Gaming Junkies

So here's an interesting story I spent months working on, and it finally aired Thursday for sweeps.

When is playing video games a fun hobby and when is it an addiction? The medical community is debating that issue right now, and some psychologists believe gaming is just as addictive as drugs or alcohol. The doctor I talked to is a gambling expert and says video games are set up with the same type of reward system that gambling has. The more you play, the more you want to play, the more you need to play.

But he says the most important reason why video game addiction should be considered a mental disorder is so more study will be done on treatment and people needing treatment would be eligible for insurance coverage.

I think it's an interesting debate. I'm sure everyone has their own opinion about it. When I was in college, I got so hooked on a Tetris game on my computer that I would dream in Tetris. But it never got to an extreme point where it was impacting other parts of my life. If someone had an obsessive personality though, I could see how that would happen.

Watch the story by clicking here.

Or you can read the text of the story by clicking here.

Putting Citizens to the Test

So I did a pretty fun story recently. I went to a class where immigrants are preparing to take their naturalization test. We borrowed some flash cards, and then hit the streets to ask every day people if they knew the answers... if US Citizens would be able to pass the test people have to take to become a US CItizen.

I thought it was pretty interesting, and it generated a lot of traffic on the web.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE STORY

MADD is angry

Mothers Against Drunk Driving confronted a Lake Lotawana city alderman at a meeting last night about his comments at a previous meeting. He said he wanted police to lay off the drunk driving patrols near bars in the city.

READ THE STORY HERE Or click on the video link to watch it.

I will add that I have been working in this business in one capacity or another for about 11 years and this is the first time a public official tried to tell me I can't have my camera at a public meeting. I told him he could call the police if he wanted to, but I wasn't going to leave.

Thanks!!

Thanks to John at Bottom Line Communications for the mention about my award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It was a really nice write up, which you can read here.

Awards are nice

So I guess I've won a "major award" as they would say in "A Christmas Story." MADD has announced that I won their Missouri media award for 2008. I'm the sole winner from all the print, radio, and TV media in the state, so it's a very nice honor, and I'm pleased they thought of me.

This is one if the stories where I worked with MADD recently. The video link is on that page or you can click here for a direct link to the video.

Sound the alarm

My neighbor got to be on TV today, after she tipped me off to some pushy sales people in our neighborhood.

Turns out these sales people have been hitting the streets all over the metro, and it's concerning to the KC Crime Prevention Assoc.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE STORY and the video of my neighbor's cute dog.

Queen Bee

Today I talked to the 12 year-old who is a much better speller than I am. We joked at work that we should hire her to check all of our scripts.

Read and watch the story here

I bet she rocks at Scrabble too.