Media Literacy and Game News

[@WattieWasTaken]

You forgot about the most important skill you've learnt George, always mispronounce some words for more viewer interaction in the comments.

[@LikaLaruku]

Bonus points for repeatedly mispronouncing the name of the developer or game.

[@JimTheCurator]

B E Z O S

[@1993willb]

I appreciate you, random on the internet

[@Szrama1123]

'comparishun'

[@StorytellerOfTheDead]

I mean he got Corroborated wrong again, so w/e

[@takeonjapan7992]

I swear that green screen is bait for exploitation

[@slobiden.2593]

0:24 guess what also happened when I was 16

[@ChozotheBozo]

The funny thing, is that the green screen is actually chroma keyed in. Yes, he used a green screen to put a green screen in.

[@igodreamer7096]

You're probably right, or maybe not

[@rolfs2165]

@@ChozotheBozo That would explain how he got it so incredibly smooth, I guess.

[@droidBasher]

He should green screen in a bigger, more expensive green screen.

[@chickensangwich97]

Trained as a journalist, working now for a government watchdog group. George, you strike me as far too self-deprecating to accept it, but you've done a tremendous public service with this video. Thank you for making it, and making it to your high editorial standards, as always.

[@chickensangwich97]

@Helios Sphere Actually I use the skills I acquired at college every day at my job, just not in the context I initially thought I would. And I'm right on track to pay off my loans. Far from being worthless, my degree is one of the things I'm proudest of. You've got to be creative about how you use it, since the traditional path into the industry is mostly gone by now. But if seeking truth and reporting is something which appeals to you, and you put in the work to develop your skills and contacts, you can still make a career out of it. If you ever wanted to be a journalist to make a lot of money, you were always in for a rude awakening and were probably not in it for the right reasons.

[@kyokyoniizukyo7171]

Max Moran Aye, sometimes you get a degree in psychology, but end up getting really obseesed with making model trains...

[@duffman18]

@Helios Sphere imagine thinking journalism is a worthless degree. Imagine thinking that people being trained to accurately determine what is the truth and what is not, is a bad thing. Stop pushing your agenda against the truth

[@ott1186]

@@duffman18 Mainstream journalists have given journalism schools a bad name. Especially games journalists. Most of the time they get their info and articles from reddit, which anyone can do.

[@duffman18]

@@ott1186 that's your fault for following bad journalists. You can't blame the entirety of journalism because of your bad choices

[@Dr_Mel]

I'm glad people are beginning to just re-teach the basics of things like reading news and understanding sources. So many problems right now come from very simple lack of this kind of knowledge -- it's easily taught, too. Good work.

[@LE0NSKA]

and remember the "don't believe everything you read on the internet" phrase of the late 90s yearly200s (I think)?? what happend to that one?

[@DracoTheBlack]

The "on the internet" part was never actually needed.

[@WorthlessWinner]

3:00 it's really annoying how often newspapers don't link to or even mention by name the primary source. This is especially common with stories about science papers. Big papers like the Guardian and Independent routinely talk about studies without mentioning their name, so it can take 10 minutes to find out what the hell they were even talking about.

[@Antiformed]

Or at worst they blatantly and unapologetically misrepresent the information, stealth edit clickbait headlines, and try to get sites like Archive.is banned because people dare to use them to point out when they make fuckups. How dare they be held to any standards! Stop noticing things!

[@BennyFPS]

Even if they include their sources they still misrepresent the heck out of it. Want an example, the cnn cuckolding piece. Have fun reading this pile of garbage.

[@Redditaurus]

@Seasoning the Obese found the Holocaust apologist. Trump [literally] donated 400 nukes to North Korea after they threatened to commit genocide on NBC employees. This is a proven fact that you cannot refute. 😘

[@Draconated]

I like how you can tell George didn't actually smoke any of the cigarettes.

[@heyhonpuds]

The lack of ash vs. the amount of cigs is what gives it away.

[@tsartomato]

@@MartinHerchel that's not a coat, that's a generic old man mr. plow grandpa winter jacket

[@eudaimona]

George, I just want to thank you for your outstanding commitment to journalistic standards in gaming journalism. You raise the bar.

[@mthsdcs]

Ok, George, here's my pitch: You key the green screen with the noodles and let it loop for the entire length of the video

[@josecolon2185]

Also, could you watermark a pair of George socks on the bottom right while you're at it? thanks!

[@aceDOZA]

That's genius

[@adventuresingamedevelopment]

"The noodles" so are we talking about some very specific bowl of noodles out there?

[@BrorealeK]

@@adventuresingamedevelopment Yes

[@adventuresingamedevelopment]

@@BrorealeK they must be very special noodles indeed

[@TheAssassin642]

Never stop questioning. And never stop being afraid of becoming someone who stops questioning.

[@mr-dbs]

Until you question someone who sleeps with game journalists to get good reviews for s shitty indie game.

[@Antiformed]

The truth does not fear investigation. When you get pushback about the truth of something, odds are that truth makes someone or some group of people look *really bad*

[@hihihi1q23]

@@mr-dbs My favorite thing about gamergate is that in 2019, pretty much all the pro-gg people are doing exactly what they accused other people of doing back in the day.

[@hikari_no_yume]

Yet you don't question whether that is true?

[@TheAssassin642]

@@Antiformed I kind of regret what I said. It's too flowery. And saying never is usually dumb. I think I would instead say, to George, to try to remain fearful. That fear should hopefully keep you straight.

