Media

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Wednesday Link-Off: Follow the Money

eve-tramunt-adoreme13-01It’s Wednesday which means that this is the time for some of our favourite links from the week so far. Let’s start out with French model Eve Tramunt.

Detroit’s bankruptcy isn’t just a result of the recent Great Recession but the result of bad decisions starting back in the 1950s that built up to this year’s bankruptcy declaration. (Detroit Free Press)

Canadian scientists are concerned about the federal government’s lack of interest in research that serves the public rather than commercial interests. The Harper government bending over to promote business over the people shouldn’t surprise anyone. (The Globe and Mail)

The Great Recession is five years old now. Here’s how we’re still talking about it incorrectly. (Washington Post)

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Wednesday Link-Off: A Media Dynasty

constance-jablonski-hm13-05Middle of the week links time. No time to waste so let’s get to the links. Since I just finished working on my review of Remember Me, here’s French model Constance Jablonski.

You know why you shouldn’t name anything after sharks? Because the puns are too easy when you jump the shark. Right, Discovery Channel. (Discover Magazine)

The family dynasty at the Washington Post is done now that the paper has been sold to Amazon.com boss Jeffrey Bezos. (Washington Post)

And the sale of the Post to a dot-commer like Bezos should help with innovation in the traditional media without compromising the paper’s journalistic credibility. (The New Republic)

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Phil Fish vs. Marcus Beer Says More About Games Journalism than Either Man

phil-fishThe weekend’s big gaming news story wasn’t about a new game or another major announcement but a feud between two gaming personalities.

On one side was Marcus Beer, GameTrailer’s Annoyed Gamer, who criticized prominent indie developers Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow for not commenting on Microsoft allowing indie game self-publishing on the Xbox One. On the other side was the aforementioned Phil Fish who didn’t take kindly to Beer lobbing personal insults at him on video.

However, I don’t think that the takeaway from this feud should be anything about either Beer or Fish. I think how this feud started says more about how this gaming journalism works and why it might be irreparably broken.

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5 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Can We Still Trust The Gaming Press?

nerd-rage-comic-phantom-painedThe ongoing concern of gamers over whether they can trust the journalists who write news and reviews has been at a near boiling point for the last year or so. There was the battle between gamers and the press over Mass Effect 3’s ending. Journalists at the Games Media Awards were encouraged to tweet about Trion’s upcoming Defiance with a reward of a PS3 being available for one lucky winner. Then there are the regular accusations of good or bad reviews for certain games being bought by publishers.

What brought this issue to a head for me was the recent revelation in a GameTrailers interview that Hideki Kojima had run his marketing plan by Geoff Keighley some two years ago at Comic Con. While it’s okay to play along with Moby Dick Studios and The Phantom Pain, what Keighley did and what the rest of the press did is different. It’s one thing for outlets without inside information to connect the dots to give us the likely scoop. It’s another for Keighley to withhold information when he knew the real story of Moby Dick Studios and The Phantom Pain and hype a fake interview on his show that was just a marketing sham.

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Wednesday Link-Off: Out of the News

kim-cloutier-femilet13-01Well, I haven’t heard many good things about yesterday’s gaming column about how gamers rights are virtually non-existent. I’ve heard that I’m a bit of a whiner for thinking that gamers deserve to be treated like everyone else and trying to keep people from being hosed by terrible games. Like I said yesterday, that’s the sort of in-fighting that will hurt us all in the long-run.

Anyway, one thing I won’t get complaints about is featuring Kim Cloutier.

The legendary free weekly newspaper The Boston Phoenix is closing its doors. File this one under why we can’t have nice things. (Gawker)

It’s not just small local papers that might be on the way out. It seems as though local TV newscasts could soon follow in their print brethren’s footsteps. (New York Times)

The two Steubenville football players charged with rape were convicted. While most people weren’t exactly sympathetic to those guys, CNN treated them like victims. (BuzzFeed)

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Thursday Link-Off: Form an Opinion

anais-pouliot-eres13-02I did tell you on Sunday that we’d be a day late with this week’s set of mid-week links. I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s history of Mass Effect 3 post. That’s not the end of our Mass Effect coverage because we’ll have a review of the Citadel DLC next week. But for now, here’s Canadian model Anais Pouliot.

