Nava-Sanchez 1

Samuel Nava-Sanchez

10/13/19

TA Chajdas

Video games, Violence, and Why Articles are Better

In writing, there are many different ways to write, however because there are many

different ways to write, some ways of writing are better for certain things compared to others.

This is the main reason why people don’t go about writing articles in the format of a poem or

song lyrics because a poem or song lyric would not be able to convey the writer's intention

properly. In the case of video games and whether or not they cause violence, journalistic articles

definitely get the point across when trying to inform people, so do reddit posts as well as Twitter

posts. These three genres have a good amount of information on the topic of video games and its

relation or lack of relation to violence. Journalistic articles are better than reddit posts and twitter

posts at informing people about video games and violence because they are typically more

credible, written more effectively, and are more objective.

Twitter posts, reddit posts, and journal articles can have varying amounts of credibility,

but the most credible genre would typically be the journalistic article. One of the reasons behind

this is that the writer(s) have to uphold the standard of the name or brand they are writing for.

For example this article “No, there’s still no link between video games and violence” is found on

the L.A.times website.1 This article written by the associated press, already indicates to the

reader that it has some credibility coming into it because it was written and published on the

latimes website. The writer introduces the subject through the title, and then follows up by

1
Associated Press, “No, there’s still no link between video games and violence”, LAtimes,
August 6th, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-06/video-games-
violence-studies
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presenting relevant and recent news related to the topic that they are writing about. One of the

writer’s goals here is to retain the reader's attention while maintaining that the writer knows what

it is that they are writing about.2 After presenting the introductory info, the writer starts to cite

studies as its sources as to why video games do not cause violence. The writer does this so that

they can build ethos in the article and maintain that what they are talking about is credible and

believable. As such, building ethos and establishing credibility is an important part of a

journalistic article because they are written based on facts and showing that their credible helps

the writer to retain readers.3

In comparison, a reddit post, which are similar to blog posts, can vary quite a bit. Here

are two examples of how reddit posts can vary, “Video games can lead to violence” by user

awesome_onomatopeia4 and “No evidence playing violent video games leads to aggressive

behaviour in teens, study finds: 'The idea that violent video games drive real-world aggression is

a popular one, but it hasn’t tested very well over time'” posted by user mvea. 5 Both of these posts

were created by reddit users where they are able to retain anonymity. The anonymity of these

posts affects only awesome_onomatopeia because they are the one posting their opinion and the

anonymity allows awesome_onomatopeia to post their thoughts without fear of repercussions.

The anonymity of mvea doesn’t affect their post because their post is just a link to an article that

2
bright hub education “How to Write a Journalistic Article: Tips for Students” Accessed October
13, 2019 https://www.brighthubeducation.com/help-with-writing/127839-how-to-write-
journalistic-prose/
3
bright hub education, Journalistic Article
4
awesome_onomatopeia. “Video games can lead to violence”. Reddit. February 15th, 2019.
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/aqujg5/video_games_can_lead_to_violen
ce/
5
mvea. “No evidence playing violent video games leads to aggressive behaviour in teens, study
finds: 'The idea that violent video games drive real-world aggression is a popular one, but it
hasn’t tested very well over time'” Reddit. February 13th, 2019.
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/aqitzo/no_evidence_playing_violent_video_gam
es_leads_to/
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is talking about how studies on violence and video games haven’t been quite as accurate as they

could be. Mvea’s goal as the original poster is to spark discussion in the comments section. His

post doesn’t need the credibility because the credibility is found in the article he’s linking to.

User awesome_onomatopeia created a post on r/unpopular opinion in which they present their

opinion and thoughts as to why video games cause violence. Anonymity hurts their post since it

is solely based on opinion, and makes it lose credibility. Writers create these posts as a way to

spark discussion. A convention of these reddit posts are to spark discussion among like minded

individuals as well as those who disagree. Reddit posts typically always reach their intended

audience because these posts are created in specific groups. As a result of their audience being

specific groups, the posts that are created are worded and built to appeal to that audience. This is

why these posts vary in credibility as a result of the anonymity reddit gives its users.

Twitter posts can be similar to reddit posts in that some users can maintain anonymity by

not sharing personal information on their social media. This enables users to post more raw and

or controversial thoughts that can spark discussion. User John Whitehouse on twitter tweeted out

a small summary about Kevin McCarthy talking about how video games are the problem

following two mass shootings on Fox News. 6 In this case, John Whitehouse’s tweet does not

suffer from anonymity and the effects that come with that. He establishes credibility by

presenting his source in the same tweet. The goal for this tweet is similar to reddit posts as it is

meant to spark discussion among those who follow that person or those who happen to see this

tweet while browsing about this topic. Credibility is a convention for all of these genres,

especially when the topic is grounded in some sort of politics.

6
Whitehouse, Justin. Twitter Post. August 4, 2019, 7:14 AM.
https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1158018462125572102
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Journalistic articles are typically written more effectively in comparison to twitter posts

or reddit posts. In the LAtimes article, the writer(s) go about presenting information separated by

central questions that the reader may have while reading. Since one of the writers goals is to keep

the reader interested, they start off with the most relevant and interesting info at the start to

engage and hook the reader into the article. This is a genre convention of journalistic articles

because they all attempt to maintain reader interest as well as pulling readers towards their article

with something that will catch their attention since these kinds of articles are typically competing

with other articles to get a reader's attention. 7 The article is also well spaced and concise and uses

language that is formal and provides enough surface information that allows the reader to

understand despite them possibly not knowing very much about the topic. These articles are held

to a standard and reflect that standard in how they are written. Reddit posts in comparison aren’t

quite as polished and are typically just blurbs of text, not to say that all reddit posts are like this,

but in the example written by awesome_onomatopeia, it is not formatted at all and is just one

short and squished paragraph. Twitter posts are both similar and dissimilar to reddit posts as they

can be blurbs of text, but they can also be short and concise since one tweet has a limit of 240

characters like John Whitehouses tweet.

Objectivity is the last thing that makes journalistic articles better than reddit or twitter

posts. A journalistic articles goal is to inform the reader and maintain reader interest, however it

also has to accomplish this through the facts alone because opinionated pieces aren’t quite as

meaningful as one that proves its stance through the facts and information it presents. 8 The

7
Associated Press, “No, there’s still no link between video games and violence”, LAtimes,
August 6th, 2019, https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-06/video-games-
violence-studies
8
Associated Press, Still no link https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-06/video-
games-violence-studies
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article is objective so the writer can avoid having bias in the article. Reddit posts can be quite

opinionated. An example of this is awesome_onomatopeias post, they post their opinion in order

to spark a discussion but also in order to draw other like minded individuals to agree with them. 9

This is a convention of reddit posts that want discussion because the writer's goal is often to draw

other people to their post that agree with their opinion so that the post will become popular and

thus reach a larger audience. This goal is similar to John Whitehouses tweet, but he presents his

tweet in an objective manner commenting on the video of Kevin McCarthy on Fox news. 10 The

discussion that follows in the comments however is not quite as objective because the users are

basing their opinions on their own personal experiences.

In conclusion, journalistic articles are better than reddit and twitter posts for the topic of

video games and its relation to violence because articles are\written more efficiently and well

formatted, articles establish credibility through their sources, and are objective by presenting the

facts without showing a specific bias towards one argument.

9
awesome_onomatopeia. “Video games can lead to violence”. Reddit. February 15th, 2019.
https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/aqujg5/video_games_can_lead_to_violen
ce/
10
Whitehouse, John. Twitter Post. August 4, 2019, 7:14 AM.
https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1158018462125572102