Video Game Journalism 101: The Basics
Added 2025-06-02 04:01:01 +0000 UTCWelcome to the first session of Video Game Journalism 101. This year-long video series is a reimagining of my college course on video game journalism, media literacy, and consuming content in the age of disinformation. New episodes premiere on the first Monday of each month.
Today's video will be the most challenging of the bunch. Why? Because I need to explain the core tenets of traditional journalism: what it is, how it's produced, who it helps and who it holds accountable, and why you should think of yourself as a journalist even if you never intend to publish a story.
Future videos will focus on the games media, so don't worry, you'll learn the secret strategies and editorial pivots that have kept publications like IGN, GameSpot, and Kotaku running for decades. You'll see how the earliest video game media of the 1980s established peculiar (and sometimes self-defeating) habits that continue today. And you'll collectively imagine a healthier future for games culture, media, and discourse.
But for now, let's speedrun the basics of journalism!
Please feel free to respond to the video's questions in the comments. I'll regularly check this post to reply and to nurture conversations.
Comments
1. “cyberpunk 2077 publisher orders 6-day weeks ahead of launch” by Jason Schreier. it balances the roles of fandom and truth to to tell a story of the people making the things we love. it also lays out a simple, yet beautiful hidden premise: what should the thing that you love cost? and should you care? 2. “butchering pathalogic” series by quintin smith. in this series, smith pens one of the most comprehensive portraits of a video game that i have ever read. there’s a reverence and care that makes the subject feel so much more magical and important than it first seemed. an excellent showcase of the power of narrative. 3. “what we have in common with world ending ai” by chris plante. i think the unique think about video game journalism is that it’s unsuspecting. as a people we are more or less convinced it’s unserious of inconsequential. but like every piece of art, it touches almost ever part of a human life. so leveraging those preconceptions against the importance of the subject matter creates deeply engaging journalism.
Najay Greenidge
2025-08-12 20:29:11 +0000 UTCI've always been a freak for journalism and particularly games journalism, even when I was a kid. I wish this had been my into course in college instead of the one I had taken. Thank you for this. So very cool. Love me some inside baseball.
Col
2025-08-04 08:35:08 +0000 UTCWhy: I’m an artist and aspiring game dev whose interest in development came as much from the work of skilled writers -on- games as it did writers -in- games. As someone entering in from an adjacent arts field in which I am something of an all-rounder, I generally work best when I have studied at least a bit of each part of the process, rather than as a specialist, so regardless of whether this ends with me in journalism or just with a better understanding of how to process it, I think it’s vital to engage with a medium in its totality, and that new work (of all types from games themselves, to methods of management and organizing) not come in a vacuum, but be fed by the work of critics and journalists. I have also been woefully unclassed since COVID and desperately missing the university environment, which I learn so well in. Thank you for your work, be well!
Echo Rose
2025-07-17 15:21:20 +0000 UTCI just wanted to mention that I only listened to this and I haven’t had a chance to watch the video and I *loved* it. Incredibly well presented and rich with detail I can use right now. I’m thrilled this is part of the Patreon benefits. I might become slightly better at media literacy after all! Thanks, Chris!
geopet
2025-06-24 17:37:29 +0000 UTCThese are great examples!! And love that two are from indie pubs -- speaks to how well indie is doing right now!! Whistleblower is especially interesting. I think it meets the category, though I usually picture something closer to Jason Schreier's report on the botched development process of the new Dragon Age. But I like this more expansive view of that role!
Chris Plante
2025-06-12 20:59:17 +0000 UTCHOMEWORK The articles I found are all focused around Summer Game Fest, but that’s what’s currently making all the buzz . Curious to hear others’ takes on these in relation to content shared in this first class (post?)… I thought this was a great example of the intelligent aggregator role: https://aftermath.site/best-indie-games-summer-game-fest-2025 Perhaps this is an example of the sense maker? https://wavelengths.online/posts/the-summer-game-fest-problem And would this qualify as a whistle blower, seeing as they are trying to call out an issue/alarming trend? https://www.gamesradar.com/games/it-was-not-one-guy-look-at-the-dang-in-game-credits-balatros-localthunk-joins-team-size-discourse-after-geoff-keighley-fumbled-it-at-summer-game-fest-by-saying-clair-obscur-expedition-33-was-made-by-under-30-people/
Roland Aichele
2025-06-11 05:47:01 +0000 UTC🥰🥰🥰🥰
Chris Plante
2025-06-08 16:25:09 +0000 UTCThank you for taking the time to share this!
Chris Plante
2025-06-06 02:22:29 +0000 UTCI got my BA in Mass Communication way back in 2006. I teetered between a focus on Print Media and Public Relations until my senior year, and then I chose PR because it required three fewer credits and I knew I was actually going to end up joining the Air Force through ROTC. At the time, we spent so much energy learning to write copy that was EXACTLY 500 or 1000 words, and hardly any of this Internet journalism infrastructure existed. People were buzzing about blogs and we knew everything was about to change. I never did work as a journalist, outside of a few gigs in student and local newspapers, and I never worked in PR. The pathway from military officer to defense contractor is well worn and I've got mouths to feed. Still I always wondered how I would have faired if I tried to make it in "new media." I read Ezra Klein and Liz Lopatto and notice they're all the same age as me. It's a fun alt history autobiography to ponder. But even if I only use my communication skills to write very good emails, SITREPs, and proposals, I completely agree that media literacy was the unexpected reward that has paid the greatest dividends. I think most people don't even know the difference between PR, journalism, and opinion. Are they even different today? Aren't most people recording vertical videos doing a bit of everything? So why am I watching? Hmm... loyalty to the guy who introduced me to Towerfall? An interest in the inside baseball and glorious future of journalism? At the very least, it's interesting to see how much has changed in the last 20 years. We sure as shit didn't learn nothing about no CMS back in my day.
Jon
2025-06-05 23:18:14 +0000 UTCWhat do I want from this content? Well, did you ever take a course in college simply because you knew and liked the professor? That's the case here.
Bruce
2025-06-04 14:33:35 +0000 UTCGreat example of an "Authenticator" ! Will keep the video placement in mind for future entries!
Chris Plante
2025-06-04 00:15:15 +0000 UTCFact check: McDonald’s has the McFlurry and Wendy’s has the Frosty. Also, could you please make sure to format the content on the slides so that the video of yourself doesn’t cover the tweet.
Colin Archer
2025-06-03 15:06:09 +0000 UTC