Have you ever wondered how you formed an opinion about an article or author? It may have to do with the contents of the comment section. (New York Times)

People think social media is a good proxy for public opinion but a comparison of public opinion and Twitter opinion shows Twitter generally skews more liberal. (Pew Research Centre)

Hugo Chavez died this week. If you want to know more about the former leader of Venezuela and his legacy, the Economist has you covered. (The Economist)

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Wednesday Link-Off: The Medium is the Message

cintia-dicker-si13-08I know updates have been a little random lately but I hope to have things back to normal by next week. Granted, sometimes I’m not sure what normal is around these parts but I’m sure we’ll all sort it out eventually. In the meantime, here’s my favourite SI Swimsuit model Cintia Dicker.

Just to prove that I’m very fair and balanced with my dissemination of political links, here’s a not at all right-leaning article about how the Obama White House is able to control the message out of 1600 Penn. (Politico)

You thought the possibility of Ashley Judd running for the Senate was all a big laugh didn’t you? Well, the GOP is taking it seriously. They’ve already created an attack ad against her. (New York Times)

A recent Gallup poll says that only 3.5% of Americans are gay. Could that number possibly be accurate? (The Atlantic Wire)

After the jump, the evil of Bleacher Report, trolling the Beliebers and Vanna White on The Price is Right. Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: Fight the Good Fight

lily-aldridge-victoriassecret13-05It’s Wednesday which means it’s time for links. It also means that we’re seven days from unveiling our SI Swimsuit Issue cover odds list. Maybe I should get started on that… Okay, while I do that, here are the links and here is the return of Lily Aldridge.

As he heads into his second four-year term as President of the United States, TNR interviews Barack Obama about his plans for the next four years. (New Republic)

In that TNR interview, the POTUS says that the Republicans won’t change their obstructionist ways until they are made to pay the price for being obstructionist. You know, he’s right. (Washington Post)

Now that he’s lost the fight against ObamaCare, Papa John wants to pretend that he never fought the fight against ObamaCare by getting any ObamaCare related comments he made scrubbed from the internet. (National Confidential)

After the jump, the history of Deadspin, a profile on one of BioWare’s exiled bosses and an epic trombone quartet. Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: Speak The Truth

alessandra-ambrosio-victoriassecret13-02This week has been an interesting week for news if you can get past all the news about Lance Armstrong. There are stories about America’s political right and some bizarre ones out of here in Canada. But before we get to that, here’s Alessandra Ambrosio. By the way, she had a kid last May. Not that you can tell.

The NRA wasn’t always the most feared lobby group on Capitol Hill. For a long time, they were happy to be solely about gun safety. In the 70s, that all changed. (Washington Post)

It’s not often that folks in the media admit that they are wrong but Buzz Bissinger admitted that he was wrong to defend Lance Armstrong from doping allegations. (The Daily Beast)

David Walsh was the first man to suggest that Lance Armstrong wasn’t on the up and up all the way back in 1999. How does he feel now that his suspicions have been vindicated? (Sunday Times)

After the jump, some news media fails, sticking up for BioWare and the dogs invading a soccer game video of the day. Continue reading →

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The Politics of Failure: Of Memes, Misinformation and Mudslinging

This year’s US Presidential election has seldom been about what has been best for America and its people. This election isn’t about whether President Barack Obama or challenger Mitt Romney’s vision for America will be better for the country going forward. It’s largely been a referendum on whether people like President Obama or if they want any alternative that is provided.

As a result, very little of this election has been about the issues. The majority of campaigning is about why the opposing candidate is worse for the Presidency and America. Discourse in this election has come to a virtual standstill as neither side attempts to engage the other over issues. It’s all parroting talking points and slinging mud at anyone who does not agree with you. Continue reading →