The news media and "violent video games"

[Wrestlevania]

As part of my day job, I study information patterns and human-computer interaction. One of the more recent blogs I discovered on this topic is the excellent Information is Beautiful.

Today's blog post looks at Google Insights and how it can be used to analyse one or more specific search terms and see what patterns emerge. The author's first test term? "violent video games"

Off the back of the recent timeline of global media scare stories, I got curious about what searches actually look like.

For example, the search “violent video games” reveals a very distinct pattern:

Why that distinct pattern? If you add the dates, it clarifies things:

Every April and November the issue flares up. Why?

April 20th is the anniversary of the Columbine Massacre. Though [diminishing], the echoes of that event still reverberate through the group mind.

Not sure about the November peak? Maybe because Christmas video games are announced?

I suppose it's obvious when put this plainly, but seeing the same peaks - albeit reduced year-on-year - is stark and arresting, and raises some questions about how exactly the media serves the public at large.

Really incredible stuff... or maybe I'm just a shameless informatics nerd.

[Psych]

It is unfortunate that there is no earlier data that could shed more light on the Columbine hypothesis. The theory seems plausible, but I would have thought that the after shocks of that incident would diminish more rapidly.

I tried running some Insight searches for various Video game franchises that tend to get brought up in the violent Video game debate (mortal kombat, doom, grand theft auto, etc.) and was surprised to find that they by no means account for the peaks in the "violent video games" search.

I don't know what is actually causing the cyclical appearance of that term, but based on the strong consistency of this graph I bet there are an untold number of issues that pop in and out of the media's favor with extreme regularity.

[Wrestlevania]

Really good counter-points; to my shame, I didn't think to see if there were correlating nodal points for other franchises that have generated outrage in the past.

The thing is, Columbine does seem to remain the apparent textbook case when it come to citing reasons for the banning of violence in video games. Speaking purely from a data and analysis point of view, the correlation between the two is routinely enforced - regardless of graphing, you see read about it too often even today - that the pairing may simply overwhelm every other Video game franchise in question.

Edit: I've just graphed "violent video games" and "columbine video games" which has some interesting shadowing. Though the result for the Columbine-related search is much lower, the peaks do appear to mimic - albeit in shallow fashion - those of the overarching "violent video games" search.

[Nappi]

"Youth depression", "gun control" and "violent music" result in similar patterns. "Benevolent god" might also, but there is only data from two cycles.

[Erkki]

Love video games: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=love%20video%20games&cmpt=q Yay!

[Erkki]

Why does bad breath peak in feb/jan? http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=bad%20breath&cmpt=q

[elmuerte]

boobs is doing well in Pakistan: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=boobs&cmpt=q

Peanutbutter does well around december: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=peanutbutter&cmpt=q

[Nachimir]

Edit: I've just graphed "violent video games" and "columbine video games" which has some interesting shadowing. Though the result for the Columbine-related search is much lower, the peaks do appear to mimic - albeit in shallow fashion - those of the overarching "violent video games" search.

That could be the trend to talk about violent video games causing discussion of Columbine.

Still, fascinating post Wrestle, thanks.