I heard this story via my co-worker Ashley, who found it on Gizmodo, who found it on Kotaku (Gawker Media affiliate), who found it on Cleveland.com.  Down the line through each source I read, the story kept sounding more like a game of telephone.

I recently decided to get a Wii because I thought being an adult now I have the courage to not get sucked into video games all day like when I was kid. So far so good, but when I read this post on Gizmodo it made me think how video games may cause some users to subconsciously act in ways they never thought (Point #1: Influence of Video Games).  Then I read it on Kotaku since that was the source cited “via.” Kotaku’s post actually went into more detail about the relationship between the father and son and how the father still forgave him for what he had done (Point #2 Dynamic within Culture).  Kotaku cited Cleveland.com’s post as the source and at this point all 3 stories had the basic storyline, but with different angles and different emphasized details.

Cleveland.com’s post seemed to imply more of a cut and dry facts version of what happened in the specific trial with testimonials that Mark Petric gave at his son Daniel Petric’s trial (Point #3 Cut and Dry Facts).  Kotaku’s gives more of an editorial perspective ending the post with opinionative statements:

“At the same time, the fact that the father can forgive him for what he had done is a strong testament to the power of both family and forgiveness. Interpret it how you will.”

Then when you read it on Gizmodo, the perspective implies more that the cause at hand in all of this is the video game Halo 3.  They even cited a post previously written on Gizmodo titled: Body Found, Believed to Be That of Runaway Teen Gamer at the end with a statement:

“As of late, video games seem inundated with tragedy.”

Interesting that I had to go 4 degrees deep to find a perspective that may not have shown a biased side.

NIECEE’s TAKE AWAYS:

• Social Media Opinion vs Media Facts. When Editor Ina Steiner of AuctionBytes.com was asked, “What are the benefits of the AuctionBytes blog?” in the book Blogging Heroes, she stated one of the benefits, “It gives me the freedom to speculate and editorialize more.”  We look to bloggers because we want perspective, opinion, and views.  For Gizmodo and Kotaku, the angles they used were ones I expected of them because that’s the voice they’ve come to define over the years on their blogs in order to cater their readers.  When I needed more concrete facts to understand more behind the story, I had to go to a media source like Cleveland.com that had a reporter covering the trial.