Five at 8 – 12/16/09: Video games cause violence? Prove it!
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1) The Star Tribune today provided a sympathetic profile of David Walsh and his National Institute of Media and the Family, which is going out of business. Walsh has been a one-man critic of "violent" video games, and the media has generally accepted his premise -- violent video games have a significant health impact -- without question. In its last chance to do so, the Star Tribune also passed on the opportunity to utter two words: "Prove it." Even after all these years, the premise is as much supposition as it is science. A 2005 study found no correlation, overturning previous "research."
"It's not as if this is a light switch that either video games do or do not cause aggression. You have to think about the strength of that effect. Most people assume it has a really big effect, but what we find from research is it actually has a very tiny effect." researcher Patrick Markey concluded in 2007.
Craig Anderson, an Iowa State University psychologist, disagrees, citing 1990s research. "High levels of violent video game exposure have been linked to delinquency, fighting at school and during free play periods, and violent criminal behavior," he said. He also published a confirming study in 2008.
Dr. Cheryl K. Olson, co-director of the Center for Mental Health and the Media at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, looked at his data and had a different conclusion. "We don't know enough," she said.
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Someone should point in these sorts of stories that the issue remains very much in question.
2) Despite all the new ways of communicating and telling stories, there's still only one really compelling medium -- the still photograph. Nothing moves, so you have to actually think about what you're seeing. The Big Picture blog at the Boston Globe has two posts available (here and here) with the top pictures of 2009. Sure, some are predictable. But many are haunting and strike you right where it hurts.
With most media, the information is coming at you so quickly -- so constantly -- you don't have time to think and absorb most of it. Not so with a photograph.
How do photographers do it? Ryan Lobo is one such person who photographs unusual human lives. Take his picture, for example, of a Liberian war criminal. He talks about and shows that picture in this new TED video.
Related: How do journalists adequately relay the aftermath of 'crippling moments of horror'? Nieman Reports is taking a look at the question and also "how grief invades reporters' hearts when death steals the lives of colleagues because of words they've written or images they've shown."
3) Spotted at the C Concourse at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. (h/t: Linda Fantin):
Lane Wallace has observed all things Tiger and concluded that the world isn't all about us.
Woods has apologized publicly already, in print statements. But apparently that's not enough. No, to earn forgiveness, he apparently has to stand in front of lights and cameras, humble, shamed, and apologizing to...and that's where I get puzzled. To whom is this public apology supposed to be directed? And to what end?
Meanwhile, Monte Poole of the San Jose Mercury News plays the race card in a column today.
4) Kill (the) Bill? Howard Dean says it's time to stick a fork in health care reform, according to Vermont Public Radio. If you've lost Howard Dean...?