[@DarkFlame7755]

You and Noah Caldwell-Gervais are easily my favorite games writers. Miles ahead of everyone else. Every single video, I learn a lot and I'm left with many things to think about and discuss with others. Thank you for keeping up with this so passionately for so long.

[@Fade2GrayOG]

Jason Scheier: "I never think about word counts." Me, five hours later after finishing one Scheier article: "You don't say."

[@Feasco]

Not his fault you're a slow reader

[@gregoryfilin8040]

@@Feasco His fault he isn't to the damn point. He beats around the bush. Tell me as it is.

[@Feasco]

@@gregoryfilin8040 Hur dur what words mean

[@decimusanothos5178]

@@gregoryfilin8040 why use many words when few words do gooder hurrr

[@gregoryfilin8040]

@@decimusanothos5178 i work 65 hours a week, have a wife, a house to renovate, and brothers to spend time with. If you can't make your reading succinct, it simply is not worth my time. It's pad and fluff.

[@xthe_nojx5820]

Videos like this are why I trust George, even if I don't always agree with him. Keep it up, man, you're doing Good Work.

[@suren123a]

What don't you agree with him on? Just curious

[@xthe_nojx5820]

@@suren123a Nothing too drastic. Honestly, it's naught more than nitpicks and niggles. For example, I disagreed with his conclusion on Divekick (Too Casual for the Hardcore, Too Hardcore for the Casual) and I thought he missed some fairly obvious explanations for his gripes with the back half of the RE7 story. Other than that, George is very probably the closest to Journalistic Objectivity that I'm aware of.

[@warriorcrab1319]

I will always appreciate a well placed Tim Allen grunt.

[@Well_Meaning]

One of my favorite Georgisms will always be "talking around Gamergate" Genuinely good video, though

[@lordilluminati5836]

georgism?

[@caseyspeers4856]

As a journalism grad and editor myself, one of the biggest problems I believe our society faces today is the lack of interest and incentive from the majority of both the media and public in wanting to know and understand the truth. Some mainstream media outlets, KZbinrs, and social media influencers frequently muddying the news (facts) with opinions or - even worse - with keyword trends, hot takes, agendas, etc. to get a constant flow of clicks certainly doesn't help solve this issue either. And as a result, we set out each day to confirm our existing views at whatever the cost, and the rise of social media - coupled with the speed at which we consume information today - has escalated confirmation bias to the point where people go as far to reject provable, objective facts to avoid having their viewpoint labeled as "wrong" whenever a discussion takes place or a topic is debated in-person or online. We treat being right or wrong like "wins" and "losses" and no one likes to lose at anything, much less so when beliefs can "lose" after being held for years or decades. But being wrong does not equate to losing and is actually a good thing. If we are wrong and understand why, then it always means we learned something new - and that benefits ourselves and everyone around us. Great video, George. Keep up the exceptional work.

[@lesterramos6468]

Truths by their very nature are ugly and lies are beautiful. That is what separates true journalists from paparazzi and naysayer dullards.

[@christophermiller3031]

Maybe assuming that the logical are a minority is part of the problem. The loudest voices preach the most nonsense. Your take was and interesting read... mostly true... just quite presumptuous

[@Redditaurus]

This is why I only watch left wing news. Only right wing news have the ability to lie.

[@PhiltheMoko]

@@Redditaurus ....

[@xizar0rg]

re @30:00 they ignore the part where publications have editorial biases because, presumably, articles are vetted by those editors. Historically (read: several hundred years of print), these editors determine the publication's voice.

[@TheMaplestrip]

In my experience, it is generally accepted to see the journalists and editors as representatives of the publication, and everything they write in an article is in the publication's voice, unless otherwise denoted. This is important when you want to judge the reliability and biases of specific publications, especially when dealing with less experienced or anonymous writers. Bylines are important, but expecting a consistent voice for a publication can be too. That being said, applying this to differing opinions among different journalists writing reviews for a publication is... mostly uninteresting, frankly. Editors can't really define a publication's stance one whether a specific game does its action gameplay right or whether a puzzle is compelling?

[@WorthlessWinner]

23:00 even if you have unlimited space, your readers don't have unlimited time. Condensing information is still a good idea

[@MrCocktaiI]

Pretty funny comment considering this video is almost an hour long. Not that I would complain.

[@WorthlessWinner]

@@MrCocktaiI - it's only half an hour if you watch at 2x speed :P

[@RailwayHacker]

This is why I dislike the YoungYear KZbinr: Most of his 15-20 minute videos could be 3-5 minutes long. Secondly they all start with a 2-3 minute recap of know information, rather than the news.

[@Shampooh]

@@RailwayHacker YongYea is part of a growing phenomenon of KZbinrs, and maybe a popularizer of it, which I like to call "content regurgitators". He rarely does research, find information, or talk to people. He reads out Reddit posts and articles from people who did, stretches it out as long as possible, and throws in some of his own thoughts to make sure it's classifiably "content creation".

[@LuckeeStrikee]

@@Shampooh That's definitely not a YT specific phenomenon, nor did it popularize it. I agree with your criticism, but at least he's mostly unbiased, contrarily to many other YT channels and websites.

[@paracosmic1066]

Defamation of "charachter". By Goerge, he's got it.

[@thatdanjamesguy.330]

I love how George talks about the media supporting investigative stories with human interest pieces, because to some extent that's a model the Super Bunnyhop channel seems to have adopted. It's just neat to notice that in my opinion.

