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posted by cmn32480 on Thursday August 13 2015, @07:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the harass-themightybuzzard dept.

Brad Glasgow over at GamePolitics.com did something unique when setting out to cover the gamergate movement, he asked people taking part in it questions rather than only their detractors.

I decided to run an experiment and see first-hand the difficulties one might encounter when covering an online movement. Rather than wait for GamerGate to come to us, I went to them. I joined their very popular Kotaku in Action (KiA) subreddit and interviewed several hundred GamerGate supporters from Tuesday, July 28 through Tuesday, August 4. It is my hope that what I learned will assist journalists with covering GamerGate and any similar movements in the future.

The Experiment

I asked one question on the KiA subreddit every 12 hours. The question was stickied (placed at the top in the most recognizable area) until I posted a new question. The new question was then stickied and they were given an additional 12 hours to submit replies to the old question and vote on their favorite answer. After I asked 7 questions I then asked 7 follow up questions on the final day.

The article was interesting enough but what I found hilarious was when he then tried to do a similar interview with the anti-gamergate types over at Gamer Ghazi, he was quickly banned.

I did experience some hostility from the anti-GamerGate side for covering GamerGate. While I was treated well by the people of GamerGhazi when I tried to speak with them, I was quickly banned by moderators, who said I have spent too much time posting on the GamerGate subreddit.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @04:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @04:38PM (#222383)

    It is weird that Glasgow went to GamerGhazi and not AgainstGamerGate. [reddit.com] The later is where normal people hang-out, the GamerGhazi reddit is mostly the extreme fringe. For example, see the thread Why exactly is it so bad to have sexual objectification in gaming? [reddit.com] - a post that is straight-up challenging the anti-gamergate consensus and yet not only was it not deleted by the mods, it got over 400 posts, practically all of which were serious and engaged.

    I think Glasgow was making a statement about gamergaters by equating their normal to extremists in a way that gamergaters would not (can not?) recognize as criticism of themselves.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:11PM (#222436)

    https://www.reddit.com/r/AgainstGamerGate/comments/3gpixz/brad_glasgow_interviews_gamergate/ [reddit.com]
    Glasgow himself touched on the subject on /r/AgainstGamerGate:

    I wanted to apologize for not including r/AgainstGamerGate in the article. You guys did provide me with some very helpful "control" type information. The reason I didn't mention you is because I was worried about the length of the article. I cut out a lot of stuff, including an interview I did with another journalist and a discussion of "straight" or neutral news vs. news presented with opinion.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:20PM (#222442)

    Perhaps he was not aware of that reddit or was not aware of the difference. You could email him and request he do a followup article using the same methods with AgainstGamerGate instead.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:28PM (#222446)

      I think an actual journalist investigating the story would be well aware of that reddit. I barely pay attention to gamergate and I found that reddit in about 2 minutes of searching for context on this story.

      And as another poster mentioned, he's written that he deliberately left them out of the article and that they had been very helpful. I think that confirms my theory - he was comparing extremes. Is there some other pro-gamergate reddit that isn't filled with extremists? I couldn't find one.

      • (Score: 2, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday August 13 2015, @07:17PM

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday August 13 2015, @07:17PM (#222462) Homepage Journal

        You find the position that the press should always cite possible conflicts of interest extreme? Or is it the idea "if you want SJW-friendly games, make your fucking own games and leave ours alone" that you find extreme? Those are pretty much the only widely agreed upon goals of #GamerGate regulars.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @07:33PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @07:33PM (#222472)

          > You find the position that the press should always cite possible conflicts of interest extreme?

          Wow. You really live in your own little echo chamber of irrationality don't you?

          What I said was that equating the extremists of GamerGhazi to the 'normal' gamergaters of KotakuInAction leaves no doubt as to the author's opinion of the 'normal' gamergaters. All that other random spittle you just spewed out is irrelevant to that simple equation.

          I can see how that would get you worked up though, you thought you had a clearcut 'gotcha' of people opposed to gamergaters when in fact it turned out to be an indictment of gamergaters. Self-inflicted wounds hurt the most.