I watched an interesting video on youtube that linked to a tweet made by Polygon's Brian Crecente, which you can read here.
https://twitter.com/crecent...
So, like the video that showed me this tweet, I decided to take my own stab at this topic and rate how much games journalism follows this code, if at all.
The code can be found here.
http://www.spj.org/ethicsco...
Let's begin.
Seek Truth and Report It
==========================
-Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Well right away we know that this is false. The current state of gaming journalism is to seek sensationalism and show extreme bias, hence why rumour stories and "insider" stories vastly outnumber legitimate, truthful news. Sensationalist headlines are the rule of thumb, as is the latest social justice craze and we all know that any social justice story is never filled with facts, instead it's filled with emotion.
Journalists should: —Test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible.
Again false. Games journalists prefer to post from anonymous sources so that they don't have to worry about being accurate. Insiders are also preferred so the onus can be passed on to them if the information is wrong.
-Diligently seek out subjects of news stories to give them the opportunity to respond to allegations of wrongdoing.
When has there ever been follow up stories from gaming journalism at all? The incidents are few and far between, so the opportunity for subjects to respond to any allegations of wrongdoing are usually left up to the subject, and then only if they feel a need to respond which they normal don't.
—Identify sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
This only occurs when there is no way to hide the sources, such as public event interviews. Gaming journalists will hide any sources they have all the time, and the sad part is that they have no reason to except the possible threat of being blacklisted, which isn't really a threat at all. In the real world of journalism, protecting a source can be necessary to protect that person's life, in gaming journalism no one's life is at stake.
—Always question sources’ motives before promising anonymity. Clarify conditions attached to any promise made in exchange for information. Keep promises.
Never happens. Sites like Kotaku or Polygon would rather just report the information as is than question it. It's more important that they be the first to get the story out rather than care about the authenticity or motivation behind it.
-Make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
Is this a joke? I'm seriously laughing at this because gaming journalism is NOTORIOUS for its use of tabloid style reporting. Sensationalism and hyperbole are kind of like the law in gaming journalism. Hell, just look at what happened to Nintendo with Tomodachi Life. How many of the sites actually looked into the situation before calling Nintendo homophobic?
—Never distort the content of news photos or video. Image enhancement for technical clarity is always permissible. Label montages and photo illustrations.
Remember how many game trailers and in-game footage were represented as being, say, Xbox 360 footage of a game when in fact they were PS3 footage but doctored to look like they were 360 footage? Sounds like distortion to me, how about you?
-Avoid misleading re-enactments or staged news events. If re-enactment is necessary to tell a story, label it.
This doesn't really apply except in cases where games are shown behind closed doors and we have to take the word of the press about what happened. We have no way of proving or disproving it, and it's already been established that the gaming press have no ethics so far.
-Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story.
Insiders. 'nuff said.
-Never plagiarize.
Although he's not really a gaming journalist, HipHopGamer was guilty of this and he definitely isn't the only one. The problem is that gaming journalism is very closed to new journalists. The established sites always get first crack and all the perks so sometimes plagiarism happens.
-Tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so.
This is a tricky one. I don't think that this is saying "report social justice issues even if people don't want to hear about it." I think it's saying be sure to tell every side of the story, which also doesn't happen in gaming journalism.
-Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.
Tomodachi Life and Anita Sarkeesian. 'nuff said once again.
-Avoid stereotyping by race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, geography, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance or social status.
Well, Polygon recently had Jonathan McIntosh post a story about white male privilege while gaming so...
-Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.
How far do you think I'd go if I tried to post an "All girls should look like Ivy from Soul Calibur" story on IGN?
-Give voice to the voiceless; official and unofficial sources of information can be equally valid.
Gaming journalism actually trumpets the loudest voices only. The voiceless are hardly ever heard, and when they want to be heard they are either ignored or attacked. Case in point, indie games coverage is severely lacking, and male gamers who don't like being called monsters are attacked for voicing such displeasure.
-Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.
Given how many sites, especially IGN, overhype things; I think it's safe to say that they are incapable of distinguishing the two.
-Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.
Most gaming journalism is a hybrid that blurs the line between the two. It's why so many consider the big journalism sites to be bought and paid for by advertisers or game publishers.
Minimize Harm
===============
Ethical journalists treat sources, subjects and colleagues as human beings deserving of respect.
Did anyone see the twitter battle between IGN's Editor-In-Chief and Angry Joe? So much respect in that one.
Journalists should: —Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by news coverage. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
Is that what they did to the developer of Dragon's Crown?
-Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for arrogance.
This should be hammered into the foreheads of SO MANY gaming journalists that it's not even funny. They should be forced to see this in the mirror every single day because this doesn't happen at all. The smug indignation that comes from some games journalists is sickening sometimes.
-Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity.
I feel like I could have just consistently written "HA" after a lot of these and save some time.
Act Independently
===================
Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public's right to know.
This entire section is a complete write off. I'm not even going to elaborate because we all know where this one would head.
Be Accountable
=================
Journalists are accountable to their readers, listeners, viewers and each other.
And this one is probably the biggest write off of the whole piece. Absolutely no gaming journalist ever takes accountability for the B.S. they report. They hardly interact with anyone who calls them out, and when they do, they do so with more smugness and this idea that they are right and you are wrong.
Gaming journalism is a complete joke and fails all applicable aspects of this code of ethics. That Brian Crecente actually believes what his tweet says is merely proof that he is divorced from reality, but then you'd have to be to write for Polygon and think anyone takes you seriously.
The friendly folks over at Razer recently sent us their full size Kishi Ultra mobile gaming controller, and this thing didn't disappoint.
VGChartz's Mark Nielsen: "Upon finally finishing Devil May Cry 5 recently - after it spent several years on my “I’ll play that soon” list - I considered giving it a fittingly-named Late Look article. However, considering that this was indeed the final piece I was missing in the DMC puzzle, I decided to instead take this opportunity to take a look back at the entirety of this genre-defining series and rank the entries. What also made this a particularly tempting notion was that while most high-profile series have developed fairly evenly over time, with a few bumps on the road, the history of Devil May Cry has, at least in my eyes, been an absolute roller coaster, with everything from total disasters to action game gold."
TSA go hands on with the beta for Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, but how is the game transitioning to the post-stylus era?
"Sites like Kotaku or Polygon would rather just report the information as is than question it. It's more important that they be the first to get the story out rather than care about the authenticity or motivation behind it."
They are the internet equivalent of TMZ. They bank on sensationalism and barely give a shred of original content that can be described as thoughtful or insightful. No one should take either site seriously.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
"Hell, just look at what happened to Nintendo with Tomodachi Life. How many of the sites actually looked into the situation before calling Nintendo homophobic?"
Simply put, it's mob-like mentality orchestrated by one's misunderstanding, hate, or agenda. Get the pitch forks and torches ready because they are on a witch hunt! Shoot first, ask questions later! Nintendo didn't deserve the kind of backlash they got. Any media outlet that cried "Nintendo is homophobic" is looking for hits.
"Tomodachi Life and Anita Sarkeesian. 'nuff said once again."
Very true.
"How far do you think I'd go if I tried to post an "All girls should look like Ivy from Soul Calibur" story on IGN?"
Not far. Even if you managed to get passed the administrators, you would face an immediate media blitz of journalists calling for your head. Could be worse though. You can always add "#dealwithit" after posting the article on Twitter.
"Did anyone see the twitter battle between IGN's Editor-In-Chief and Angry Joe? So much respect in that one."
Dude, that was all kinds of ridiculousness. That IGN joke of a journalist attacks AJ on Twitter of all places and has the gall to insult him. Twitter is pretty much the same as arguing with someone on national television. That guy made a jackass of himself.
"Gaming journalism is a complete joke and fails all applicable aspects of this code of ethics. That Brian Crecente actually believes what his tweet says is merely proof that he is divorced from reality, but then you'd have to be to write for Polygon and think anyone takes you seriously."
I think this link will provide an appropriate joke for that last paragraph.
http://www.quickmeme.com/im...
Yep, that's pretty much a fair analysis of game journalism today. The worst part is that code goes ignored by most professionals as well and they report on things far more important. I guess the only thing left to do is find a way to fix game journalism.
I just want to point out there's a difference between being a jounalist and being a critic. You mention Sarkeesian, she's the latter. She doesn't report things. She just says what she thinks. Journalism is "Tomodachi life won't have an option for same-sex relationships. Here's why." Criticism is "Tomodachi life won't have an option for same-sex relationships. Here's why I think that's wrong." And somewhere along the line, expressing any opinions that dissent from the status quo became "forcing your views" on the internet.
Though I agree, it's unfortunate there isn't a place for dry, transparent news in gaming. And sites like ours are probably exactly why. I think growing up alongside the internet was the worst thing to happen to the gaming community, personally.
It's rare to find real journalist in this age of fighting over clicks/web traffic
Well the people i follow TOTALBISCUIT -, JEFF GERTZMANN and GIANT BOMB - SUPER BUNNYHOP (George Weidman) heck even ADAM SESSLER - Do not consider themselves video game journalistist! N4G ,IGN , GAMESPOT NEO-GAF ect........ are just advertising for the video game studios ! Video games are entertainment not politics!!!!