[@spikeyjacketgod]

Fellow J-School grad here. Excellent job repeating all of those talkings point bashed into our heads through JRN 101, 108 and so on. It was nostalgic and cleanly presented. Kudos.

[@therealshankitystick]

Ahh yes, “George George George George George,” my favorite news publication

[@SimGunther]

G5 sounds like a pretty cool for a publication

[@ANeMzero]

@@SimGunther Personally I preferred it back when it was TechGeorge.

[@reboomer8369]

As good as Jakey, Jakey, Jakey - ATTORNEYS AT LAW

[@RoboHoundGames]

I actually knew that libel/slander difference. Cause of spider-man

[@WiigstaR]

"Slander is spoken, in print its libel" -JJJ

[@megashillyshally]

@@WiigstaR it's the offended way he responds to the accusation at first too that makes that punchline that much better ; "It is not! "

[@MasterDecoy1W]

A hand mnemonic that has mostly been supplanted by knowledge of that Spider-Man quote is that "libel" sounds like "label", a printed form of information. That's how I learned the difference.

[@sudevsen]

I resent that

[@fuzzy7644]

I'm just going to say that Greoge here pretty much sums up that you learn when going to any College level education. Like referencing and media literacy is the biggest and most important thing they teach you in Uni after that it's pretty much you teaching yourself. I note this because College expects you to pay them thousands of dollars for that sort of information while you can get it here for free. Really Greoge is unironically become the lecturer (sometimes literally with his critical close-up on Metal Gear Solid 4) that talks about the "important topics" while creeping into talking about Greek mythologoy, acident history, etc. Which is kind of amazing.

[@CocoHutzpah]

In high school, I began to value sources and questioning media after listening to Rush Limbaugh say, "Don't blindly trust everything I say. Go out and find the sources for yourself." Truth is not something that can be easily passed around. It's something that takes time and effort to determine.

[@icyjiub2228]

I actually respect Limbaugh. It takes a certain kind of strength to get whacked out on opiates and spew bullshit for decades. Crowder and Shapiro don't have that much stamina.

[@Magus12000BC]

@@icyjiub2228 - Despite being half his size.

[@MySqueezingArm]

George, as always you are the man. Keep up the good work. (End obligatory engagement to help George make more money)

[@unit220]

A journalist interviewing other journalists about how they journalist-ist. Now THATS some journalism!

[@hco4203]

META journalism

[@fuzzydunlop1753]

Lol

[@Redditaurus]

It's misleading. He's essentially treating Mr. shreier like a conservative. #OppresionIsBad

[@ikaemos]

I remember the early days of Polygon, when they wanted to establish themselves as a big outlet, they had these _beautiful_ feature pieces with custom web design, typesetting and commissioned illustrations, all about dev confessionals, experiences in the industry, the story behind the development of a specific game, the history of a series, etc. They put those out with _staggering_ regularity. They don't really do that anymore. Part of me is kinda sad, but then I remember that I skipped quite a few of them because they were quirky, nostalgic odes to some half-forgotten peripheral for a 3rd generation console... and, as much as I still wanted to read those as a curiosity (and because the presentation of those pieces was really breathtaking and a joy to read), I put them off because they were like 30,000 words long and took a whole afternoon to sift through. I guess that's what Schreier is saying when he's talking about "balance." Long-form investigative exposes are exciting, eye-catching, and they do a lot to build a news outlet's brand and reputation, but they're not really casual reads. You can _overdo_ good journalism.

[@richardwilliams877]

Same. I loved reading some of those writeups, but after reading a few of them they just ended up on the back burner :/

[@brentramsten249]

i found the definition provided by the paper for "conspiracy theory" to be quite strange. the literal interpretation of the phrase is just "to contemplate or speculate that given people work together toward the same result or goal". to label this, or even re-lable the word to mean something else that infers "only crazy people would do that", seems to attack the idea that not readily apparent corruption can even exist. perhaps not, but it seems little good can come of doing so regardless

[@Nodiee1]

That ignores the common usage of the phrase "conspiracy theory". Conspiracy theories commonly refer to theories such as "the earth is flat", "Area 51 captured an alien and it's spacecraft", or "the moon landing was faked". Of course some conspiracy theories have been proven to be true and conspiracies exist, such as the Watergate scandal, but conspiracy theories as they're commonly understood have throughout history largely been outlandish and based on suspect evidence and reasoning. Those sorts of theories are more commonly thought of when the phrase "conspiracy theory" is used. You can't always look to a literal interpretation to properly understand language.

[@Antiformed]

Flat-Earth is a psyop, and nobody still believes that Area 51 shit is true. Or at least, that hasn't been 'in vogue', conspiracy-wise, since my father's day. The moon landing conspiracy theory is completely harmless, it literally doesn't matter. Just some people who like to point out inconsistent details of the footage. Watergate also wasn't a conspiracy theory. I don't think you know what a conspiracy is.

[@arenkai]

9:46 BGM's a bit too loud there, it sounds like a pretty nad rapper

[@MrGameadd1ct]

Lets do the journalism rap kids. Starring, MC BHop

[@salman_3833]

lowkey fire

[@zaooo]

Indeed, for people who have some auditory processing problems, it's a bit distracting from the things being said and I've had to replay it several times to understand it.

