The Daily Mail is a British newspaper that, as far as I can tell, has become internationally synonymous with what I like to call ‘factually impaired’ news; other people sometimes refer to it as ‘horse shit’. It can often read like an English version of the Onion, only written in sincerity by people who are either insane or working an agenda. Maybe both.
Their website, the Mail Online, is the biggest newspaper website in the world and it is, quite frankly, worse than it’s paper equivalent. This is thanks to what I’m sure is an intentional strategy of posting the most link baiting articles and headlines possible, to get more traffic. With this in mind, it may not surprise you that the manner on which they have followed up on a report on the recent stabbing of a teacher at the Corpus Christi Catholic School in Leeds is not exactly an even affair.
An article was posted earlier today with the suggested intent to establish a character profile of the young man who has been accused of stabbing his teacher. I want to go over this article, because I personally find it both offensive and inappropriate and I’d like to explain why I feel this way. I have taken a few screenshots from the website, so that anyone uncomfortable with the idea of giving the them traffic can see it here without doing so, but for readers with a mind towards ‘seeing is believing’ the link to the article I am writing about is here.
Update: It seems that whoever edits the website might agree with some of my points too, because the article has since been changed. It’s no less inflammatory, however, but some of the focus has been removed from Dark Souls 2 and it no longer has advertising directly linking the game from this article. /fart
Ultra evil, nasty and violent?
To begin with, before looking at the article, the link itself reads ‘Loner-schoolboy-murder-suspect-enjoyed-ultra-violent-video-games’, which rather neatly establishes the intention of this article without even having to read it. Video games did it; violent ones.. Ultra-violent video games. Evil ultra-violent video games that are turning your kids into psychopathic murderers. If the mail’s system works anything like wordpress, this was the original title for the article. Going in a bit further, we have said title in large print followed by a selection of facts and it seems to follow with the same subtext.
For me, along with the introductory line and the fact that the first bullet point is about video games, this already reads like propaganda and at the very worst it is falling on stereotypes. We can see heavy metal music being brought into the question on the second line and only on the third do we see anything that I would consider to relevantly highlight his character. Even then, it is only on the fourth line do we see a clear sign of poor mental health, something that probably should have been the first, possibly only point of relevance here.
Do you think the ordering of this information was important? I’m certain it adds weight to certain points and I’m sure the writer would have considered this, even if briefly.
I can see that the writer is not saying outright that he thinks video games would have caused this, even if it is implied, he’s just laying out the information and letting you make the conclusions. There is a clear tone, already, but nothing that can be taken in abstract as an opinion.
On the subject of whether or not video games affect people’s behaviour enough to cause them to be violent, I am very much on side that believes that such statements are complete bullshit. I play games myself, so of course I’m likely to have a vested interest in the argument and I’m willing to admit that they are very engaging, emotionally and intellectually. Dark Souls is a franchise known for being punishingly hard, and it can be very frustrating, but my own personal experience tells me that that frustration is more likely to be taken out on inanimate objects – not other people.
More to the point, the UK government POSTnote 405 tells us that almost 90% of all young boys below the age 0f 19 play video games. It could now be considered a statistical abnormality when a young boy doesn’t play violent video games. If there was a genuine cause and effect happening here, violence would be rising in young adults, but it’s not. It’s falling, and so as far as I’m concerned the fact that this 15 year old plays Dark Souls is about as incidental as what newspaper he might read, if at all.
In fact, I would be curious to know what percentage of murderers and violent criminals read the Daily Mail. I imagine the statistics on that, compared to video games, would be… interesting.
Going back to the article in question, it makes reference to information on Google+ and YouTube (an amusing insight into where the Daily Mail has been snooping, and exactly what they think is relevant information) interspersed with somewhat ominous quotes and details they’ve yoinked without effort. Below this is a picture, which I feel no need to repost, of the young man in an Achievement Hunter t-shirt; further reinforcement.
Again, we have another picture, this time it is a screenshot of Dark Souls 2. Specifically, a cropped picture of two characters attacking each other with the caption “The teenage suspect accused of stabbing to death his teacher was a fan of Dark Souls – a fantasy game where players kill others to survive”.
This statement might not be a lie but it’s at this point the article feels like it’s misrepresenting Dark Souls for emotional effect. Player versus player is certainly an important aspect behind Dark Souls but anyone who has played that game knows that it is a far broader experience than the article is to admit. There is equal focus on cooperation and support, as you might expect in a nuanced online system. Dark Souls 2 is not a murder simulator, and this is digressive. Not to mention, the two images are fucking huge compared to the rest of the article so far, this is clearly an important element of the story.
It is, however, not over yet.
The selection in the box on the right actually linked me to a preview of Dark Souls 2 on the Mail Online. It is a very positive article that was written last August and it is essentially a glorified piece of hype press.
Update: The article seems to have been taken down too. Hmm…
Update 2: And it’s back.
Herein lies one of the biggest problems I have with this article, possibly the only real problem I can levy with it in the realm of opinion (even if the idea of a video game influencing someone to commit violence it ludicrous to me).
The Daily Mail has been advertising this game for months. It is absolutely disingenuous for them to throw it under the bus to follow an agenda or to drum up traffic. Worse than that; they have completely derailed an article that claims to be about a tragic death, or a distressing murder, into a piece of anti-video game propaganda in the most cynical and exploitative manner possible.
All of this, of course, culminates in a link to a video that the Mail Online has been hosting for a couple of days now. The launch trailer for the PC port of the game. I’m not sure what they think this demonstrates.
Update: This video has been removed. I’m not sure why, but I’m guessing either the Mail has decided that Dark Souls is now a ‘target’ or Namco have put the hammer down. I am very much hoping it’s the latter.
Following this, what is effectively an article in itself repetitively bringing up the subject of video games, does the writer begin to talk about the rest of the circumstances involved in the 15 year old boy’s life. At this point, it is clear that a more empathic approach can be taken regarding commentators who were part of his life and the fallout that has happened since, but it’s telling that this part of the article can only begin once the first third of video game brainwashing has begun, so that all we are considering during any of this is how any of it might relate to video games.
“He came to a party a few weeks ago and he took some paracetamol beforehand. He used to take drugs all the time.”
Yes, the article actually says that.
At this point, regardless of your opinion when it comes to whether video games can affect behaviour or not, I would hope you understand why this kind of article is still wholly inappropriate and why it marks the Mail, or more specifically the writer and the editor for this pieces as being complete hypocrites.
I don’t like this kind of ‘hot to the presses’ attempt at profiling, I imagine it’s more harmful than anything (in respect to creating a mythos behind the killer, something other troubled teenagers might look up to) and at the end of the day is motivation really the question we need answered at this point? I don’t think this article serves a positive purpose and if you take the references to video games away, what do you get left with? An article that carries less controversy, perhaps, but really tells the story of someone who was suffering with poor mental health.
A friend of mine asks, “Are issues of mental health and needless loss of life not ‘news’ enough?”
I have long had a problem with the quality of press that the Daily Mail offers, but my opinion may soon be rendered impotent if I am to believe the information I recently read in one of their articles. Apparently writing this article may have given me cancer.