How Video Game Journalists Cover Sexual Misconduct in the Industry

This extended abstract outlines a planned doctoral study examining how video game journalists covered the sexual misconduct crisis in the games industry, focusing on the 2021 lawsuit filed by California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Activision Blizzard over alleged gender and racial discrimination and sexual harassment. The core argument is that game journalists operate within a dependent relationship with the industry, receiving press access and advertising revenue in exchange for favorable coverage, and that this dependence may shape how they report on misconduct. Drawing on the concept of an "ideology of anxiety," the author proposes that journalists fear losing access and therefore engage in self-censorship, a tendency that could influence how the public understands the crisis.

The study proposes a thematic content analysis of more than 100 articles from 2021 to 2025, spanning mainstream U.S. news outlets and gaming-focused publications. The analysis would trace sources, frames, angles, newswriting practices, and rhetorical choices across the lawsuit's breaking news, its 2023 settlement, and subsequent fallout. Framing this as a bounded media event case study, the author plans to compare coverage between outlets with stronger and weaker industry dependencies, hypothesizing that gaming-focused press will rely more heavily on information mediated by industry public relations personnel.

The proposal also situates the current crisis within a longer history, linking it to the #GamerGate movement and the broader masculinization of video game culture, in which games journalism has historically framed the player as a cisgender white man. Ultimately, the research aims to clarify how journalists mediate information about misconduct, and whether their coverage might encourage meaningful accountability and reform in the industry or instead reinforce its existing structures.