No doubt you have probably read the Ars Technica piece on early access to Modern Warfare 2. The best way to describe this situation is absolutely disgusting. How can readers trust outlets that gleefully participate in such activities? If a company pays for your airfare, puts you up in a resort in Santa Barbara and then shapes the conditions of your play sessions to be what they are not (I.E. controls the network you are on to make it speedy and a smooth), then how do you then claim that there was no influence when you write up that review?
See, journalists that engage in this activity put themselves in an awkward position. Now they are beholden to the publisher for all their generosity - and should they disclose it to the reader - they have to prove that their influence hasn't somehow been purchased. As a reader, you're going to have a hard time proving that to me. And then there are those who just don't give a shit about the readers; these are the guys and girls who disclose nothing and file their review like nothing ever happened. You can tell me that you haven't been influenced by airfare or a hotel stay but I won't believe you even if it might be true - if you're dumb enough to put yourself in that position then your dumb enough to be influenced by such trivial things.
The review for these folks will be mostly positive, because if it isn't the publisher could simply drop the dime on them to some other outlet or threaten them with "no access next time." Since their writing isn't really about being honest maybe they'll cave in a little bit, adjust their scores enough to make the publisher happy and secure that access for next time.
See, journalists that engage in this activity put themselves in an awkward position. Now they are beholden to the publisher for all their generosity - and should they disclose it to the reader - they have to prove that their influence hasn't somehow been purchased. As a reader, you're going to have a hard time proving that to me. And then there are those who just don't give a shit about the readers; these are the guys and girls who disclose nothing and file their review like nothing ever happened. You can tell me that you haven't been influenced by airfare or a hotel stay but I won't believe you even if it might be true - if you're dumb enough to put yourself in that position then your dumb enough to be influenced by such trivial things.
The review for these folks will be mostly positive, because if it isn't the publisher could simply drop the dime on them to some other outlet or threaten them with "no access next time." Since their writing isn't really about being honest maybe they'll cave in a little bit, adjust their scores enough to make the publisher happy and secure that access for next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment