There are some problems with video game journalism.
Smart-ass reply: What video game journalism? *rim-shot*
It's often subjective and biased.
World-weary reply: Why are we so obsessed with objectivity?
Magazines and web sites report on questionable rumors as if they're true.
Editor's reply: You've got to get the scoop, kid.
The major outlets cull whole stories directly from press releases and each other.
Confrontational reply: It's easy to criticize. Let's see you do better, huh?
You're right. It is easy to criticize. It's what I do. But if it's so easy, why am I one of the only ones doing it? And am I the only one listening?
When I first considered starting a one-man crusade against the ills of video game journalism, I wasn't exactly bursting with confidence. "I'm still a student," I thought to myself. "I've never held a position at a video game magazine. The whole of my paid experience in video game journalism involves a $30/article position at my college paper. What business do I have questioning the entirety of the video game media?"
But as I began to look harder at the constant stream of video game information that most of us ingest each day, I found it increasingly lacking in one key area: news. The members of the video game press are great at writing insightful reviews and vitriolic opinions about the industry. Most of them can craft an effusive preview in their sleep. But when it comes to real news journalism, most video game "journalists" seem out of their depth.
This brings us back to the idea of what video game news is. For most outlets, the news section is merely a smattering of tidbits that the editors picked up somewhere else that they think the audience might find interesting. Magazines often throw previews of games that are too early along to get real previews into their news sections. Web sites will put entire opinion pieces into their news section simply because there's nowhere else to put it. Rarely do you find an in-depth interview or a genuine analysis of the industry in a video game news section.
For that, you have to look to the mainstream media, which is quickly replacing the established video game media at the forefront in video game news. It's amazing the frequency with which sites like Slashdot link to sites like CNN Money, Wired, hell, even the Puget Sound Business Journal for original reporting and analysis on the video game industry. These are outlets that have, at most, a passing interest in the video game phenomenon, and yet they're running circles around the video game media in the news department.
Part of this may come from the audience that most video game magazines and web sites are writing for. Despite all the hoopla I hear about the video game industry growing up, most article about video games seem to be written for adolescent boys by grown men who are still adolescent boys at heart. There is a thinly veiled misogynistic, homophobic vibe running through the average video game media outlet these days that plays well with an audience that still finds fart jokes and penis humor funny.
Not that there's anything wrong with that, per se. If the audience is there, we can't blame the industry for serving it. The problem comes when the whole of video game journalism seems to have pigeon-holed itself to serving a niche audience that is more interested in new screenshots and gone gold announcements than any real insights into the state of the video game industry. Is there anyone else out there who thinks that we should hold Electronics Gaming Monthly to the same basic journalistic standards as The Washington Post.
This is the question I sought to answer when I declared myself Video Game Ombudsman.
It may seem egotistical for me to declare myself reader representative for an entire industry that didn't exactly ask for my help, but it's not like anyone else was clamoring for the position. I simply saw a hole in the industry and attempted, in my own awkward way, to fill it. In an industry where the critics seemed adept at criticizing everybody but themselves, I decided to criticize the critics (I tried to fit the root word "critic" into that sentence one more time, but I just couldn't do it)
There are many web sites that make my job remarkably simple. I barely have to spend a half an hour clicking around my bookmarks every morning before I find a piece of "news" that is either ill-researched, sloppy, or just plain biased. Usually I try to analyze how a variety of outlets cover the same story, but sometimes I will pick on a specific example of bad journalism (I'm not always negative... I can also point out the good). I also take an occasional interest in how the industry is covered in print by magazines and books (both fiction and non-fiction), but the web is such a deep well of material that it's hard to break focus.
If early indications are any sign, there are at least a few people out there who are ready for someone "to tell me when my leg is being pissed on instead of telling me it is raining," as one respondent put it. There are a few outlets, too, that seem to be at least stepping in the right direction towards a more complete and balanced picture of video game news. Hopefully, their audiences will grow, fueled by a public that is ready to take the discourse about video games to a new level. Otherwise, the entire industry may degenerate into rumor-obsessed, tabloid style news bites. (less filling... tastes great!)
There are some problems with video game journalism.
There's some money to be made for anyone brave enough to fix them.
Me? I'll just criticize. It's easier that way.
Kyle Orland has reached critical mass.
[Next: The Grind of the Underground]
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