[@jman2816]

Hey George, I watched this years ago when it came out, but I'm actually coming back to it since I'm teaching a high school computer science class and I'm getting a project together on digital media literacy. I'm planning on incorporating some of those thoughts and insights into how I teach it, seriously great work!

[@Dennisjay9]

This all sounds like too much work, im just gonna watch 3 people who agree with my political views and double check it by going to a echo chamber reddit or forum

[@TrylleBanjo]

In my Echo Chamber, we all hate and question echo chambers. Result is, we are terminally afraid of any opinion and life is a living nightmare.

[@Antiformed]

the leftwing method

[@icyjiub2228]

@@Antiformed You say that when right-wing KZbin has Koch backed pundits like Crowder, PragerU, and Bean-Sized Shapiro who make bank doing exactly what George is saying *not* to do, while their only claim to intelligence is talking over some over emotional 19 year old too unstable for legitimate political praxis. Post Hog or get rid of your Bayonetta profile pic, you don't deserve it.

[@Antiformed]

Ben Shapiro is like the breakfast cereal of politics. He is so milquetoast that seeing anyone act like he is a threat to political discourse is laughable. I also don't consent to you policing me on what PFP I do or don't deserve, fascist pig.

[@Antiformed]

also loving every laugh at how crowder's entire gimmick is begging people to sit down and disprove his opinions while he just sits there and they still can't do anything but shout in his face or slander him behind a keyboard lmao

[@AndrewSlee9]

literally such a GOATed video. i come back to this one often. ur an inspiration!!!!

[@raaaaaaaaaam496]

How but how does this apply to understanding the ethical complexities of Hentai?

[@Xarkom89]

F.B.I open up!!!

[@frostywasp1743]

love your profile pic as a loading screen from Ultimate Alliance.

[@AzureKing963]

There's ethics in hentai?

[@KaoticReach1999]

It's fiction There

[@raaaaaaaaaam496]

Isaac Lopes Watching hentai is a revolutionary act

[@rech.5374]

nice to see you uploading again George

[@SpeckObst]

Where can I buy a subscription to The Gorge?

[@miraprime474]

Patreon probably

[@TKUltra971]

I'll take two copies of The George!

[@Blackerer]

Let's all Gorge on The George.

[@Jose-se9pu]

George might be the most profesional youtuber we have when it comes to "video game journalism", and he manages to also be entertaining!

[@mohammedsarker5756]

him and shrier are the only good to honest real game journalists.

[@franciscor390]

@@mohammedsarker5756 Don't know if i would describe Schrier as "honest".

[@mdd4296]

@@franciscor390 He is opportunistically honest.

[@shayneoneill1506]

There's a few around. I enjoy big Jim Sterlings work mostly for his role in his self appointed role as end boss of angering dodgy game industry executives

[@ddis29]

+

[@Wanna_Be_Desu]

Hard boiled George in cynical corporate world of entertainment journalism. Or something like that. Point is I want to smoke and listen to 1 hour noir jazz music comp now. Cheers, super bunbun, good vid.

[@iller3]

Oh sure, let's all pretend that BIG SOCK wasn't secretly funding this...

[@MrJason005]

1 hour documentary from Super Bunnyhop? Count me in

[@ronnieDaking]

i don't think this is a documentary

[@someguy4405]

Watch Mauler.

[@стрелок-ч7р]

Interviewing and taking Kotaku seriously? Count me out.

[@Kramakiss]

@@стрелок-ч7р He's qualified on the subject and experienced. He writes the only good articles that are still on Kotaku.

[@ohamatchhams]

3 minutes in and this literally applies (but with more out-to-the-field steps) with general journalism

[@Raven_Frame]

You know I really hate to say this, however that Jason Schrier interview hit every stereotype and prejudice I had in my head for a Kotaku Editor.

[@ShredST]

You should watch a Tim Rogers video, though he's a video producer at Kotaku, not an editor.

[@lebombjames3911]

George's experience with journalism and information flow as a whole explains the great detail of the MGS2 video.

[@MGSVxBreakpoint]

Journalism? Information flow?

[@onimaxblade8988]

Metal Gear Solid 2 video? *grumbles*

[@TheRageng]

This is a video everyone should watch at least once a year.

[@ProfessorStaircase]

we gotta get media literacy to be a requirement for a gradeschool education.

[@VashdaCrash]

I agree, there should be a gradual switch from a focus on data towards critical thinking education.

[@Magus12000BC]

I grew up in the 90's and had a class in Junior High called, "Current Affairs". It basically taught us how to read a newspaper. And this was during an election year "'96". So we got to learn what the margin of error in polls were and how sources are gathered and where to find them.

[@Antiformed]

They don't want you to think critically. They are too busy telling everyone to dream and dream and obsess over dreams but not teaching them the critical thinking skills to achieve those dreams So they go out and try to get what they want in blunt and stupid ways, like 'reforming' places of business by making up deceitful bullshit about being discriminated against even if they weren't, because everyone always instantly sides with social justice whether any evidence exists or not to support it.

[@BurgerSliderMan]

this isnt even just for game journalism. It's general journalism advice stuff too. And tbh, alot of the big boy journalists don't follow half of this advice... lol

[@suren123a]

Because most MSM are basically owned by corporations. Both sides.

[@Antiformed]

"undue rejection of big boy journalists" you literally do not need to justify not liking something. i see people say this shit about Epic too, that the default state should be to trust things and any voice saying "don't trust it" must be bad. not trusting something isn't a feeling that you need to justify to anybody-- if you don't want to engage content you have every right not to no matter your reasons.

