2017 Winners
Jump to:
– Excellence in News Reporting
– Excellence in Feature Writing: Announcement coming May 6
– Excellence in News Video/Streaming: Announcement coming May 8
– Excellence in College Gaming Journalism: Announcement coming May 10
– Excellence in eSports Writing: Announcement coming May 12
– Excellence in Feature Video/Streaming: Announcement coming May 14
News Reporting
First Place:
The Curious Case Of The 'EA Game Dev' Who Said He Received Death Threats
By Jason Schreier, Kotaku
Judges’ conclusions: The judges were highly impressed by the journalist fighting against misinformation which already made its way into mainstream media...
This story is a journalist figuring out fake news. USA Today, BBC, Yahoo and Vice covered something that really wasn’t a thing, and this person figured it out. And that’s fucking hardcore. This is journalism on journalism in a time that is so important. And who has the time to do that?
Another judge agreed, praising the journo for vetting sources even after most mainstream publications accepted false information without verifying...
He deserves the credit for digging into this because nobody would necessarily do that. By the time mainstream media got to this story, you get to this groupthink situation where everyone’s covered the story and trusted that someone else has vetted it and that didn’t happen. So I absolutely do think we should award it for vetting and calling it out. And he did talk to the guy, he did the full due diligence and tried to get him on the record. The whole nine yards, everything is there, and it’s very solid.
They noted that being in the niche industry of gaming journalism allowed the journo to understand things that journos outside the field could miss...
This story is emblematic of why games journalism needs to be more prominent. The folks at BBC and USA Today don't see these trends because they may not have the resources or know how to see these things, and here’s misinformation flowing into the ether because of that.
Unanimously, the judges felt this piece kicked ass. One felt that this piece covers the idea of “what journalism is supposed to be and that’s what I appreciate about it.”
It’s revealing the truth and digging down behind the lies. We have to commend that.
SECOND PLACE:
The Collapse Of Visceral's Ambitious Star Wars Game
By Jason Schreier, Kotaku
Judges’ comments: In terms of “breaking news reporting,” this piece hit the mark...
This is why I want to give this story second place: This story came out 10 days after the company shut down. That’s a lot of reporting to have done in 10 days. Maybe some of it was for the journalist’s book (he was writing on the same subject), maybe they were already working on this for months, but that doesn’t matter because it’s news. It’s a full breakdown with a bunch of context and a deep dive into the issue.
The judges appreciated that the story laid out the facts for a community looking for answers...
The community that followed this game was looking forward to it, this is the type of journalism that it seeks and hopefully answers its questions. This is very foundational. This is why we have journalism in the first place. Like if the pharmacy down the street shuts down, the questions you have are the questions this story answers.
Despite the number of anonymous sources, the judges felt it was justified given the context, and praised the journo’s due diligence...
Especially for the timing of this story, it’s a cool postmortem of this company. It’s really in-depth. There’s a lot of unnamed sources but it totally makes sense and I think it works in this situation. He did try to talk to EA, got quotes from EA, as much as they were willing to give. So all sides were there and it’s just a really well done narrative.
As a judge succinctly put...
We need more stories like this and more reporters like this.
THIRD PLACE:
IGN Staff Walk Out After Former Employee's Sexual Harassment Claims
By Jason Schreier, Kotaku
Judges’ comments: The judges didn’t have a lot to say about this piece, but they know journalism is up to snuff when they see it...
It is written with tons of context.
Going into more detail, this judge explained exactly what they enjoyed about this piece...
So you're covering news about a thing that happened and you're talking to the person that no longer works there and you've got all these sources and its short and it's quick and it has all the context I would want to have. This is solid, quick news.
Jason Schreier, congrats on being the first journalist to earn all three placements in a single category.