In the quest to save journalism, media experts have wandered into a mythical land of elves, orks, and gaming nerds: World of Warcraft. “Ninety-seven percent of American teens–the future audience of the press–are gamers,” Joe Yachimec writes for the Ryerson Review of Journalism (though he provides no source for the statistic). Gamers are being neglected by the mainstream press and treated like “adolescent, prurient drivel,” according to video game researcher Ian Bogost. The people who do write about games are often too inside the gaming world, and lack the journalistic knowledge to appeal to a mass audience. Paying more attention to games and gamers might not save journalism, Yachimec writes, “there’s only so much you can expect from a shopping magazine,” but it could provide an extra few million readers.
Source:Ryerson Review of Journalism (article not available online)
