Results Of Study Sponsored By Watchdog Group “Not Entirely Clear”
Let’s vivisect a live specimen over at USAToday.com to get a feel for the anatomy of a news article…
Nearly one in 10 children and teens who play video games show behavioral signs that may indicate addiction, a new study reports.
The study found 8.5% of those who played had at least six of 11 addictive symptoms, including skipping chores and homework for video games, poor test or homework performance and playing games to escape problems. The research, which is published in the May issue of the journal Psychological Science, is based on a 2007 Harris poll of 1,179 U.S. youngsters, the first nationally representative poll on the subject.
…
Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health Science University, called the study “valuable” to the American Psychiatric Association’s decision on whether compulsive computer and Internet use should be considered a mental disorder.
Block, an APA adviser, warns that the study has weaknesses. The research should be replicated because it is supported by the National Institute for Media and the Family, which he likens to a lobbying group. And the survey could have found higher game use because it was collected in January as opposed to summer. It also classifies 8.5% as addicted without a physician interview: “The people they are claiming have a problem, it’s not entirely clear that they do have a problem.”
- Study: Video-game-playing kids showing addiction symptoms
by Mike Snider for USAToday.com
Artifacts of biased journalism:
- Headline: Study: Video-game-playing kids showing addiction symptoms Plan: get the reader’s attention and then fail to follow through with anything substantiative. The presence of addiction is directly correlated to neurochemistry (something which was not tested in any fashion over the course of the “study”) and not the completion of questionnaire. The “discovery” of a new addiction should certainly require scientific rigor – otherwise carefully-crafted questionnaires could reveal the prevalence of food addiction, reading addiction, ellipsis addiction … et cetera
- Introductory Line: Nearly one in 10 children and teens who play video games show behavioral signs that may indicate addiction, a new study reports. – Taken at face value, this must be quite an important study (should one read on, one shall find that it is little more than the typical public relations/manipulations propaganda one would expect from a group with an agenda)
- Assertion: “valuable” to the American Psychiatric Association’s decision – An interesting assertion (contradicted, should one read on)
- Retraction: Block, an APA adviser, warns that the study has weaknesses. The research should be replicated because it is supported by the National Institute for Media and the Family, which he likens to a lobbying group. – Perhaps this should have preceded the bit about the study being “valuable”?
What does the study have to say for itself?
I prefer the term pathological computer or video game use rather than computer, Internet, or video game addiction. Addiction is not a proper medical term, really, and the ultimate issue seems to be that the pattern of use is pathological – that is, it disrupts the ability to function socially, psychologically, occupationally, academically, or otherwise.
- Pathological video game use among youth 8 to 18
Dr. Douglas Gentile
And the title of the study’s news page? “Video Game ‘Addiction’” – that should clear things up a bit.
I would be interested to run a comprehension exit survey on a few hundred of this article’s readers (perhaps with a control group who had read nothing of the article and a second test group who had read only the headline) to determine what the take-away may have been… My hypothesis: the arrangement of shock-and-then-fact inures the casual reader to the shock (perhaps those are supporting facts?) and allows the development of incorrect viewpoints despite the presentation of contradictory evidence.
now I’ll stay tuned..