Thread by @victorgodonc

#GameJournosAreBad

" the SPJ created these awards because Gamergate demanded it?"

Citation needed.

So, Schreier (Winner of the Prestigious Kunkel Award) is lying. Of course he is. He's a GameJourno,

Let's talk about the history of the Society of Professional Journalists involvement in the movement for Ethical Game Journalism that was part of what is called "#GamerGate"

Back in the days of Operation Disrespectful Nod, some softhearted people thought that getting the Society for Professional Journalism involved with their quest for ethical game journalism would have some kind of positive effect.

Like everyone else on the planet, people at the SPJ pretty much realize that game journalism falls into two categories:

1. A bad joke where poorly educated morons like Jason think they've become political pundits and try to drag politics into game reviews.

#GameJournosAreBad

2. Then there are the serious game journalism sites that really mostly cover games which are useful to enthusiast game consumers and completely irrelevant to the rest of the planet.

Sadly, these are a minority of gaming sites.

#GameJournosAreBad

I was an interested observer of certain people's desire to get the SPJ to do some oversight of Game Journalism and I expected it to amount to very little. Which it did. It amounted to practically nothing.

Which brings us to the prestigious #KunkelAwards

The purpose of getting the SPJ involved had nothing whatever to do with "awards," it was a (in my opinion, and my opinion at the time) a very misguided attempt to get some oversight over clickbait. People should have realized the SPJ has no interest in cutting down on clickbait.

Because while #GameJournosAreBad game journalism isn't the only gossipy sensationalist clickbait out there. No one can tell me that the SPJ isn't aware of how worthless the field of journalism currently is. They choose to ignore it at best and encourage it at worst.

The SPJ did a bunch of stuff to "look busy," and one of the things to come out of that was this silly award. No one "demanded it,"

Schreier is lying and his continuing career is the best proof we have the the SPJ wasn't interested in "cleaning up games journalism." /end