[@notwhoyouthink1]

I'm gonna miss the reviews and more opinionated stuff, but hey, if you wanna provide extremely high quality journalistic video essays every couple months, I'll keep smashing that like button.

[@Tacom4ster]

One of your best episodes

[@nowheredan27]

Hey George, before I forget: I love you.

[@SaveDataTeam]

Super impressed you got the interviews for this one! Thanks for always going the extra mile George!

[@isabellamorris7902]

Also: don't trust people who treat media literacy as something accessible only to a niche intelligent few, while everyone else is fated to remain mindless/ignorant/stupid because of inbuilt personal failings. That includes conspiracy theorists, and also the kind of posturers you sometimes see on mainstream social media who are trying to build an in-group. Basic media literacy is very easy to teach, everyone has the capacity for skepticism, but most people who stake their identity on being a skeptic believe in the most unshakable fictions.

[@deesevrin8570]

People attribute opinions published by a new article to the publication because the individual journalists are representatives of the publication. When people regularly choose one publication over another they are going to ingest an array of opinions, the grand sum total of which is only accurately described by referring to the publication. It is not a lazy simplification, it is an accurate description. When someone says they get most of their news from CNN or from Breitbart or the New York Times I can guess their perspectives on most issues of the day with little trouble via an understanding of the publication while not knowing a single individual journalist by name. This collective of perspectives is why we choose one media source over another or over finding our own primary sources. This was fantastic, thank you very much

[@SpectralTime]

I can kind of get the vibe from this video that you were worried about whether or not it would be successful, so I just wanted to take a second, nameless, voiceless Internet Phantom that I am, whom you have never met, to say that I really appreciate it, and really enjoy it. Thanks.

[@Vashetrockner]

Let's do a phantom high-five. And call it...hmm 🤔... high "phive"?

[@think2positive]

weirdly enough your fear of messing up because you don't have an editor makes you more trustworthy to me then most websites. You have to remind yourself that you are fallible and nobody you can share in responsibility should the mistake be too big. great video ps: the Communites i frequent hate Schrier because he rubs us the wrong way and lacks trustworthiness in our eyes, but I like to think that even broken clocks are right twice a day so... eh.

[@bjorn-falkoandreas9472]

George, you are a braver man than me. This was a nessessary video. A lot of people grew up with games publications first and those were abysmal 20-30 years ago. So much exploitation of playing fast and loose with news requires a heightened sense of vigilance. A single piece of news can result in 5 updates in any online publication because each half-sentence of knowledge is deemed worthy of an update. Which fuels the outrage cycle. Also fake news websites love omitting something. Quite often it is a date. So you get news from 5 years ago presented every couple of months as something new, restarting the outrage cycle. Also publications publish a lot more opinion to get more updates. Reading opeds is actually both not worth our time and hard.

[@viniciusdesouzamaia]

I appreciate your honesty about the quality of KZbin content. With the enthusiasm about new mediums, it seems that a lot of people overlook the loss in quality that comes with having to do everything yourself in an unspecialized manner.

[@TheKeyser94]

I study journalism, I was also a idealist, but the current state of corporate news turn my dreams sour, and I become overly cynical about everything, today journalism is not different from the time of William Hearst.

[@gogoteca]

Damn Georgie boi, I'm a physicist, completely mathematically-minded, and somehow you got me to watch a 50 minute video about journalism. You're awesome.

[@TheIdentityBooth]

The green screen is for anyone who wants to watch this and Optimus prime fighting At the same damn time!

[@TheJonesChannel11]

I appreciate this video in more ways that you can imagine. I was always curious as to what basic journalism works like. You've provided me with quite a lot of information to mull over. Thank you

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

I'm glad you put so much effort into videos like this and talking about why this stuff is important, but the reality of the matter is, most people don't care. They'll hear the first thing they want to hear and that will be the story and any alterations or updates are coverups from what "really happened" *sigh* When you post stuff about journalistic integrity, and when you've posted actual journalism it's such a fresh thing because most other people don't go through that effort. It's not limited to games either.

[@TuetchenR]

Just wanted to say thank you George for making all these awsome videos. Benn watching ou since the begining.

[@ariestheram789]

This was a great video!!! Thank you so much for all your dedication to your craft! Keep up the great work, George!

[@DimePackage]

You look great, George. Like a Canadian children's educational show star. Thank you for this video. I appreciate when people produce content about what they do. To inform us about what it takes to do it well and give us information on holding ourselves and them to that standard. Much of what you said shows in your work. We're lucky to have you.

[@Pan_Z]

The story at the beginning exhibits a problem among gaming publications. Often they all reverberate the same story with the same title, sources, and information. No effort is made to conduct interviews, further research, nor investigate the validity of the sources. At worst these news outlets source themselves in some articles.

[@Antiformed]

As soon as I see every outlet using the same image for the same news story all at the same time I get skeptical.

[@nokki25]

Christopher Hitchens famously noticed that in UK they don’t teach Journalism in Oxford and Cambridge. Unlike US and Russia, ironically. Edit: He also noticed that personal relationships work against journalism work, and cited Orwell to this point.

[@Batistadx4]

I think Tyler from VNN would learn a LOT from this video instead of asking people on videogame forums for info about Valve.

[@ShredST]

What is it about that? It seems like a lot of the gaming youtubers who are more trusted by gamers are just people who report on forums.

