Kohler Takes Up Baton For Responsible Game Blogging
April 23, 2007 12:08 AM | Simon Carless
I'm absolutely delighted to see Wired News' Chris Kohler make a post about an untrue Square Enix news story that's recently been splashed across a bunch of major blogs - from Joystiq to Destructoid and beyond, with a complete lack of fact-checking when passing on the report.
All together, now - 'Responsible game blogging does not absolve you from factchecking!' I don't care who you are: If you're paid to blog, and fresh news comes your way, you should go find the primary source to make sure the story is true before posting it. It's as simple as that.
As Kohler notes of the claims (of a major change in Square Enix's business model!): "First off, a cursory examination of Square Enix's Japanese web page reveals absolutely no news stories, site updates, press releases, or investor relations updates regarding a shift in platform strategy." And I also noticed that an earlier version of this same story made it to the front page of Digg, with only a limited amount of complaints from commenters.
Anyhow, I've been accused of anti-blog bias before, since I also have a bee in my bonnet about this type of thing, so I think I have to be quite clear here. The problem is people not doing their homework before posting a story - and would be true whether it was the case on Gamasutra, or GameSpot, or any outlet for news about games.
In other words, it's not a game blogger thing, or a game journalist thing - it's an information thing. Everyone makes mistakes - heck, I made one earlier today when trying to divine the company affiliation of a LJ poster - but some are more fundamental and in larger arenas than others. Now if you'll excuse me, you'll find me down the pub, in the corner with Kohler, scowling at the other patrons, quaffing snakebite and black, and grumbling to ourselves under our breath.
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11 Comments
Man, it feels like a sad day when I agree with Chris Kohler.
Alice | April 23, 2007 3:06 AM
Hear, hear on the topic of sloppy blogging. I must admit, however, that the weight of immediacy in the blogosphere has even compromised a few of my posts, sadly. Live in and learn. Take an extra five minutes to get your facts right. That's usually all it takes.
Blake Snow | April 23, 2007 7:21 AM
I'm in the same boat that you are; having received journalism pointers from working metropolitan news writers/editors, I have a respect for the journalistic work that goes into writing a story. Simultaneously, I'm appalled at the lack of any kind of professionalism in most of the game blog community. As someone who's attempting to bring a more critical eye, both content wise and editorially, with my own site, editorials like yours and like Kohler's, as well as the work of people like Luke Smith, N'Gai Croal, and Stephen Totillo are all reassuring that our nascent venture into helping new media find legitimacy.
-Arthur Gies
Aegies | April 23, 2007 11:04 AM
Dear god, amen to that.
A couple of weeks back Joystiq posted a rumor piece which speculated that Super Paper Mario had DS connectivity due to a screen they had been sent with a picture of a DS-like machine in a kitched with a "Transmitting data" message on-screen in a speech bubble.
Now the moment I saw the picture, I knew it was a fake, for by that time the game was already out and I had seen the very screen pictured. Joystiq would have known it too, and so would the three or four other blogs that posted the rumor. Go Nintendo one of them, although they deleted the post when the rumor had been disproved. (It's still in my Google Reader listing though.)
Note that it was mostly Nintendo blogs, who theoretically should have known better for the same reason I did, who ran with the story.
John H. | April 23, 2007 2:09 PM
I agree that bloggers do not often put in the research that they should, but I'm wary of damning entire sites because one blogger messes up one thing. The thing about blogging is that it's not monitored like traditional journalism. There's usually not someone editing blog posts before they go up, even for the big blogs.
Does that mean they shouldn't work harder? Of course they should; mistakes are deplorable, but when they own up to it, it's usually enough to fix it in my eyes.
What's also annoying, in my opinion, is this sort of me-too bandwaggoning. Believe me, there are tons of mistakes made on tons of blogs every day -- go out and find some instead of riding Chris Kohler's coattails. I mean, what's the point?
Marie | April 23, 2007 4:01 PM
It's true - this is definitely a me-too post, in some ways. I'm just delighted to see someone else taking up this call, because I don't think that enough people care about the issue.
But I do think I'll leave it alone a bit - everyone's got the idea.
simonc | April 23, 2007 4:11 PM
To be fair, Simon is one of the people who inspires me to be on my toes about this sort of thing in the first place. So it all loops back on itself.
Chris Kohler | April 23, 2007 5:10 PM
I support Simon and his "me too" posts. That's one of the best qualities of a real blog, if done well -- commenting on other people's work. Simon does a great job of covering the sins and successes of the video game media, and I think it's a much needed one. So kudos to Simon -- and Chris, of course -- for keeping the itchy-fingered bloggers somewhat in check.
Benj Edwards | April 23, 2007 6:01 PM
Factchecks, yes.
Also, responsible blogging should mean some amount of integrity when it comes to fan-baiting. Destructoid, as much as I love it, pisses me the hell off with it's constantly inflammatory posts about damn near everything. Obviously, Summa and the Wii is the big thing, but it's unnecessary and unprofessional; and if you're getting paid to blog, there should be some standards, you know?
mercatfat | April 23, 2007 10:44 PM
For blogs, the 'standard' is to get as many hits a possible, so with little to no accountablity, what's to stop them from posting a rumor even when they know it's wrong? It's less about fact-checking, and more about approaching news from a tabliod mentality.
Aaron | April 24, 2007 12:31 AM
I'm sorry, but cracking on Destructoid, Joystiq, and probably Kotaku as well for shoddy journalism and ethics is roughly the same as cracking on poop for smelling bad or pizza for being damn tasty. It's kind of what they do - suck. If it weren't for the likes of Luke Smith (and by extension podcasts like 1Up Yours), Kohler, Croal, and GSW, I'd have bloody given up entirely on online gaming journalism as essentially oxymoronic. Emphasis on the last 3 syllables.
Tetsuo | April 27, 2007 12:14 AM