VISCOM – Improving the Media Relations of Social Science Research: The Case of the Violent Video Games Debate
Why does media coverage of research on violent video games so often diverge from the scientific evidence? A Volkswagen Foundation project on communication between social science, journalism and the public.
The project examined science communication between social science, journalism and the public, using the public debate about violent video games as an example.
Its starting point was the observation that media coverage of research on video game violence is contradictory and diverges from the state of scientific knowledge. Reasons include the complexity of social science findings, limited access to academic publications, biased processing driven by pre-existing attitudes (confirmation bias), and the instrumental use of findings by political actors.
Four empirical studies in Germany and the USA
- analysed media coverage,
- surveyed journalists,
- surveyed scientists, and
- surveyed the public.
The project was complemented by a practical component: in a workshop, journalists and scientists worked together on the state of research and the communication problems in the debate about violent video games.