[@ProxyDoug]

I don't know, it seems like there is still a lot of people who trust ResetEra and previously NeoGAF for their scoops because those olaces are frequented by people in the industry. In fact, Schereier is only where he is right now, because he managed to amount a huge number of sources over time.

[@salsamancer]

VNN is just a fanboy despite the channel name. You just gotta know what you're getting before you start watching. I do respect his persistence.

[@someguy4405]

7:13 Oh, history. Interesti-HOLY SHIT GAMEPLAY WAS ONCE SPELT WITH TWO WORDS

[@SpookyTanukiGaming]

What happens when the press itself becomes totalitarian? And media distribution companies work with the press to silence dissent?

[@wgo523]

Well. What happens when the President of the United States demonizes any journalism that questions him or even just posts his own contradictions? Or when reactionaries think that press having some ideological points of view anti sexism and anti racism mostly, amounts to totalitarianism? Having news be based on ad revenue is shit.

[@ohamatchhams]

@@wgo523 What and who are you talking and referring to holi shiet that's not even clear

[@darklsn]

absolutely incredible video George. Thanks for taking the time to explain this one; I really learned a lot!

[@calebfox782]

"Even your dads and even your sons!" I see what you did there! XD

[@DeadEyeJ]

How are you still under 1 million subscribers? Excellent work, Mr. Bunnyhop. Don't look down on yourself. You are THE journalist (and not just for gaming) on KZbin. Hell, I'd argue that this video is excellent enough to be used in a classroom setting. Keep up the honest work. I'll be waiting breathlessly for your next upload. 건배!

[@Thelder]

George, you should do an episode about how the game industry do(esn't) preserve it's own history. I was watching other channel one of these days (or reading an article, I don't remember) about the remaster of Final Fantasy VIII and why Square Enix took this much time to make this remaster, simply because the source code of the game was lost. And then the video/text gone on how many famous games suffer similar problems: Silent Hill 2/3 remaster for the same reason, Earthbound wasn't realeased on the Virtual Console until recently because of legal issues, and there's a plenty of games that you're unable to play nowadays for similar reasons: P.T., Legend of Korra, Scott Pilgrim vs The World... I think it would be a great topic to talk about.

[@brunogalvao6333]

That's where emulation comes in. Videogame preservation is mostly done by it's own community, if you think about it.

[@Thelder]

Yeah, the article/video also said that, but still there's things that never reach the market that should be preserved too. Source codes for a start. Have you played the Silent Hill 2/3 remaster? It sucks compared to the original ones, cause since the team behind the remaster had to do a lot of reverse engineering to update the software for modern consoles operating systems, many things were lost and the game have lots of little glitches, problems with load times and the fog/draw distance is different and inferior from the original game. Then there's the demos and test versions. The original builds of games like Duke Nukem Forever, Resident Evil 4, Starcraft Ghost, that were shown on E3 and that if the companys and teams behind the games have not preserved, are lost forever and became only videos on KZbin. Then there's the legal issues. Nintendo always has been pretty aggressive toward the emulation community, they have many times taken down large famous emulation sites, even the ones more dedicated on preserving classic games than piracy. Even through this won't end emulation, surely turns harder the access to rarer games.

[@brunogalvao6333]

@@Thelder Tu é br né? Pra que eu tô falando em inglês com você hahah Talvez o problema da preservação dos jogos seja pela visão mais comercial da mídia em comparação a outras, ou então pelo constante avanço tecnológico inerente aos games. Pensando em quão recente a mídia é, os desenvolvedores/produtores não pensavam em criar uma obra próspera e longeva, e sim vender no natal para o máximo de crianças possíveis. Claro que era uma época imatura da mídia, mas até hoje vemos reflexo disso. A 4° e 5° geração de consoles possuí vários clássicos reciclados, relançados e remasterizados até hoje. Mas isso só vale para as franquias que deram mais lucro na época e sobreviveram, como Megaman ou Mario. Os jogos mais "aleatórios" da geração são difíceis de achar até em emulação, quem dirá oficialmente. O que leva ao segundo ponto: hardware. Se a indústria tivesse se erguido apenas no PC talvez tivessemos outro cenário, mas com a constante troca de consoles, não "retrocompatíveis" com o antecessor, vários jogos se perderam. Hoje em dia temos temos os jogos digitais para contornar esse problema, mas como você disse, muitos códigos se perderam, então vários jogos não serão acessíveis. Não muito tempo atrás eu estava procurando um jogo aleatório de N64 que marcou minha infância (Rocket: robot on wheels) e adivinha só? A única forma de jogar legalmente é pelo próprio N64. Um console de 1996 que obviamente não é mais vendido, assim como o jogo. Isso é algo que não acontece em nenhuma outra mídia. Um livro de 1920 pode ser lido da mesma forma hoje, já com os games há uma série de barreiras. Alguns jogos, como o Resident Evil 4, são relançados tantas vezes que qualquer um consegue jogar, enquanto os mais esquecidos... continuam esquecidos. O problema do hardware ainda me incomoda em outro sentido. O Wii por exemplo é um console único, então mesmo que se preserve os jogos nas futuras gerações, séria impossível jogar vários jogos devido a sua natureza, são jogos desenvolvidos para os recursos únicos do Wii. E quem garante que daqui a 10 anos será possível adquirir um? Enfim, é uma discussão bem longa e interessante, e eu particularmente nunca tinha pensado muito.

