According to The Observers, a site run by French news site France 24, Iranian state television stations have been showing footage from the 2010 video game Medal of Honor, while claiming it is real footage of a sniper killing six ISIS members. The Observer reported on February 17 that the footage was accompanied by headlines claiming the sniper was Hezbollah.
The video, also shared by another press agency Mizan News, included fuzzy footage from what appears to be the shooter's point of view and voices speaking in Arabic. As The Observers points out, the video is identical to a scene from Medal of Honor. The only difference is that the contrast has been altered, and it seems like someone used a camera to record the gameplay as it was displayed on a computer or television screen, making it fuzzy and out of focus.
As a blogger who reports on video game related news and controversies, I have two issues with this story. One, this was simply bad reporting on the part of the Iranian press. It is unclear if they fabricated the video or were simply duped, but either way, they did not check their sources. If they were tricked, than it was because they were rushing to release the story and did not pay close attention to the video. A few things point to this being fake, such as the notification that appears at the bottom of the screen that indicates a player made a head shot. While I am not weapons expert, I do not know of any sort of technology implemented into a scope that can tell the shooter when they've hit the enemy's head.
The second problem I have with this footage is the intent with which it was shared. The release of this footage calls to question the idea of sensationalism in the news. Was this just a ploy to gain views? The reason gamers share videos like these, frag montages, is to show off their skill at killing. It would seem that the intent was the same here, to show a successful sniper in action. However, there is a big difference between six virtual characters made up of pixels and six real people made of flesh and blood. While reporters certainly have a duty to report news and share pertinent information with their country, I do not necessarily see the need to share a video like this if it were real.
It would seem that there is a trend in the news these days: who can shock the most people? While a video like this would certainly be shocking, does it have informational value? A report could convey the same information, but it would not bring in as many viewers. While it is important at times to shock your readers and make them uncomfortable when told the truth, I fail to see how this video, which glorifies the skills of the sniper, would offer any sort of informational value.
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