Archive for the ‘Journalism’ Category
Who can you trust now?
The short answer is: no-one.
It’s the danger of over-reliance on one or two key sources of major commercial funding – from a particular manufacturer, product line, whatever – that’s most dangerous. It’s never ever going to 100% transparent that what you’re reading isn’t being influenced by marketing money. But if you can see a publication is being balanced, if their writing is consistent and fair, then you can usually spot the bullshit.
Yes, you have to take the plunge and invest time to build up this trust, but that’s why there are so many publications out there. GameSpot mined a very deep vein of trust over the many years it’s been around, tapping literally dozens of well-respected freelance videogame journalists to write for them explicitly to build up this trust. Which is why this has caused such an outcry — the new management thought it worth setting this huge stockpile of goodwill and respect ablaze just for a few thousand grubby dollars. Everything about it stank and loyal readers immediately put the pieces together and cried foul.
