The Human Footprint on the Environment

Important Decisions

The choices in the game lack a lot of information. When the player makes a decision, they change the course of the game. For example, the decisions ask about how to handle taxes, the economy, job security, who should fund vaccines, and more loaded questions where there isn't a cut and dry answer. This represents the media bias that Anthony DiMaggio expresses in his novel, The Politics of Persuasion: Economic Policy and Media Bias in the Modern Era, as a lack of information can completely steer the audience in a new direction. Media can be incredibly powerful, and if a certain message is communicated, it can spread like wildfire. DiMaggio explains how biases "influence 'the pictures' people form in [their] heads" (DiMaggio). As shown in Figure 2, the magnifying glass that the journalist uses can entirely change the audience's perception of an issue. The world is on fire, but the audience only sees what the journalist communicates. The "picture" in the public's head doesn't see the world burning, but rather that there is no need to act so urgently. The creators force the players to make "life-changing decisions" without proper background knowledge, which only further emphasizes the reality of society's ill-informed media. The game shows the significance of media coverage in the mission to "survive the century," and how the public must be attentive when interacting with the news. Society must search for the truth behind the magnifying glass of the media, or we are at risk of dooming ourselves to a repeated fate. (Sapna)

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