Are Feminists Taking Over Video Games?
How often do video game journalists write about feminism, sexism, or misogyny?
Of 130,524 articles from 23 game outlets in a 12-month period, only 0.41% referenced feminism, sexism, or misogyny.
- Morgan Ramsay (@MorganRamsay) September 13, 2014
For several years, I have been downloading full-text articles from major video game media outlets. As a bestselling author and celebrity interviewer, this makeshift record of video game journalism allows me to quickly find information about people, organizations, and current events without buying access to media monitoring services and online research databases.
Today, my "database" weighs in as a 7.6 GB .pst data file that I can query through Microsoft Outlook 2010 using search folders and the undocumented Query Builder feature. I initially tracked 10 or fewer media outlets. After publishing my first book of interviews in 2012, I expanded to 33 outlets across 37 RSS feeds, a number dominated by consumer press. The collection is therefore uneven beyond some number of years. In the results below, 23 outlets, for which I have at least 12 months of data, are represented.
PROBLEM
Recently, there has been some discussion about transparency in video game journalism, including claims that some journalists have unresolvable conflicts of interest and/or have breached real or perceived codes of ethics.
A very thoughtful Escapist article that is worth reading regarding gamers and games journalism ethics
- http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/12223-The-Escapist-Publisher-Issues-Public-Statement-on-Gamergate
- TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 8, 2014
(Disclaimer: Alexander Macris ( @Archon), who publishes The Escapist, is one of my advisors at Entertainment Media Council.)
Within this important conversation between the press and their readers, there have been two claims of which I was suspicious:
1. "A small faction of feminists are taking over video-game journalism and shifting the focus from a love of video games to gender relations."
2. "The consequence of this shift is that journalists are no longer delivering content that gamers want."
Are feminists taking over video games? Are they really everywhere we look? Does the press even care about video games anymore? How often do video game journalists bring up feminism, sexism, or misogyny in their works?
Since I have access to a large, growing repository of nearly every recent article published by the video game press, I thought I'd run a simple query to answer these questions and share the results-whatever they turned out to be.
RESULTS
Of the 130,524 articles downloaded from 23 outlets in a 12-month period, only 0.41% of those articles referenced feminism, feminist, sexism, sexist, misogyny, and misogynist. Less than half of 1% of the articles published by professional video game journalists for major publications during a 12-month period brought up these more progressive subjects explicitly.
For comparison, across the same number of articles, outlets, and months, 17.8% referenced every variation of PlayStation 4, 5.61% referenced every variation of free-to-play, 3.89% referenced every variation of Call of Duty, 3.46% referenced every variation of realism and immersion, and 0.25% referenced Peter Molyneux.
Note: Previously, I reported that only 0.44% of articles downloaded in 2013 and six months in 2014 contained the aforementioned references. Those numbers were presented in error. I have updated this article accordingly.
Top 10 Most Progressive Media Outlets by Overall Contribution (12 months)
1. The Escapist - 0.071%
2. Gamasutra - 0.061%
3. Polygon - 0.048%
4. Kotaku - 0.038%
5. Rock Paper Shotgun - 0.027%
6. GamesIndustry International - 0.024%
7. Edge Online - 0.018%
8. IGN - 0.018%
9. VG24/7 - 0.015%
10. GamesBeat - 0.015%
Top 10 Most Progressive Media Outlets by Individual Output (12 months)
1. Edge Online - 2.06%
2. Gamasutra - 1.88%
3. GamesIndustry International - 1.20%
4. Rock Paper Shotgun - 0.93%
5. The Escapist - 0.86%
6. Polygon - 0.57%
7. GamePolitics - 0.52%
8. GamesBeat - 0.51%
9. Pocket Gamer - 0.43%
10. Kotaku - 0.39%
Progressiveness, here, is defined by the number of articles that reference one of the aforementioned keywords.
FAQ and more info at source: Morgan Ramsay
Of 130,524 articles from 23 game outlets in a 12-month period, only 0.41% referenced feminism, sexism, or misogyny.
- Morgan Ramsay (@MorganRamsay) September 13, 2014
For several years, I have been downloading full-text articles from major video game media outlets. As a bestselling author and celebrity interviewer, this makeshift record of video game journalism allows me to quickly find information about people, organizations, and current events without buying access to media monitoring services and online research databases.
Today, my "database" weighs in as a 7.6 GB .pst data file that I can query through Microsoft Outlook 2010 using search folders and the undocumented Query Builder feature. I initially tracked 10 or fewer media outlets. After publishing my first book of interviews in 2012, I expanded to 33 outlets across 37 RSS feeds, a number dominated by consumer press. The collection is therefore uneven beyond some number of years. In the results below, 23 outlets, for which I have at least 12 months of data, are represented.
PROBLEM
Recently, there has been some discussion about transparency in video game journalism, including claims that some journalists have unresolvable conflicts of interest and/or have breached real or perceived codes of ethics.
A very thoughtful Escapist article that is worth reading regarding gamers and games journalism ethics
- http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/editorials/12223-The-Escapist-Publisher-Issues-Public-Statement-on-Gamergate
- TotalBiscuit (@Totalbiscuit) September 8, 2014
(Disclaimer: Alexander Macris ( @Archon), who publishes The Escapist, is one of my advisors at Entertainment Media Council.)
Within this important conversation between the press and their readers, there have been two claims of which I was suspicious:
1. "A small faction of feminists are taking over video-game journalism and shifting the focus from a love of video games to gender relations."
2. "The consequence of this shift is that journalists are no longer delivering content that gamers want."
Are feminists taking over video games? Are they really everywhere we look? Does the press even care about video games anymore? How often do video game journalists bring up feminism, sexism, or misogyny in their works?
Since I have access to a large, growing repository of nearly every recent article published by the video game press, I thought I'd run a simple query to answer these questions and share the results-whatever they turned out to be.
RESULTS
Of the 130,524 articles downloaded from 23 outlets in a 12-month period, only 0.41% of those articles referenced feminism, feminist, sexism, sexist, misogyny, and misogynist. Less than half of 1% of the articles published by professional video game journalists for major publications during a 12-month period brought up these more progressive subjects explicitly.
For comparison, across the same number of articles, outlets, and months, 17.8% referenced every variation of PlayStation 4, 5.61% referenced every variation of free-to-play, 3.89% referenced every variation of Call of Duty, 3.46% referenced every variation of realism and immersion, and 0.25% referenced Peter Molyneux.
Note: Previously, I reported that only 0.44% of articles downloaded in 2013 and six months in 2014 contained the aforementioned references. Those numbers were presented in error. I have updated this article accordingly.
Top 10 Most Progressive Media Outlets by Overall Contribution (12 months)
1. The Escapist - 0.071%
2. Gamasutra - 0.061%
3. Polygon - 0.048%
4. Kotaku - 0.038%
5. Rock Paper Shotgun - 0.027%
6. GamesIndustry International - 0.024%
7. Edge Online - 0.018%
8. IGN - 0.018%
9. VG24/7 - 0.015%
10. GamesBeat - 0.015%
Top 10 Most Progressive Media Outlets by Individual Output (12 months)
1. Edge Online - 2.06%
2. Gamasutra - 1.88%
3. GamesIndustry International - 1.20%
4. Rock Paper Shotgun - 0.93%
5. The Escapist - 0.86%
6. Polygon - 0.57%
7. GamePolitics - 0.52%
8. GamesBeat - 0.51%
9. Pocket Gamer - 0.43%
10. Kotaku - 0.39%
Progressiveness, here, is defined by the number of articles that reference one of the aforementioned keywords.
FAQ and more info at source: Morgan Ramsay