This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.
The state of game journalism is an oft-discussed topic on message boards. It’s something we talk about on our end of the industry as well. Sadly, we don’t talk enough about it with you, the reader.
Spurred by a recent New York Times piece on a Project for Excellence in Journalism study and my own interest in the reporting of news, I want to know how the Bitmob community feels about the state of news reporting in online game journalism.
The New York Times says that the report “…offered support for the argument often made by the traditional media that, so far, most of what digital news outlets offer is repetition and commentary, not new information.” It’s online-game news in a nutshell.
This is my biggest criticism of how game journalism covers news online — frequently, you read the same information, oftentimes repackaged or linking back to the first to report on the news, across a number of sites, but rarely do many of these reports contain any original reporting or new information.
Do you think that online game journalism offers far more repetition of news than reporting of news? Are you happy with the types of news coverage you read? What do you feel is missing? What do you feel online game news does well? Do too many pieces read like rewritten press releases? Do you want more investigative work? Do you want a more professional level of editing in your news reports?
You may respond by leaving a comment, writing a piece with the tag “online game news,” or by e-mailing me at jason.wilson at bitmob.com.
I’m very interested in what you have to say. I’ll post the results a week from today.