Video Game Violence Short Story

Since the television was invented in 1924, news and current affairs programs have surly become one of our main media sources. With this in mind, reporters and stations alike are able to manipulate their audiences through a variety of techniques, to make them believe a representation of reality as opposed to the true fact. This is evident in the current affairs story "Video Game Violence" and the standard news story "Music Video Ban". These similar stories both originated from Channel Nine and represent violence in society's youth today, stating children are at risk if exposed to such material. Through a selection of techniques, the audience is lured into supporting the told story and agreeing with the general attitudes promoted.

Parents
Policemen and teachers are seen to be contributors to society, and to have them told to be ‘shot' is quite alarming. "Video Game Violence" uses similar phrases in the lead in such as "in the name of entertainment", "unseen damage" and "fear". Upon hearing these terms, the viewer becomes interested to see how the story folds out. If a story is introduced using standard, generic vocabulary the viewer would not become interested and therefore the story would seem meaningless. The sole purpose of a lead in is to grab the viewer's attention, which is achieved through the use of connative expressions to develop a relationship between the event and the
In "Video Game Violence" the two most important visuals are the footage of the children's behavior before and after playing violent video games, a case study performed by child psychiatrist Brent Watters. Before, the viewers see the children playing G-rated adventure video games, where they are civilized and quiet. Through this, the viewer is able to see the original innocence of a child, before the influence of external entities (such as video games). Immediately after, the footage is varied to the next day where the children are introduced to M15+ rated video games containing extreme graphic violence, and the reaction is completely different. The children are no longer quiet, yet instead they are loud and "feral", and are seen to be running around performing acts of witnessed violent activity on each other. The immediate switch in footage creates a before and after effect, and portrays to the viewer the influence violent video games can have on children. What's even more alarming are the children's responses after playing these games, when asked why they liked