I don’t usually focus on this stuff but I do think it’s just good to be aware of the fact that this writer, propping his own article in this tweet, is a senior editor for GamesRadar which is affiliated with PC Gamer. Which had the bizarre headline posted above a few hours ago.
I used to write for my local paper doing game reviews and such and, even though I’m not a trained journalist, what I do know is that you don’t want to editorialize the news. You separate your opinions and any personal bias from reporting what occurred.
You would have the news and then you would have the opinions section that contained editorials.
What we’ve seen here with these examples is the blending of the two. Which makes it incredibly hard to take either outlet seriously but also gives little reason for anyone to trust those outlets.
Now, the reality is with that modern media we do see heavy editorialization of the news and it could be seen in how language is used selectively and with double standards. But there’s no reason for gaming media to follow that trend.
A lot of the bias that you see in modern media comes from the top, whether it’s the owner or an editorial board. But what we’re seeing here is that it is highly pervasive. You have two different people sharing the same bias working for related organizations.
So to be clear I’m not saying that there is this anti-Xbox bias that exists as part of any coordination or conspiracy. But rather that anti-Xbox bias is pervasive. If you don’t understand the difference, this allusion might help: It’s like working in an environment that isn’t friendly to say, people who like Cricket. There’s no memo or direction from the organization for people to hate it but rather the company culture is rather organically not a fan of it, and maybe most people there think it’s a dumb sport. So it’s not a coordinated thing or a conspiracy. But rather that people grew up in the West and they prefer baseball.
And so I think at this point it’s hard to deny that this bias exists. It’s not a conspiracy and it’s not coordinated. It’s simply is a pervasive point of view that is common. And I would argue that it’s far too common and as a result there is an imbalance in reporting. With a more diverse workplace these places would not have these sorts of biases. In a more diverse workplace there would be discussions on the news and extreme narratives would be toned down to reflect reality. You could have people at such a place thinking that this acquisition is the worst thing to happen to the game industry and then people on the other side saying that we need to see more acquisitions and even larger ones, and through a general discussion it could be seen that neither is true.
Anyways I don’t want to go on a rant here I’ve already said a lot so I’ll leave it there.