However, the mutual incomprehension was largely polite. The expert panelists, along with any non-GamerGate supporters in the audience, might have found themselves still unsure about what exactly GamerGate was - beyond "a group characterised by difficulty getting to the point".
In general, the opening panel was inconclusive. So, confronted with complaints exclusively about Gawker Media, the experts on the panel seemed politely confused as to how this was indicative of a deeper malaise. Walsh and LaForme seemed a little bewildered that Gawker Media was being used as an example of how journalism in general functioned - this being a media group whose owner had recently stepped in and overruled its editorial over a recent article outing a staff member of a rival publisher.
#GAWKER GAMERGATE PROFESSIONAL#
well.ģ) The professional journalists weren't convinced that Gawker was a great example of baseline ethics The second, as Koretzky pointed out, had already been addressed by Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo, who acknowledged the issue and reprimanded his writer. occurred more than five years ago, and seems to be a good example of the system working - the ethical failure was widely broadcast, GameSpot spent a long time seeking to repair its reputation, and most of the editorial team walked out in support of Gerstmann and founded the hugely popular Giant Bomb. The last of these cases, which could not be addressed in depth due to time limitations. This last was when Jeff Gerstmann was fired for refusing to go easy on a game review under pressure from his publisher at GameSpot.
Which could have been an good note to end on, especially since Koretzky appeared to be struggling to get the panel to come to a point.Ĭhallenged beforehand to provide five examples of the kind of unethical behavior they were protesting which had occurred in the last five years, the panelists discussed three: Gawker Media's coverage of an allegation made against Max Temkin, the creator of Cards Against Humanity games coverage by Kotaku (another Gawker Media company) which failed to disclose close relations between the writer and the subject and the legendary GerstmannGate. It pretty quickly became clear that everyone involved - and indeed pretty much everyone everywhere - felt that ethics were good things to have. The first panel, featuring Gather Your Party's Mark Ceb, the Washington Examiner's Ashe Scow and Breitbart's Allum Bokhari, was supposed to be the one actually about ethics in games journalism, and indeed about GamerGate's aims as a movement. The same number on the Internet is a niche.Ģ) The argument for ethics is not controversial Tens of thousands of people in the street is a revolution. However, as a grassroots movement representing the billion-plus people who play electronic games in some way, shape or form worldwide, GamerGate is increasingly punching at its weight. GamerGate certainly still has an impact on certain people, and a small site or pundit looking for an audience can, it seems, get by on Patreon donations and ad views (although Reaxxion, the GamerGate-inspired games site founded by Men's Rights Activist and recent airborne beer recipient Daryush " Roosh V" Valizadeh, recently folded due to lack of interest). This is either a tremendously sick burn on the Telegraph, Breitbart et al, or suggested she thought he was perhaps there having won a contest.) (At one point Lynn Walsh said to Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos - whose early career included a stint at the very well-known British Daily Telegraph - "I hope you get to work with a good journalist". Michael Koretzky, the charmingly bewildered host of AirPlay, did not seem to have much of a sense of it until the SPJ ethics week hashtag was brigaded, and the journalist representatives on the panel - Poynter's Ren LaForme and the SPJ's Lynn Walsh - went into the event apparently having no clear sense of what GamerGate was or who they were talking to, whether by accident or design. However, the event could not fill a small auditorium at Miami's Koubek Center.įor those of us who follow video game culture, it's easy to forget how contained most of this drama is. One of the great narratives (drink!) of GamerGate is that it is a huge movement, containing all "gamers" - indeed, there was a religious adherence by the panellists representing GamerGate to refer to their faction as "gamers" at all times. 1) Surprisingly few people are interested in the whole megillah
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