The video Can Video Games make you Smarter? By Asap Science was published to YouTube on January 19, 2014. It provides facts and statistics on how video games can be intellectually stimulating oppose to the counter popular belief. The video illustrates its facts though active illustrations and narration. The video is journalism because it provides facts that support the overall focus of the topic. Although the film may not fit into what some consider traditional journalism, it still provides facts on a popular topic that can be debated. The visuals correspond to the information being presented and bridge an audience gap by making the facts easier to understand by a younger audience. The video includes interactive activities to further their point and shares information from different studies. The narrator addresses opposing viewpoints and acknowledges them as valid opinions but continues use facts to strengthen their argument. Even though the video does not feature a well-known reporter out on the scene interviewing and investigating whether video games are beneficial or not does not mean it is not journalism. The narrator has his facts on the topic and is reporting to an audience to pass on the information. Does this make the narrator a journalist or just a narrator? Whether the voice on the video was given the facts or researched them himself does not entirely matter. He is the person reporting the information and delivering it to the public which would make him the journalist of the video. A film that interactively teaches facts about the positives of playing video games can be journalism because it is presenting facts about a topic that is relevant and easily debated.
The video Can Video Games make you Smarter? By Asap Science was published to YouTube on January 19, 2014. Although it provides facts and statistics that playing video games can actually make you smarter and increase brain activity it is not journalism. To be journalism something must be newsworthy. This topic, although interesting and popular in many debates is not newsworthy. It is not providing any breaking news facts that have never been shared with the public before. The topic of whether video games are intellectually stimulating or contribute to lazy youth and unproductive brain stimulation is one that has been debated for a while. The question is, is it actually journalism? The video is addressing a side to a popular debate and although acknowledges the opposing view, sticks with the one side and provides information to strengthen the case. This is almost a bias which is not really journalism but more of a very well argued stance on a debate topic. The fact that the video uses illustrations rather than real people and uses a narrator rather than a reporter does not make it any less newsworthy. The video engages the audience and the voice provides well researched facts in a clear manner. However, the real question stems from whether the topic of the positives of video games is one that can accurately be labeled as journalism.
This video is very similar to the one I used for this assignment. It is hard to draw the line between what an educator does and what a journalist does. Journalists inform an audience about a topic using facts, research and good grammar, as teachers do (hopefully).Teachers teach on topics that are relevant to their students, that are local, sometimes odd, and overall similar to the topics of journalists in many ways.
ReplyDeleteAs this video is clearly meant to educate, I do not have trouble saying it was made as an educational video. Does that exclude it from the realm of being journalism? Perhaps.
Just because something has the potential to be journalism, or many of the similar traits as journalism, I have trouble saying that all things educational are also journalistic in nature.
I disagree that having an overt or contributing bias removes something from the realm of journalism. A bad journalist is still a journalist, albeit one ho does his or her job poorly. If bias removed one from the realm of journalism, Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC and pretty much every other major news network would be pushed out of the holy circle that is “journalism.”
A bad apple is still an apple at its core, a bad journalist is the same.
-Lucas
This is a difficult example for me. I find myself having a hard time deciphering from what is "journalism" and what is "research," or even just "information."
ReplyDeleteIn this example, there is a bias presented, which the audience should be aware of. However, that does not mean that it is not journalism. When examining every piece of journalism one encounters, it is important to address any possible biases which the author could be favoring. There are always two sides to every story. Even leading news agencies who tend to be the prime example of journalism exhibit heavy biases in the stories they choose to report, information they choose to share or exclude from their reports, and the way they the information is presented. One news agency can report that a politician made a bold statement and cite it as a good thing, while another can report the same statement and cite it as a bad thing. It is all about the context in which the information is surrounded.
This video was very interesting. It brought up a lot of great points and ideas about video games that I had not considered before. However, I do not know whether or not the intent behind it was to be journalistic. But that also does not mean it is not journalism. Ultimately, I am not sure about this one. I'll look forward to hearing other's thoughts on it cause I am going back and forth.