the RATING on a game

[pixelsword]

...Media bias against a particular console = fake and conspiracy