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By gzt (Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 02:09:32 PM EST) gzt, stuff, things, choir (all tags)

I have a few minutes before a bus, so I'll pound out a diary.

choir this morning was okay - mild annoyances. things were a little shaky for a couple reasons. zeroth, the other singers arrived halfway through the first litany, so I was doing it solo and it took a little bit to repitch and get settled once they arrived. first, for whatever reason, the kids were a little more quiet than usual, which is fine, but this meant that, when we had a little hesitancy getting moving at a couple points, the congregation and the altar jumped in with their own loud opinions about pitch and tempo (that did not agree). the thing about the altar opinion is that the priest is a loud tenor with a nice voice, but when he jumps in, it's usually the melody an octave down rather than the tenor line, in his own pace which is not responsive to direction within the choir, according to whatever arrangement and timing that is most familiar, and once it begins is loud enough that it cannot respond to any external influence. i would just say that the choir was on pitch and timed right among themselves.

rehearsals have been going well, but mostly covering the week's music and not new stuff. but getting a little bit. current plan from on high: never do new stuff. bah.

have a test tuesday evening. have a lot of work to do on project that's not getting done. theoretically at some point have to get done.

shoot, just noted that the nominal due date of one homework assignemnt was the 21st - but we've always been bouncing the numbers around, wasn't sure when actually wanted done. oh well.

tgraveling to second city next weekend. agenda completely full.

been busy being shocked by the whole gamerghazi thing. "BUT ETHICS."

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more stuff and things | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 hidden)

I think gaming journalism ethics by ammoniacal (2.00 / 0) #1 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 02:56:23 PM EST

really do need to be examined. It's a real issue. That said, most of the people backing "Gamegate" appear to be genuine assholes. So what untainted venues remain to examine the ethical issues? Is the topic off-limits forever now? For the next year? Six months? Should there be a moratorium on discussions? I hate how the topic was highjacked.

"To this day that was the most bullshit caesar salad I have every experienced..." - triggerfinger

sure.... by gzt (4.00 / 1) #2 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 03:26:20 PM EST

...but the way the people are discussing it in the pro-gamergate sides are not actually talking about gaming ethics issues. indeed, sometimes they are antithetical to actual journalistic ethics (ie, wanting to constrain what reviewers can talk about in reviews).

[ Parent ]

we're seeing a lot of young republicans being born by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #4 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 04:07:19 PM EST

fifteen years before their time. thousands of young men out there will never trust the media again and reflexively disdain feminism.

as for ethics, they're complaining about what are essentially tabloid news outlets. they don't really have ethics. they make their money with controversy and deceptive, provocative headlines. they feed a feeding frenzy to juice more page views. somehow they managed to find an audience that is genuinely provoked.

the broader issue of clickbait media is interesting, for sure, and the connection with #gamergate is obvious, but there's already tons of discussion about that. you can have that discussion anywhere.

[ Parent ]

the term is "enthusiast press" by gzt (2.00 / 0) #6 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 04:30:43 PM EST

well, if we're talking about the "gaming journalism". if we're talking about gawker, yes, tabloids, feeding frenzy, etc. but the latter is a late addition to the "ethics" thing. one of the things is that, you know, when it comes to news and reporting, they aren't raising much of a stink about running press releases as news (because to the gamers that's what they want, even though it's bad journalism) or even about reviewers who give bad reviews to blockbuster games getting canned in the past - it's largely complaints about coverage of small indy games and reviews that include, eg, commentary on sexist themes. I mean, a large bit of the noise is about Anita Sarkeesian, who is not a journalist! And a lot of whingeing is about a review in Polygon which commented on the sexist themes of some game and gave a lower rating - they are complaining that this could cause a change in behavior by developers because they get bonuses based on their ratings. Therefore, ratings should not consider these "non-objective" elements. But note that a journalist should not consider outside pressure - altering what they would report because somebody else might get paid differently is the essence of journalistic corruption. Idiots!

I definitely agree about the manufacturing conservatives. AEI and worse are swooping in to get the newly self-aware anti-feminists. I'd much rather AEI get to them than some of the other unsavory types out there, but unfortunately it's not mutually exclusive to listen to AEI and actual fascists.

another fun fact about gawker: as much as we all have good reason to dislike Gawker, recall the last time the internet gamer crowd was this pissed at gawker. It was when Gawker reported on /r/jailbait. And of course, another fun thing about journalistic ethics: trying to get a journalistic outlet to change their reporting by getting their advertisers mad at them is the opposite of journalistic ethics. It's shocking how dumb these "ethics" guys are.

