Blogging Versus Reporting
In this particular case with Joystiq, it's unclear what role Summa was in and what he was thinking when he built up the IBM announcement, which was hardly breaking news. Perhaps he believed the announcement was major news, even though the vast majority disagreed with him. Or maybe he was trying to "have a little fun," as he wrote in his initial Destructoid post, and riff on the Nintendo hype. Or maybe he really was trying to generate hype of his own. Maybe he's guilty of all three, and if that's the case, then I might as well confess that I've been guilty of all three in the past as well: cuing into a "scoop" that really wasn't breaking news, excessively promoting a story, injecting tongue-in-cheek humor where it didn't belong - they're all relatively easy sins to commit in the unforgiving world of the news media.
Should I have been fired for those mistakes? No (and for the record, I wasn't). So should Summa have been terminated for his errors? I'll confess that I was a little surprised at first that Joystiq took such a severe step. Summa didn't pull a Jayson Blair/Stephen Glass and fabricate any part of the story. But if Summa had made a similar error at "Metro," would he have gotten away with it? Who knows.
Still, it's hard to say whether or not Joystiq was wrong to let Summa go. It's clear from the statements of both parties that there were irreconcilable differences. And it seems that Summa wasn't ready to accept the responsibilities of being a serious reporter for Joystiq instead of a very good blogger for an enthusiast site. I thought Grant's apology was smart to avoid indicting Summa for the mess (in fact, Joystiq didn't use the author's name in any of its apologies or clarifications), as it would appear that Joystiq isn't above reproach in this matter. Joystiq has grown into something much bigger than a hobby site, and it wants to be taken seriously in the gaming world. I can't fault it for taking harsh actions to repair its reputation.
As for Summa, it looks like he's landed in the right spot. He's an absolute springing fountain of gaming knowledge, and at Destructoid, which doesn't have the same aspirations of credibility that Summa's former employer has, Summa is free to spout as he chooses. Destructoid doesn't purport to be more than it is: a gaming destination where bloggers engage in humorous observations, creative commentary and sharp news gathering and rumor-milling. The site actually got its start last March when a few gamers decided to launch the site as part of a grassroots effort to obtain news media passes to E3 2006. And it worked, as two of the bloggers hit the show with a huge robot head.
But then, of course, they went a little too far and pulled a too-cool-to-conform publicity stunt at the keynote address of ESA president Doug Lowenstein. One Destructoid member wearing the robot head mask tried to approach Lowenstein after his keynote and was denied by ESA public relations handlers (for more on this, check out GamePolitics' take here). Now, I don't blame them for trying to beat the E3 system and gain admittance to the show as members of the press; plenty of people have done this, and it's a result of the video game industry's (formerly) biggest event being a closed-door affair to the very people that drive the industry: fans and enthusiasts. But I can't say I cared for their robot-head stunt with Lowenstein, or their constant references to Lowenstein as "Dougy;" such immature antics give video game journalism a bad image, even if Destructoid's bloggers are admittedly not acting as journalists.
Can you spot the robot head?
I'm not out to criticize Destructoid. I actually enjoy reading some of their posts; witty, pithy and entertaining, they're everything a blog should be. But it's a blog, not a newspaper or magazine. So should they be treated as journalists? Isn't it the responsibility of ESA and other groups to filter out such bloggers that are not professional news media?
Destructoid isn't a professional news media source, but just because many of the bloggers don't have journalism degrees and have never worked at a newspaper doesn't mean they can't take part in and make valuable contributions to the video game industry. I should state for the record that I believe bloggers have proven themselves to be an invaluable resource for tech sites such as Tom's Hardware Guide and TwitchGuru; there are some fantastic sites and writers out there that do an amazing job of researching, testing and information gathering.
But in a world where people get their video game news from sources as diverse as "BusinessWeek" and Destructoid, the onus is now on readers, advertisers and the game companies themselves to tell the difference between both ends of the spectrum. And the onus is also on the professional news media to decide when and how it's appropriate to use blogs as source material.
We shouldn't make video game journalism some type of exclusive country club where aspiring new members aren't welcome. But we should view this as a serious profession, even if it is covering a "fun" industry like gaming, and treat it as such by recognizing there are important rules and serious responsibilities as members of the media. If a blogger wants to take the next step and become a professional reporter, I've got no problem with that. Nor do I have a problem with a blogger that has no interest in those rules and simply wants to remain as a blogger.
The problem for all of us, however, is being able to tell difference between the two.
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