[@Thelder]

@@brunogalvao6333 Lol eu imaginei isso, mas mantive a conversa em inglês porque bem, se alguém mais entendesse é quisesse participar, seria bom. Esse é um assunto importante, e eu gostaria que a indústria levasse mais a sério. Sim, é verdade que videogames ainda são uma mídia nova, mas já demonstra sinais de maturidade. Jogos como a série Souls, The Stanley Parable, Undertale, Okami e Nier começam a experimentar conceitos artísticos. Jogos como GTA, Call of Duty e Resident Evil estão fazendo mais dinheiro que blockbusters de verão americano. Já é hora de começar a se levar a sério. Ninguém é perfeito, muitos dos primeiros filmes da história do cinema foram perdidos devido a ignorância da época ou a fatalidades que aconteceram ao longo dos anos. Isso também vale para a literatura, para música, para as artes plásticas. Mas ainda assim, acho que já era hora das empresas tomarem algum tipo de atitude para preservar sua história, e não falo só para que nós, jogadores e consumidores, tenhamos acesso, mas é como um todo, inclusive para fins acadêmicos.

[@TheScratcherStudios]

criminally underrated video. needs teachers to show it at schools around the world.

[@MyTwoSenses]

Imagine interviewing Jason Schrier in a video about journalism and proper sourcing. It was literally only a week or so ago Kotaku published a completely false story about Mordhau, one of many stories in a pattern. And obviously issues of disclosure and corrections have come up a lot. Love most of your videos, but I feel like this one is missing some of these other vital issues in games journalism and there are better sources to look at.

[@warz3bra245]

Kotaku is literally the worst publication to use

[@bbald90]

Bunnyhop is easily the best content you can find on all of KZbin. Every video is a treat sir, thank you

[@Oops-All-Ghosts]

Superbunnyhop, I love your work, but if you pronounce "niche" as "nish" again I'm going to scream into a paper bag and sell it to a witch in exchange for a curse, so that every third video you produce will end with two and a half nanoseconds of poop emoji on-screen. Don't say I didn't warn you.

[@TheOfficialKaiEll]

Just started University studying Digital Media, this video has been super enlightening and is helping me understand a lot of the initial concepts. Love this video.

[@DPortain]

So, did KZbin detect that curse word at 35:11 and pull its monetization?

[@aidennelson2935]

I got a pre roll ad dude

[@ProfessorStaircase]

shhhhh don't make it easy for youtube to figure it out

[@LiberalsGettheBulletToo]

KZbin detects EVERY word you use and analyses the video as a whole before determining it's ad ranking. It reads the entire transcript. Curse words are only one factor.

[@laszlomiskei9138]

I see this video as a major "checkpoin" in your work. Thank you for making this and congratualtions on the quality of ... well ... everything you are doing here.

[@teetahh]

george your hair gets more disheveled as the video goes on and i can definitely relate

[@Yura-Sensei]

Your talking and writing style is probably my most favorite in whole youtube

[@PXAbstraction]

This was a fascinating video and gave a lot of good points worth considering. However, I also saw a lot of what felt like attempted defense and rationalization of the scummy practices of clickbaiting and yellow journalism that plagues modern games media because "it used to be worse" or "that's the only way to survive." That's not good enough. If their ad supported business model can't work without pandering to gossip, baiting outrage and disrespecting their consumer, then that's a failure of their leadership and not something to be excused because "that's the way it has to be." Figure out how to do better or step aside for someone who can. Fact is, as someone who needs to stay very well informed on gaming and the industry for my streaming community and responsibilities I have within it, I'm able to do so without ever clicking on Polygon, Kotaku, Waypoint et al. or any KZbin "commentary channels." Places like those, operating the way they do, are simply not necessary to be informed on the games industry from a factual perspective and to think that's something they don't think about nearly enough. They're not in this for the good of the gaming public, they're in it for themselves.

[@ShredST]

Where do you get your gaming news?

[@Antiformed]

These are George's friends. He can be critical but he can't *criticize* them or they might turn on him.

[@HansWurst-ht3jh]

Hello Parallax Abstraction, I do see, what you are getting at, but I think you are kind of missing the point of this video, because it's not about solving any problems inherent in all media. George Weidman does not try to change the status quo of the media landscape and he therefore he does not try to offer any solutions to it's problems. Rather he tries do summarize the status quo, explain how we got here and in the process, explain to the common viewer, how he/she can work around the flaws inherent in the system. He does not want to change the media with this video, he want's you and me to become Media Literate. Also I think that, whatever your sources are, you should try to approach them, with the very same level of scrutiny, that George is trying to convey here. In the end, your sources are part of the media landscape and thus subject to the same problems. Greetings Hans Wurst

[@nick-playercharacter8583]

Words can scarely describe how much I appreciate the work you do, George.

[@B-Frosty97]

15:00 was sublime visual comedy

[@pierrelambert4872]

There is a criminal lack of views for this video. Thanks for your work

[@AgsmaJustAgsma]

2:20 [shows picture of Winnie the Pooh on chinese website] *XI JINPING WOULD LIKE TO KNOW YOUR LOCATION*

[@lovfro]

RE: Typos. The dangers of the one man writing operation. It's a true testament to George's charachter and abilities that there are not more. Good job.

[@zantanimus3721]

Man, I love your content but I really wish you'd take the time to set the focus properly. Just set the aperture at f/5.6 so you can actually move back and forth and you'll be in the whole time. Totally a minor thing most people don't even care about, but it'll elevate your videos further to complement the stellar writing and research you put forth. EDIT: Just got to 42:30 in the video. If you'd like some book recommendations for the video side of thing, I'm more than happy to share.