[ Parent ]

my feel is the real primal scream is about by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #7 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 05:08:20 PM EST

the "end of gamers" articles on the gawker network and about the anita sarkeesian videos -- which i think they correctly identify as being a threat to a certain kind of video game, not because of the feminist angle (which i don't think many people understand or care much about) but just the sheer shock of seeing so much in one place.

the gawker network and other sites realized a nerve had been struck and keep juicing it for views. similarly with twitter activists. as much as it gets worse and worse in terms of threats and collateral damage, the whole thing keeps growing. now it's in the new york times. does it stop there or is someone going to get killed or arrested? my money (and hope) is on arrested...

yeah, i remember the /r/jailbait shitstorm. adrian chen has since left gawker though. (he had a pretty interesting piece on social media moderation recently: http://www.wired.com/2014/10/content-moderation/ -- which you probably already know.)

obviously, i agree the "ethics" angle is horseshit. it's just two factions with conflicting interests going at it on twitter, etc.

i'd like to hear about the "worse than AEI" stuff swooping in for disaffected gamers.

[ Parent ]

mens rights... by gzt (2.00 / 0) #8 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 05:30:22 PM EST

...and to a lesser extent white rights people are bending ears within gamergate circles. at least, in the few minutes a quick glance into it on reddit took.

but yeah the one that really pissed them off most is the leigh alexander piece in gamasutra. not sure why. i don't really follow this stuff since i don't play games. this is what gets funny: they tried, and succeeded, in getting some advertisers to pull out of gamasutra, but... why? if it's about journalistic ethics? there was nothing unethical about her article. it's just something they didn't like. and they admit as much. that'll learn 'em.

and the same sort of thing with gawker. gawker sided against them and said something they could spin as bad. but it's not in the slightest about the many ways in which gawker is a horrible unethical outlet: it's about being on the wrong side and saying something they could spin as horrible. humorously enough, this is contrary to their desired outcome: external voices not beholden to gaming interests commenting on games, game culture, etc? that's a good thing if you're into journalistic ethical integrity.

[ Parent ]

oh, that's boring. by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #9 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 05:50:19 PM EST

yeah, i think a lot of the gamergate stuff is the same people behind "men's rights."

the tactics and ethos behind #gamergate are pretty much the same as the warblogger and malkin set of the early to mid '00s. "citizen journalism," organized letter writing campaigns, harassment of political opponents. the active core of it is probably to some extent the same people.

re: why the rage? dorks walking around in legend of zelda shirts or whatever are now going to be suspected of being some kind of creep -- even more so! people really identify with this stuff, hard as that may seem to believe, and consider it an important part of their life and culture.

[ Parent ]

yeah, the insidious part is the white rights folks by gzt (2.00 / 0) #10 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 07:49:46 PM EST

but there aren't that many.

this definitely is straight out of the far right playbook.

[ Parent ]

it's the same old class war stuff by MillMan

(4.00 / 1) #11 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 11:22:28 PM EST

the worse the social stratification gets in this country the more intense this kind of hate based activism has to get in order to keep the bullseye off the political and corporate class. Anytime the target is women, minorities, gays or foreigners, it's the far right running the show. If you're a propagandist this social media age is a beautiful time to be alive - playing the public like a puppet comes so easy.

"Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in financial crises." -Krugman

[ Parent ]

yeah, no. by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #14 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 07:21:42 AM EST

this brand of magical thinking is as much a part of reason the middle and working classes have been reduced to the level of feudal peasants in terms political agency as right wing populism.

the reality is that the middle class still has it too good to give a damn about any issues that matter anyway.

[ Parent ]

: nah by MillMan (2.00 / 0) #22 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 05:22:15 PM EST

Just looking at the back end - so law enforcement / courts - the disparity between how OWS protesters were treated vs. the average person tweeting rape and death threats demonstrates what is taken seriously. On the front end you don't need a "massive right wing conspiracy" either - if you're a propagandist (sorry, PR person) you just measure the zeitgeist and coax it in the direction you want. As long as you're selling widgets and page views and/or the people aren't rioting, the particulars don't matter.
"Just as there are no atheists in foxholes, there are no libertarians in financial crises." -Krugman
[ Parent ]

also lew rockwell chimed in! by gzt (2.00 / 0) #17 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 12:48:00 PM EST

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/gamers-vs-pc-bullies/

usual vomit.

