Firing Squad has posted an interesting article on the way gaming is treated by mainstream media outlets, and how those outlets are trying to expand their coverage of the industry without turning off their core audiences. They pose an interesting question, if gaming is becoming as big of a business as the entertainment and music industries, why doesn't it get the same amount of coverage from the press?
Obviously, the answer is because while just about everyone has watched a movie or listened to a CD, there are in fact, people out there who don't play video games. I know, shocking, isn't it? While many of the big news outlets are now rushing in to cover the gaming revolution, for the most part, they understand that a good percentage of their readership doesn't particularly care about games one way or another. What they also understand is that those people that are interested in the subject probably already get their gaming news from a more hardcore source, such as the internet or dedicated game magazines.
Getting back to the article in question, Firing Squad contacted several major news sources to get some comments from them on how they handle gaming news and their approach to the industry as a whole. I kind of found it funny to hear many of those outlets discussing how they do in fact know a lot about the industry but "dumb-down" their articles for fear of alienating readers.
"But will gaming news ever be as popular as TV news? No way. A side note here, also… consoles will likely continue to grab a more sizable portion of the gaming news spotlight, since they have a lower price point and wider distribution as pure gaming machines." -Chris Morris, CNN
I always thought that a lot of the hack jobs you read about gaming in the media were written by the uninformed. It turns out many of these "experts" aren't just uninformed, but they're trying to pass "uninformed-lite" on to the public.
I can only hope that as these reporters accept their roles as game columnists, they'll begin to understand the industry a bit more and lean away from the tabloid sensationalism mentality many of them take currently. You can almost hear the screams of "I wanted to be the music editor" in some of the articles you read in the mainstream news. Before you start writing in, I'm not down on all of the game coverage in the media, there are some places that are getting it right, they're just not the ones you hear about endlessly.
"A good question. It's not as if we unaware of video games and their very real significance as both a pop cultural and economic force. Without giving away too much, we've discovered that game coverage is just not that important to our particular readership. And reader scores bear this out., There seems to be a public perception that console gaming is a pastime of the chronically adolescent or the perpetually stoned-that it is an artless product served up to a largely unsophisticated audience. And perhaps there is some truth to that. Another reason is pretty obvious: gaming is not a star-driven business. Movies, music, TV shows-they all have very public faces. Even books have their celebrity authors. People have heard of J.K. Rowling and Dan Brown and Tom Clancy. But Will Wright? Hideo Kojima? Cliff Bleszinski? Not so much." -Wook Kim, Entertainment Weekly
It's that false public perception that hopefully will begin to change in a few years as more people who grew up with games take their places in the business world. Truth be told, I'm a little sick of the attitude people have about gaming and gamers in general, and the sooner people get past those false preconceptions of gamers, the better.
The Firing Squad article goes much deeper into the subject matter than I have here, and has quite a bit more to say on the whole thing. It's a pretty good read and gives a good bit of insight into how the major media outlets view gaming. Check it out here.
