By Todd Russell
Here’s something we should be talking about more than we are.
There’s a somewhat pervasive problem these days with conflicts of interest in social media as well as some (many?) gaming publications and streamers: lack of proper disclosure.
Sure, disclosure often exists somewhere. Perhaps in italicized text at the beginning or ending of an article. Sometimes in the middle of a video, sometimes in the description.
And then sometimes there is no mention at all. But affiliate links when the source is being paid if you click and buy something exist. It makes everything you’re reading, watching somewhat of a game itself of cat and mouse. Can we trust what we’re seeing/reading? Or is this a cleverly placed commercial?
Once upon a time I worked for Microsoft as a paid contractor, on their Zune team. Remember the Zune? It was this serious underdog music player competing against the iPod.
Meanwhile I had a tech site that covered technology, including Microsoft and the Zune … I always disclosed this obvious conflict of interest. The difference really was I got the job because I was a fan of the Zune and sort of biased against (some) Apple products.
My job was filtering adult content out of the Zune podcasts which I subcontracted out and paid somebody else. It was a VERY good paying contract. Everybody knew I worked as contract worker on the Zune team because I mentioned it constantly and to take any opinion after I worked there with a total grain of salt. It didn’t stop me from criticizing the Zune and when the Zune failed and my contract ended, it didn’t really change any content about the Zune or my criticism toward why it failed. A lot of Microsoft products fail because they simply give up on them too soon.
There were NDA things I learned about the Zune and my readers knew I could not release this information. As employees or even contract workers like I was, there are rules we need to follow to keep the job — and prevent legal action. And I always explained when something came into NDA territory .. there is no such thing as an NDA for the NDA itself … but people somehow seem to think there is.
Disclosure that you have an NDA is very, very important if you also report on or comment on the very company you have this NDA with. Why don’t some people realize there is a huge difference between joining a secret group and having a job, being employed … both of those are important for others to now when you have/make opinions or commentary or release “news” on a business you have a financial relationship with?
These “influencer” issues don’t just plague the games community, btw, but it’s important to note the source.
PGM readers should already know we don’t have any NDA connections or relationships at the time of this writing at this publication. We don’t have advertisers. We don’t even have affiliate or referral links and actively seek to strip them out of cited sources and links. Is there author bias? Of course. We all have some sort of personal biases. Hopefully, those biases are shared when, where appropriate and relevant so readers can judge appropriately.
The warning to readers is clear: watch who you trust out there on the world wide web. An increasing amount of sources are neither trustworthy or reliable, unless you want to rely on them pitching some sort of product or service, probably something we don’t need.