[ Parent ]

lol, lew rockwell... by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #18 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 01:05:20 PM EST

this will bring some much needed intellectual heft to the #gamergate movement.

[ Parent ]

: inorite by gzt (2.00 / 0) #19 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 02:05:29 PM EST

"somebody's beating up feminists? I need to be there. new southern strategy!"

[ Parent ]

She's a blogger. by ammoniacal (2.00 / 0) #12 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 05:22:15 AM EST

Are bloggers journalists? I think that question's been bandied about here in the past and I don't think there's a concensus. I'll concede that she's not a credentialled journalist, in spite of her communication studies BA and fu-fu philosophy MA.

"To this day that was the most bullshit caesar salad I have every experienced..." - triggerfinger

[ Parent ]

Are bloggers journalists? by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #13 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 06:38:09 AM EST

I dunno, are people who write in public journals journalists? That is, are they journaling?

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

[ Parent ]

that's a good question by gzt (2.00 / 0) #15 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 08:15:55 AM EST

I mean, somebody reporting on the news, that's definitely a journalist. A cultural critic, is that a journalist? If they only write books, we probably wouldn't call them that, but if they write an article every week, suddenly they are?

[ Parent ]

yeah, she's a critic. by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #16 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 09:34:58 AM EST

plenty of people are both journalists and critics, but sarkeesian deals in criticism. journalism is not about the medium. most newspapers employ or at least syndicate critics, for example, who you wouldn't call journalists. journalism is about investigating news and disseminating the results of those investigations. criticism is about consuming and analyzing art and media products.

i'm not sure it makes any difference. is anyone accusing anita sarkeesian of some kind of breach of journalistic ethics?

[ Parent ]

Wiki says news or current events. by ammoniacal (2.00 / 0) #20 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 03:46:31 PM EST

I think Gamergate qualifies as a current event. I do note that the idea of "advocacy journalism" is a controversial one. I don't really want to open that can of worms right now.

"To this day that was the most bullshit caesar salad I have every experienced..." - triggerfinger

[ Parent ]

: the journalistic ethics stuff by the mariner (2.00 / 0) #21 Mon Oct 27, 2014 at 04:20:32 PM EST

is about the alleged incestuous relationship between gaming journalists/critics and "SJW"-oriented indie developers, with the primary (perhaps only) example being zoe quinn. the basic allegation is that she screwed a bunch of guys and got favorable coverage and cover from negative commentary from them because of it. i don't know how accurate the story is, but the picture of her as basically some kind of online hustler/grifter seems plausible at least -- she's definitely involved with these guys socially and there are a number of odd looking incidents that speak to the grifter narrative.
in reality, though, what they're reacting to is the development of a clique of like-minded people within the game media and indie development scene who are bringing left wing, "SJW" language and attitudes into sites gamers identify as "their" news sources and publishing articles that directly attack the traditional core readership -- the usual "white male" as a pejorative type stuff. this tendency is also driven financially by the clickbait phenomenon, where the controversial and morally superior brings ad revenue via facebook feed algorithms.
it seems to me that the #gamergaters should just forget about the hashtag and silently start their own media outlets. it's not obvious to me that there really is a SJW-tolerant gamer media audience, so these outlets would presumably out-compete kotaku and company. it may not be possible for independent journalism to exist online without clickbait or subscribers, though. this may explain the efforts to actually destroy the existing sites by driving away writers and advertisers.

[ Parent ]

Game Journalism Ethics by jimgon (4.00 / 2) #3 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 03:44:58 PM EST

Game journalism ethics, much like other professional ethics should probably be handled by professional organizations.

That and if you believe in the power of markets, by consumers ceasing to engage with vendors that are suspect.

---------------
Technician - "We can't even get decent physical health care. Mental health is like witchcraft here."

[ Parent ]

i hope you didn't take my SJW comments too srs by the mariner (4.00 / 1) #5 Sun Oct 26, 2014 at 04:20:39 PM EST

i was just fuckin' with ya.

[ Parent ]

more stuff and things | 22 comments (22 topical, 0 hidden)