Next Podcast
Added 2024-10-21 07:34:49 +0000 UTCHey!
The Mastercard podcast got me thinking about "journalistic integrity". Then I saw all of these content creators showing their Metaphor: ReFantazio kits from Atlus without declaring it as sponsored content even though the kits we obviously of "tangible value".
Given that I was asking myself, "What can I do better when it comes to my integrity?"
While there is probably a lot, the biggest thing that came to mind was talking about when I've been wrong. Most things online just make an edit and insert a note. I think I did something similar when I talked about how many games Kagura has had banned by Steam. I don't think that is good enough and I can do better.
So I am delaying the upcoming scheduled podcast and doing one instead where I talk about all of the factual errors that I have made over the past year (that I am aware of). I will also include a few examples from further back, but I thought this could be a good way to actually talk about my mistakes and give me a chance to talk about what I want to do better and (hopefully) where I have grown as a creator.
I'll be using comments made by viewers and Patrons along with feedback I've received from developers. Please feel free to bring up anything you think is important. As much as I'd love to hope that I won't make mistakes in the future, I think I should plan for this to be an annual thing. So even if this podcast doesn't go smoothly, I'll be able to add that to what I talk about in next year's errata video.
Hope you are all having a great month!
--Annie
Comments
There are legal issues alongside the ethical ones regarding taking anything of "tangible value" from a developer. I touch on this in the podcast.
Annie
2024-10-22 18:34:36 +0000 UTCHonestly, the integrity thing sorts itself out. Start fluffing up the games you get review copies of, and people will fairly quickly start tuning you out. Personally, I disagree with your policy of not accepting being given games to review, so long as you aren't relying on that for your content. If you're not relying on it, you can properly crap on a game that deserves it, and if the punishment is that they don't offer you review copies anymore, you're no further behind than you are now. Remember, the integrity loss for IGN and other reviewers like that is that they rely on being given these games early to get their reviews out on time. You've already accepted the penalty they're trying to avoid, why not accept the benefits they're getting? So long as you make it clear to them beforehand that you accept no obligation if they provide you the game -- whether to review it positively, refrain from a negative review, or even review it at all, then I think you should feel just fine with accepting this stuff and making your evaluation of it known. Then just make it clear to the audience, "Yeah, they gave me a copy of this game to look at, and I warned them it was at their own risk, but they went for it. So if you're interested, here's what I found ...." Now, when it comes to factual errors in your content.. meh. Crap happens. Obviously you'll want to put a note in the original video description ASAP, and it would likely be good to mention it in whatever video comes next, but maybe you could just make it a recurring segment and weave it in. "And in this week's Erratica" (see what I did there?) or something silly.
KL
2024-10-22 18:13:15 +0000 UTCThanks!
Annie
2024-10-22 12:08:12 +0000 UTCAs for errors: Yes just once in a while listing retractions / corrections is totally fine! That's what the newspapers do, and it's good enough for me.
Gantoris007
2024-10-22 12:07:18 +0000 UTCThis is just just what came to mind. Slightly separately from the potential 'Developers Influencing Reviewers/Games Journalists' issue.... The youtubers and podcasters that I respect most recognize that the Incentives (clicks/engagement/ad revenue/negative feedback/etc) are not always aligned with Good Journalism: ie: Good journalism and fact checking and large sample sizes and quality research....... this is usually Expensive both in time and money, and the output is often boring and/or difficult to Sell. Fiction on the other hand, sells easily and is cheap to produce. As a result, news/podcasts/youtube are not really incentivized to process Raw Data or Junk Data into Fact /Truth effectively. ref: https://youtu.be/cEEmc3Qy2K0?si=7j34OCzAtz3-qqRT "Yuval Noah Harari: Free Speech, Institutional Distrust, & Social Order | Making Sense #386" If you just acknowlede from time to time: "Look, it would be popular to say this, and I would get more engagement and more clicks and less hassle if I said this but....... I'm gonna do the unpopular but true thing and go against incentives tell you what's actually true and what you need to hear instead....." Boom. Intengrity. You did your homework and told the truth. As for the specific issue of games journalism integrity: I would suggest looking up Alanah Pearce on youtube, who used to work for IGN as a games journalist. She has discussed this "Developer/Publisher Influencing Review Scores" topic several times, and I thought her answers were spectacular. Well worth the listen IMHO. I don't have the link on me at the moment, but I'll place it here if I can find it. (edit) Thar we go: https://youtu.be/gAjHzmus_is?si=rYkn9FfQaYxJgwid Timestamp is 15:40 for specific topic, but the whole video is informative and worth the watch.
Gantoris007
2024-10-22 11:51:00 +0000 UTCWe'll just have to see how well this goes over.
Annie
2024-10-22 02:01:39 +0000 UTCSheesh. It's amazing at this point to hear from someone who actually admits to having made mistakes.
FredShoey
2024-10-21 18:30:15 +0000 UTC
