As far as game sites are concerned, the big problem is that they're trying to be three things at the same time, often in the same article. Journalists, reporting information that should be, as far as possible, factual. Op-ed commentators writing their own opinions, and advertising copywriters. Until they develop the maturity to separate those functions, they deserve all the criticism they get. If John Walker, or anyone else at RPS, wants to write an op-ed article on sexism every week, fine, but if they push the sexism agenda in what are supposedly news articles, then they're not meeting the standards I'd expect from journalists. Which is fine, as long as they don't pretend to be something they're not.
I grew up surrounded by journalists - my mother worked for a newspaper and, although she wasn't a journalist herself, all of her friends were, which led to a lot of very interesting dinner parties. And two of the four countries that I can, if I choose, call "Home" have notorious press - one for having the worst gutter-press, scandal-mongering pseudo-journalism in the world (but also The Guardian), and one for being state-controlled (but also good at straight reporting).
With all of that, I have a strange mix of jaundiced cynicism and respect as far as journalism is concerned. At its best, we have the Fourth Estate, revealing the awkward truths that Someone wants to keep hidden. Even though they get it wrong sometimes, I have every respect for the dedication and the work carried out by those journalists who are engaged in these activities, whether it's war reporting, or picking up on Government scandals, or sexism in gaming. They're the ones putting the spotlight on things we SHOULD know, whether we want to or not.
But then there's the other kind. The propaganda machine, pushing an agenda. The ones saying "I don't care if it's true or not, it's what I believe/what sells/what the bosses want me to say". And unfortunately, this is all too common an approach.
Add to this the circle-jerk mentality, where you only read that which reinforces views you already hold, and it gets worse. When I was a child, everyone read newspapers that followed their political views, but at least the TV and radio were (closer to) unbiased. Now, there's so much choice that everyone filters and only reads their favourite feeds, which means that any extreme views are getting reinforced daily.
And the final problem is the increased blurring between op-ed and factual reporting. It's no longer just a case of spinning the news to present it according to the newspaper's political views, there's a huge trend, in both the mainstream media and the secondary media, towards including opinion throughout articles being presented as fact.
So no, I don't automatically consider journalism to be honest.
tl;dr - 227's right, Fat Sardine's wrong. Duh.
I grew up surrounded by journalists - my mother worked for a newspaper and, although she wasn't a journalist herself, all of her friends were, which led to a lot of very interesting dinner parties. And two of the four countries that I can, if I choose, call "Home" have notorious press - one for having the worst gutter-press, scandal-mongering pseudo-journalism in the world (but also The Guardian), and one for being state-controlled (but also good at straight reporting).
With all of that, I have a strange mix of jaundiced cynicism and respect as far as journalism is concerned. At its best, we have the Fourth Estate, revealing the awkward truths that Someone wants to keep hidden. Even though they get it wrong sometimes, I have every respect for the dedication and the work carried out by those journalists who are engaged in these activities, whether it's war reporting, or picking up on Government scandals, or sexism in gaming. They're the ones putting the spotlight on things we SHOULD know, whether we want to or not.
But then there's the other kind. The propaganda machine, pushing an agenda. The ones saying "I don't care if it's true or not, it's what I believe/what sells/what the bosses want me to say". And unfortunately, this is all too common an approach.
Add to this the circle-jerk mentality, where you only read that which reinforces views you already hold, and it gets worse. When I was a child, everyone read newspapers that followed their political views, but at least the TV and radio were (closer to) unbiased. Now, there's so much choice that everyone filters and only reads their favourite feeds, which means that any extreme views are getting reinforced daily.
And the final problem is the increased blurring between op-ed and factual reporting. It's no longer just a case of spinning the news to present it according to the newspaper's political views, there's a huge trend, in both the mainstream media and the secondary media, towards including opinion throughout articles being presented as fact.
So no, I don't automatically consider journalism to be honest.
tl;dr - 227's right, Fat Sardine's wrong. Duh.