Playing
the News
by Jeff
Plunkett and Jigar Mehta, Directors
First Run/Icarus Films, Brooklyn, NY,
2005
20 minutes / color
Sales: video/DVD, $225; rental: video,
$75
Distributors website: http://www.frif.com.
Reviewed by Amy Ione
The Diatrope Institute
ione@diatrope.com
I have never forgotten one passionate
class discussion on television violence
that took place during my days as a grad
student. Although, I am unable to recall
the course, the voice of a student who
was a forceful advocate of showing the
violence has come to mind frequently over
the years. She strongly believed these
scenes provided a vehicle for those of
us who lived far from crime-infested areas
to understand lifestyles we do not experience
first-hand. At the time, and still, I
find myself torn. As much as I oppose
censorship in any form, whenever I think
about the ramifications of continual exposure
to this kind of brutality, I fear it normalizes
the behavior in a way that is not socially
beneficial. Over the years, as I have
watched crime increase, pondered the escalating
conflicts within our polarized world,
and watched new technologies easily circulate
events like the Saddam execution, my mind
has often returned to that class debate.
Playing the News is a film that
speaks directly to the dilemma. Keith
Halper, the CEO of the company that markets
the Kuma War videos based on the Iraq
War, explains that the game simulations
of battles from the war are designed as
an "intense, boots-on-the-ground experience"
for those who play. He sees this experience
as a positive way to understand the actual
events for, in his view, young people
don't watch TV news or read newspapers.
Rather, they play hour after hour of video
games, so why not convey war reports to
them through their recreational activities?
To its credit, the script responds to
this question through the voices of both
critics and enthusiasts. Commentary from
figures outside the gamer community is
the films strength. Henry Jenkins,
in Comparative Studies at MIT, asserts
that the game allows a player to see the
world as an embedded journalist would.
This conclusion seems to comport with
the games intention. Andreas Kluth,
a technology writer for The Economist,
is a bit more skeptical. Kluth concedes
that the videos may educate people about
the war, but concludes that this type
of experience would be more voyeuristic
than real. A gamer may learn about the
mechanics but would miss the agony of
the population, for example. This skewed
perspective comes about because heroic
events are included, while less attractive
actualities (e.g., U.S. military torture
at Abu Ghraib prison) are not. A war correspondent,
Philip Robertson, articulately expands
on Kluths point. Voicing suspicion
of Kumas claim that it is much like
a news organization, he asserts that integrating
a game format with "news stories" misconstrues
the very nature of the war itself. Speaking
persuasively against being swayed by the
"educational" thesis, he asks whether
a video game focused on simulating the
violent engagements of the war is a form
of entertainment that sanitizes too many
aspects of what is essentially a complicated
and chaotic environment?
Black Caesar, Rick Harris, and Steve Jefferson
offer the gamers perspective. They
are among those who download the episodes
from the internet, and each conveyed his
fascination with the product. One, for
example, said he becomes so involved in
the game that he has no idea what is going
on around him. Another states it is "funner"
to watch the game than to look at the
real news on TV. I found Steve Jeffersons
experience representative. He plays 5-6
hours/day, has concluded that the war
is pointless but believes that we have
to do what we have to do. He also notes
that he has friends over and that, to
his mind, the game gives him some sense
of their experience. By contrast, he acknowledges
that the game is still just a game, and
he can walk away from it.
The need to engage with the distinction
between actuality and the shades of it
a video experience can capture goes far
beyond Playing the News and video
games. Neil Postmans Amusing
Ourselves to Death is a forceful book
that comes to mind as a recent critical
commentary on replacing media-based education
with engaged, critical commentary and
involvement with genuine events. Indeed,
the conflict between reality and shadows
that we mistake for it has long been debated.
They are a part of a tradition we can
trace back to Plato, who wrote that people
who see the shadows on the wall as real
are less likely to venture out of the
cave and meet the truth provided by actual
experience.
After watching the film, I am inclined
to ask what it teaches us when we see
it in terms a broader picture that includes
how the war began and the background of
those who initiated it. It is well known
that Bush, Cheney and their team never
actively had "boots-on-the-ground" experiences.
Perhaps this explains why their "leadership"
created a quagmire and why they do not
seem to clearly perceive the wrenching
reality of the country now. George Bush,
in particular, brings to mind that real
leadership and "gaming" are distinctly
different activities. In light of his
cowboy attitude, it is (morbidly) ironic
to realize that he was an active game
player in his younger days. Old friends
have said that when he was losing a game,
he would change the rules until he won.
Kuma Wars, of course, was not available
in his youth so he was not nurtured within
its environment. While in college, however,
he was an avid fan of another game, Risk:
The Game of Global Domination. Players
in Risk control armies, with which
they attempt to capture territories from
other players. The goal of this war game
is to control all the territories, or
"conquer the world"through the elimination
of the other players. An aggressive player
then, Bush, now a world leader, seems
to carry the same sort of bluster into
the "battles" he "leads" today. My point
is that although it is hard to say if
a Kuma player might mature into someone
as out-of-touch with the realities of
war as Bush, a former player of Risk;
this kind of parallel seems to underscore
why it is critical to distinguish between
the educational experience of games and
reality. [To be fair, as hurricane Katrina
showed, Bush is out of touch with reality
in general, not just the handling of a
war.]
In summary, this even-handed video narrates
the history of the Kuma War video game,
introduces the games audience, and
raises critical questions. Although the
Kuma companys intention is no doubt
well placed, and the news commentary does
appear to accurately set the stage for
the sequences, the "game news" that frames
the video war served more to remind me
of the quandary between an embodied actuality
and a simulation of it. I was also reminded
of the young people I know who do not
play video games for hours on end and
follow the news closely. Thus, Kumas
argument that the value of the game comes
from its focus on coupling accurate reporting
with a careful replication of real events
in the episodes seemed more self-serving
than convincing. A provocative, balanced,
and thought-provoking film, it is not
surprising that Playing the News
has received many awards (For example,
in 2005 it received the Currie Documentary
Prize from the UC Berkeley Graduate School
of Journalism. It was also recognized
(in 2006) at the Middle East Studies Association
Film Festival, the Tribeca International
Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, Seattle
International Film Festival, and the Florida
Film Festival.) Given the deference shown
to all sides, I would recommend it for
classrooms, particularly those focusing
on culture, entertainment, and the role
of media in society. The tensions within
the questions the film raises are perhaps
timeless. Given this, I believe, it is
critical that each generation looks at
them, particularly if we aspire to live
as citizens within a peaceful world.