Journalists could use a refreser course

So I have been writing a paper for my english class and I chose to go with the effects of violent video games since I figured it would be easier to write about a topic  I am passionate about. I personally came into it with the obvious bias against the effect, I believe that violent games not only do not cause an increase in violent behavior but are actually a useful way for me to vent my aggressive feelings without the need to go bare knuckle box another person.
As I began to write the paper I needed to find studies that I could gather data from so I started using my schools database utilities (I go to the University of Idaho). I was searching for violent games in the news and found a trend, although there were plenty of articles that talked about studies very few of them actually cited the source. This was made more infurating since I really just wanted the source but it made me start to think about just what these journalists had been taught. 
 Now im a science major and so for the past several weeks I have been having the idea that you always cite drivin into my head, it just made me sad to see all of these articles that failed the most basic steps, showing me where they had obtained this data so I could verify it myself.
Anyway I just felt the need to rant about that for a minute, so now that im a bit calmer back to work.

So I have been writing a paper for my english class and I chose to go with the effects of violent video games since I figured it would be easier to write about a topic  I am passionate about. I personally came into it with the obvious bias against the effect, I believe that violent games not only do not cause an increase in violent behavior but are actually a useful way for me to vent my aggressive feelings without the need to go bare knuckle box another person.
As I began to write the paper I needed to find studies that I could gather data from so I started using my schools database utilities (I go to the University of Idaho). I was searching for violent games in the news and found a trend, although there were plenty of articles that talked about studies very few of them actually cited the source. This was made more infurating since I really just wanted the source but it made me start to think about just what these journalists had been taught. 
 Now im a science major and so for the past several weeks I have been having the idea that you always cite drivin into my head, it just made me sad to see all of these articles that failed the most basic steps, showing me where they had obtained this data so I could verify it myself.
Anyway I just felt the need to rant about that for a minute, so now that im a bit calmer back to work.

It's hard to give a source when 99% of video game "news" is just them reading other sites then rewording what they wrote in there own words.

@macandcheese said:

" @Hashbrowns:  Most of the articles I saw were from sites like the New York Times or other standard sites that had picked up on it from somewhere else, it was also interesting once I found the actual sources to see how many of them had been twisted and didnt say anything close to what the news had reported. "

Yeah, that sounds like the New York Times.  But yeah, journalism is kind of dead as far as large media entities go.

blog posters could use a refresher course... In Spelling! BOOOOM haha but on a serious note citations are pretty important in general, and maybe it is just the articles that you are looking at that don't have the citations, but I am sure sometimes there is just a lack of citation all together. Where are you finding the various articles?

" The vast majority of people who write news articles on video-game related websites aren't really journalists at all in the sense of doing their own research and searching out new information.  They are writing informative editorials or rewording press releases.  Heck, that actually applies to practically every news organization in the world and this point, so I guess we should cut video game "journalists" a break. "