Text Tree: A Week of Interviews on New Media v1.5
How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, Wes? That’s incorrect, I’m sorry — from what we hear, it takes ‘thuree.’ Okay, sorry, we couldn’t help ourselves. The gentleman you see above getting ready to grab you by the face is Wesley Johnson, owner/proprietor/grand poobah/etc. of Insulin Funk. What is Insulin Funk you ask? Well, it’s the depression that sets in from insulin withdrawals when you have diabetes and are jonesin’ for some shots. No! It’s a website dedicated to film, comics, videogames and assorted other media. Aside from his ‘grand poobah’-related responsiblities, Wes is also one of the two main hosts of the JPAGcast, a ‘podcast based on a Facebook group based on a podcast’ that I may or may not have guested on myself a couple of times. His take on new forms of content delivery in game coverage is from the side of a passionate enthusiast — a lot like us. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments
(GEEK): As a freelance journalist and having hosted/been a part of a variety of gaming podcasts, could you explain why you think podcasting is an important approach for games coverage, and more specifically, games journalism?
Gaming news sites are often pigeonholed as enthusiast press, right? Well, enthusiasm can only be reflected so much in the written word. Hearing an “enthusiast” express his or her enthusiasm audibly is often more entertaining than reading their words. That’s not to say podcasting is more valuable than print, though. That’s not true at all. A good podcast will assist your readers in getting to know you which will in turn make them value your writing more.
(GEEK): In your time as a games journalist/games enthusiast, you’ve seen games writers laid off or resign for other ventures (be they game-related or otherwise). It could be said that the cutbacks we’ve seen budget-wise in games journalism are symptomatic of changing business models that are affecting journalism on the whole. In that regard, do you believe publishing entities in games writing are adequately adapting to changing business models?
If you’re talking print then I’d say they aren’t adapting but assimilating. This is the case for journalism in general, not just gaming. Premiere Magazine and PC Magazine both abandoned print to focus exclusively on the web. While they’ve found success in doing so, they still gave up their first love which I found incredibly sad. EGM, of course, was shut down all together which was even sadder. Something must be done to preserve print journalism or else we will have no quick reads for our bathroom time.
(GEEK): And finally, what else do you believe we should be doing, as journalists, to pursue better coverage going forward? What should we be doing better?
Excessive snark is the one negative aspect of modern journalism that infuriates me. A co-contributor at a music blog I once wrote for published an interview in which he referred to members of our audience unfamiliar with an obscure branch of philosophy as being “more stupid/less informed”. Even if there was no malice intended, it still sounded awful. Snarky writing should only be done in moderation.
Since I’m technically a rookie in the industry I’ve yet to experience the spoils of companies bombarding me with free games. I did manage to score a copy of Pop Star Guitar for the Wii but that was hardly a treat. If any game company wishes to give me a taste of that life feel free to inquire at Insulinfunk.net.
