Research into the connection - Jordan

I have collected a variety of statistics that could become useful when constructing our script for our news report, these statistics can be displayed in a pie chart format.

No connection:

• The psychological group reports that more than 90% of children in the United States play video games. Among kids between the ages of 12 and 17, the number rises to 97%. More important, 85% or more of video games on the market contain some form of violence.
• "If consuming violent media made you violent, then we should prevent adults from reading The Iliad, or for that matter the Old Testament. Together with Shakespearean tragedies and Godfather movies and much else...
• "Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States. Annual trends in video game sales for the past 33 years were unrelated to violent crime both concurrently and up to 4 years later. Unexpectedly, monthly sales of video games were related to concurrent decreases in aggravated assaults and were unrelated to homicides...
• "Children who see a lot of violence are more likely to view violence as an effective way of settling conflicts. Children exposed to violence are more likely to assume that acts of violence are acceptable behaviour.

Connection:

• Viewing violence can lead to emotional desensitisation towards violence in real life. It can decrease the likelihood that one will take action on behalf of a victim when violence occurs. 
• We recently conducted a comprehensive review of 136 articles reporting 381 effects involving over 130,000 participants from around the world. These studies show that violent video games increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure), and aggressive behaviour. Violent games also decrease helping behaviour and feelings of empathy for others. The effects occurred for males and females of all ages, regardless of what country they lived in.

These statistics have been hand selected, to weave through our argument, there are extreme flaws within the connections between video games and violence. These would be on the basis of Age rating for games, a parent shouldn't blame the games, when it clearly states its for 18's or over, therefore you shouldn't buy it for your 10 year old child. 

The point regarding no emotional attachment to life or anyone, this can be easily disregarded due to the countless games that rely on a strong emotional attachment to the main characters. For example, the Walking dead introduces a sweet yet bitter story consisting of a lost girl and a stranger forming a bond over their tragic story to find the child's parents.   

The two examples are similar to a visual book, that adopts a lot of violent elements however the only strong emotions that are created while experiencing these games are that of heartbreaking experience. The experience instantly allows you to connect with the characters, through their encounters, taking you on a sorrowful journey, The Walking dead game enables you to choose dialogue and event options which personalize the main character to fit yourself even more. Although the game sports violence, it is only to immerse the player in the harsh reality of storytelling.