I've never been very active on Twitter. However, a new trend appeared in the gaming Twitter accounts I follow. A hashtag, #GamerGate, has gained popularity. In short, a group of gamers have looked into the journalistic integrity of gaming journalism sites. They claim that these sites have had conflicts of interest, misrepresent stories, and committed other tabloid-esque behavior. The journalism side have ignored them, called gamers misogynists (as the story originated with a sex scandal but grew past that), and is now declaring the term "gamer' dead.
The reason why I bring up this #GamerGate hashtag is because it's a great example of how the Internet can amplify things to a ridiculous level quickly. When we talk about gamers, we talk about a large, diverse group of people. 59% of Americans play games with an average age of 31 and a nearly even split between genders [1]. The people who have shown up against journalism come from multiple forum-like sites, multiple industries, and multiple ideologies. They have assembled evidence, want to inspire debate, and want to be heard. Looking at the journalism side, they are either journalists themselves, game developers, or people active on social media. Many have sided themselves with the "social justice" movement in order to bring minority groups to the forefront and praise equality and peace. Nothing wrong with that, it's a good movement. The problem comes when these same people are being incredibly aggressive and even violent towards gamers. I believe this hate is a result of the echo chamber.
In media, the echo chamber begins with an idea proposed by someone within it.[2] The other people in the chamber agree with it, repeat it to each other, and spread it throughout the chamber. This results in communities that all agree with each other and opposing viewpoints are automatically shut down. People believe everyone should believe what they believe since, to them, everyone that matters follows what they believe in. One social media example is in politics and the fragmentation of conservative and liberal.[3] According to New York Magazine, most Republican congresspeople follow conservative organizations while most Democrats follow democratic organizations.[4] This is one of many reasons why it is difficult for the two sides to talk: "If everyone I know agrees with me, you must be some sort of idiot to not agree." Of course, that doesn't play out so literally. American politics have such high stakes that calling someone an idiot would become national news. However, the world of games journalism and the social justice movement can say these things as the stakes are lower.
Over the past few years, journalists gained relationships with social justice members and progressively-focused developers. An echo chamber formed with one idea: inclusion of all. This is good! However, the echo chamber tends to make ideas extreme. As Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein says about the echo chamber in a university setting, "the mere discussion of, or deliberation over, a certain matter or opinion in a group may shift the position of the entire group in a more radical direction. The point of view of each group member may even shift to a more extreme version of the viewpoint they entertained before deliberating." [5]
So what happened? The inquiries into journalism are accused of being misogynist because it began with a female developer being romantically involved with a journalist. This idea is put into the social media echo chamber. It bounces around, becoming more and more extreme each time someone adds their viewpoint. A week or two later, ten articles are published decrying the death of the gamer and how a new kind of gamer needs to be brought up.[6] The ISIS comparison is made, death threats are made against people, and people leave the Internet out of fear and anger.[7][8] This level of harassment is the result of just asking for more journalistic transparency. Even if one were to think there were "trolls" who wanted journalists to get this angry, the trolls aren't people with rank. They're just Internet denizens, unlike the journalists with positions acting like a troll would. They end up worse than trolls since trolls usually say things just to provoke people. These journalists actually believe in their threats.[7]
From my observation, this particular echo chamber has become a cult of personality for the idea of social justice. It doesn't matter if there should be discussion, you have to fight, be right, and be the most social justice-y of them all. Otherwise the group ostracizes you for not keeping up this idea. Thus, nobody listens to reason. If this is true, it's a shame because there's nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting more inclusive games. The issue is when that idea is supported by people who try to promote inclusivity by ostracization.
This is just a small microcosm of the Internet. It's tough to see why it would matter on a sense of scale. However, it matters because of two reasons. One, it's happening right now and it can be observed. Two, it shows how echo chambers can be made without trying. I doubt there's some conspiracy between these groups to attack gamers, but it happened. That's frightening, but if we observe this issue and note we may exist in an echo chamber, we can improve discussion in the future.
[7]https://twitter.com/devincf/status/503650957800919041, archived at http://imgur.com/a/j8P3l (user is writer for a journalism publication)
[8] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwYlEEUIEAA5lE5.jpg (no twitter link, tweet was deleted).
There are many of these tweets and articles, so I'm limiting it to the 2 most extreme and prominent.
No comments:
Post a Comment