[@ReferenceTheOriginal]

I'll take'em if you've got'em.

[@HeadsetHistorian]

I love this channel so much. Every video is genuinely a solid contribution to society. This stuff is great content that goes well beyond just entertainment value. Huge props, hope you all the success in the world and as little stress as possible haha.

[@BobExcalibur]

19:56 The selective editing when depicting the "regulated, respectible" UK and Canadian news versus the Australian example was incredibly obvious. As if human interest stories aren't shown on the former networks too.

[@dex6630]

Well if he is going to provide an example he is obviously going to need to use one that illiterates his point. No-one is saying that three clips lasting a few seconds could prove anything, but he is simply providing an example of what he is talking about to help communicate the point to us the audience.

[@BobExcalibur]

@@dex6630 But its conveying a false argument that disintegrates under scrutiny, and is paved over with disingenuous editing. The Canadian and British Broadcasting Corperations are far from bastions of ethical, dispassionate demonstration of factual information. Look up people's complaints with their conduct, the character assassinations of dissidents. These organisations are threatened with defunding by the license fee payers for a reason.

[@dex6630]

@@BobExcalibur Well I think his point was that they have more of these qualities in comparison to US news, not that they are perfect because they are obviously not. I personally only have knowledge of the BBC which has its strengths and weaknesses. Recently the government has cut its funding by forcing it to sell of profitably parts such as BBC good food site. This seems to have been done to force the bbc to appoint more Conservative friendly editors. In general the bbc tends to be very pro establishment and gives lots of coverage to stuff like the Royal family. On the plus side, having a news source which is not funded by advertising but has a strict code of conduct for presenting balanced coverage and corporations / oligarchs don't get to have a veto over what gets covered. When you compare the bbc news to stuff like the daily mail it is clear the difference between an organisation that tries to be factual and balanced and one which is trying to be sensationalist and propagandist. In general though, the bbc is not at risk of being defunded by licence fee payers anytime soon, it's still extremely successful and the news aspect of it is only a small part of the overall services provided. People definitely complain about them a lot but stuff like their local and national radio stations, weather reports, sports coverage, nature docs, children's programming are all such an integrated part of people's lives I think when push came to shove people would want to keep it.

[@dex6630]

For some reason I can't view your most recent reply, I can only preview it in my inbox. Not sure if it's been deleted or something. Can you resubmit it?

[@Antiformed]

As a Canadian I can tell you our news is not sensationalized. At least not in my city. Unless it's about trudeau, the media is so biased in favor of Trudeau it's ridiculous

[@Murasakiriyu]

You are painting a target on your back here, but you made your history and own biases clear and I respect the broader body of your work. Thanks for braving the net to post this. It's valid in the wider cultural sphere, not just gaming, and timeous as well.

[@Antiformed]

I never knew "timeous" was a word. You learn something new every day.

[@benabaxter]

Lazy positive stories are derided as "valentines" in the field of journalism. Thought folks might enjoy that slang.

[@ajsmusicmadness]

Fantastic video, I really loved the full dive into modern day journalism compared to how they did it in the old days. The interviews kept it from being stale.

[@CatSlinky]

The only worthwhile video game journalism is right here. And videogamedonkey. :P

[@xafrothundax91]

Thank you for taking the time to do an almost hour long video to help your viewers become objectively better critics.

[@Lairdom]

I'm not sure if its a meta joke when George talks about him missing editors while on the same time having Jason Schreier written everywhere as Jason Schrier and having Josh Harmon typoed on the end credits.

[@ketrub]

apparently not

[@Guru_1092]

Can we just talk about how Australian news was talking about a kangaroo? Like, I know that's probably pretty common, but I was laughing my ass off because of that.

[@rob-r6778]

why is notch in the thumbnail

[@omnibusprimephd7914]

Lmao I had to go back and look

[@Kralich]

Same

[@Cons-Cat]

Hehehehehe

[@BlargleWargle]

How dare you insult Gorg with such a comparison.

[@hw7202]

Minecraft is gaining back it's relevancy so he needs to get those nostalgia teens back.

[@HansWurst-ht3jh]

Awesome video! Very much to the point and nowadays more relevant than ever, not just in the context of video games!

[@draphking]

My 4chan years taught me an important lesson about life. Everyone is most likely an asshole and you should always play a game first before posting about it for 4 hours

[@g1234-d5q]

I think that a majority people are good but the internet dehumanises people because you can't see or hear a other person in comments they just have a username and a pic likey not of themselves plus there are of factors like what's going in their lives or their mental health and such so they write a angry or mean comment to let off some steam but yeah some people are just trolls and butt bags

[@00mejt-25]

I thought the former too, then I went outside. Being face-to-face with people really makes a difference.

[@TheQeltar]

Not sure 4chan is the place to pick up life lessons.

[@protocetid]

@Mofu Mofu Lol no, 4chan is all right wing conspiracies these days. I like how they are critical of "degeneracy" but promote being a NEET living off welfare, masturbating to hentai and traps. You have the exact kind of avatar a 4chan defender would.

[@TheGM-20XX]

@@protocetid You walked right into that one didn't ya.

[@cuissonbake6917]

You are doing this to help people be less ignorant. Thank you. Your last question only applies to people who do not have to defend ones lifes' existence on the daily.