Games "Journalism" and the Sordid World of Games PR

[Papewaio]

I thought pieces had to be easily identified as news, journalist, editorial or opinion pieces.

Any conflict of interest needs to be listed ie a travel article will often at the bottom list that the travel was paid for by xyz company.

I can fully understand games journals getting an early release of a game for free so they can test it out.

However as seen with a lot of fashion bloggers it has gone from their opinion to paid product placement without clearly stating the differences. Trust erodes because readers later put two and two together and then assume the worst. They assume the worst because the journo or blogger did not satisfactorily state their relationship with the items manufacturer under discussion.

To most causal observers there is a huge difference between being an objective judge and a paid spin master. When people flip between the two it becomes difficult to figure out the truth of any statement.

A journo who cannot argue their way out of a wet paper bag and instead resorts to threats of libel. Well they have done more damage to their own reputation then anyone else could. The public has an expectation that our journos are erudite fencing masters of wit who could easily defend themselves to any slight imagined or real. Those who can't appear to be in the wrong profession.