This thread is about two tragic news. I wont talk about the story itself, not to spoil any of the two different point of views it have, but i will just say that its incredibly sad for two distinct reasons. First, read this: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060118/tc_afp/bulgariausinternet http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/7000/20060118/1045000004.htm And then: http://news.gaminghorizon.com/media2/1137635340.3198.html Im really sad, and angry, to see that those medias havent changed. They diform everything to make it more controversed, spicier, "better". Its not information, its entertainement. The thing is that, once again, the "gamer's world" is attacked by one way or another, because scandals are selling better, and that "we need something to bash on". Mr. average joe will never know the real story, wich is as sad, but not as dark and stainy.
Damn, my feelings are running amok, since I have just had bad flashback to a personal experience, where one of my friends and I saved a person from comitting suicide, I don´t want to go into detail, since it is too personal. But with the webcam, and all that. just gave me a very bad flashback, and I remember going to bed 3 A.M. that day, and my friend took over, and him and I saved the person. But I don´t want to go into more details..
Just typical BS from those who think we need everything to be "Entertainment" ! Now this is where some one should seriously sue someone's arse ! Yakumo
couldn't agree more. I'm getting sick of hearing b/s about how games turn people into killers. and one of the worst things I read was a statement from a mother that said that she would rather let her son do cocaine then having him play games.. clickety-click-link
If news wasn't "entertainment", most people wouldn't even pay attention. News is a product. They want you to buy this product.
News isn't a product. CNN, ABC, Fox News and similar shows are entertainment channels. NPR (National Public Radio), Headline News, and BBC are news. They report it, not throw in debate/opinion.
Yup, it's "information - lite", or, as it's known in communication sciences, "infotainment" - the manipulation of information to creat media products that give viewers the illusion of being informed, but also, that disseminate the discursive contents of the hegemonic class, and thus, their agenda. People feel "smart" watching the news or reading the paper, but they're just being entertained by fabrications based on the first-hand accounts of people and the views of the elite and the company. They decide what news you see, with what discursive orientation (that gives the news an "opinion" just by adjusting which words are used, and influencing the viewer's perception of it), and at which time intervals. It's called "Agenda Setting" and all the media does it. And, of course, turning gamers/goths/anyone different into killers has several good discursive threads to sell and to indoctrinate the viewers: 1) To legitimise the discrimination of those who are different and appease those in the status quo 2) To use fear to Legitimise the reduction of civil rights in exchange for security 3) To have a "scapegoat" to blame for a social/identity crisis that's sweeping the world since the second half of the XXth. And that's how news works.
Sadly, thats how it currently works. There are some news programs that simply report it without adding fabrication or an expert opinion on the matter. The current mainstream news keeps its viewers either enraged or at a mild stuper. I couldn't stop watching the news after 9/11/01 for a few months until I realized that it was keeping me very stressed out. Thats why I rarely watch mainstream news like on CNN. I usually watch network national news and public broadcasting whenever I can catch it. to me, those programs are hardly sensationalistic as FOX, CNN, etc. Heck, ever since 9/11. More and more people started watching the news and such programs on Fox, CNN, etc. Its as if people are waiting for something to happen again...
Even when they "tell the truth", it is still spun. This is what journalism is.... getting someone interested in what you are saying. Most of the time, they can steer around lying by leaving out critical details. Like, when the "news" reports that the Recording Industry is lost x.y billion in sales last year, implying that the loss is due to piracy. What they dont tell you is more than x.y billion dollars were made by selling digital music online. It isn't lying, but it is deceptive regardless. The simple fact of the matter is, even people with the best intentions won't get everything right. Lots of places simply introduce such things to give it better value.
True story: I just got back to school about 2 weeks ago. Now, I go to school in a tinyish town with an moderately sized college (16000ish). We're surrounded by farmland and about 45 minutes from any major city. Most of the students are rediculously rich...and well...it's a really nice school. (We're on track to be the number one public university in 2009! Woo!) Now, every time theres a crime here, students get an Email telling us what happened and what the suspect looks like. Now the entire first semester, we got one crime alert...a break in in a house. In the two weeks since we've been back, due to some sort of fluke there have been three crimes. A break in, a rape, and a mugging. Ok, I knows those crimes are nothing to sneeze at...espcially the rape, but things happen. They happen more on other college campuses...and they do happen every so often here... Now, nobody around here likes crime, but nobody was particularly freaked out, either. Life goes on, campus life goes on as normal... Until Fox News Gets Into the Mix... I got a call from my Mom asking me if there was anything strange going on in town. Of course there wasn't. I asked why she asked... Apparently my grandmother had called my mom, because she was watching Faux (Fox) News before she went to sleep (my grandparents always watch Fox News), and saw some "Terror in the Heartland" story on Fox news saying that the college was on a lockdown and students were told to stay indoors. Long story short, it took me 10 mintues to convince my Grandmother that I wasn't being manraped and mugged while I was talking to her on the phone.
Those are horrible stories, guys. Fox news sounds like A Current Affair, spread to 24 hours a day! That's my idea of Hell.
Well, old Jack Thompson has already commented on this: Took some doing to find the source, but here it is. http://www.metalgearsolid.org/featurez/articles/mitch_article.php Its in the latest news
