Zombie Media 79
more towards circumspection, although the dominant trend was to reject the claims of pro-Gamergate activists as spurious, as with “Feminist
critics of video games facing threats in ‘Gamergate’ campaign” (Nick
Wingfield, The New York Times) or “What is #Gamergate and why
are women being threatened about video games?” (Ellana Dockterman,
Time). Almost without exception, the notion that Gamergate was anything other than a misogynist movement (one, for example, actually
concerned with ethics in computer games journalism) was dismissed
completely by the mainstream media.
By contrast, activities on social media – most notably Twitter – as
well as forums and bulletin boards displayed a much more diversified
set of opinions, ones which moved quickly to antagonism and hate
on both sides to a lesser or greater degree. Andy Baio at The Message
conducted an analysis of 72 hours of Gamergate-related activity on
Twitter in October 21–23, 2014, culling over 300,000 tweets collected
at a time when Gamergate and its related hashtag NotYourShield (a reference to not being able to use other minorities as a shield to attack
pro- Gamergaters) were trending.
13
Of the not-inconsiderable morass of
tweets some two months into what Baio – expressing his own bias very
clearly – called a “train wreck”, approximately 69 per cent were retweets
leaving just under a hundred thousand as original tweets, with some
17,410 users posting original messages over three days. Baio noted that
the most retweeted users were pro-Gamergate, with ten times as many
tweets being reposted by a larger, veritable army of pro-Gamergate supporters (although, Baio also pointed out, the most popular individual
tweets were by anti-Gamergate individuals such as the former NFL
player and gamer, Chris Kluwe). Baio’s final estimate was that between
90 and 95 per cent of tweets took a very clear stance for or against the
movement, and that there was virtually no crossover between the two
sides, indicating a clear polarity that made this a microcosm of culture
wars in the United States.
It is worth repeating that support for Gamergate does not indicate
any intrinsic link to what would be more clearly labelled alt-right two
years later. Many of those involved were against certain types of progressivism though not automatically for white supremacism (and, indeed, anti-feminism seems to have been a much more immediate target,
hence #NotYourShield), a few may indeed have been concerned with
ethical questions, and an indeterminate number were trolls in it for the
lulz. Likewise, questionable tactics such as doxxing and death threats (if
not rape threats) were to be found among both pro- and anti-Gamergate
supporters, although they seemed more common among the former –
perhaps because the former was a more vocal group on social media.
While bearing both these points in mind, however, it is significant that
some of the patterns that emerged during the Gamergate controversy,
most notably the mobilisation of opinion against a mainstream media
more towards circumspection, although the dominant trend was to reject the claims of pro-Gamergate activists as spurious, as with “Feminist
critics of video games facing threats in ‘Gamergate’ campaign” (Nick
Wingfield, The New York Times) or “What is #Gamergate and why
are women being threatened about video games?” (Ellana Dockterman,
Time). Almost without exception, the notion that Gamergate was anything other than a misogynist movement (one, for example, actually
concerned with ethics in computer games journalism) was dismissed
completely by the mainstream media.
By contrast, activities on social media – most notably Twitter – as
well as forums and bulletin boards displayed a much more diversified
set of opinions, ones which moved quickly to antagonism and hate
on both sides to a lesser or greater degree. Andy Baio at The Message
conducted an analysis of 72 hours of Gamergate-related activity on
Twitter in October 21–23, 2014, culling over 300,000 tweets collected
at a time when Gamergate and its related hashtag NotYourShield (a reference to not being able to use other minorities as a shield to attack
pro- Gamergaters) were trending.
13
Of the not-inconsiderable morass of
tweets some two months into what Baio – expressing his own bias very
clearly – called a “train wreck”, approximately 69 per cent were retweets
leaving just under a hundred thousand as original tweets, with some
17,410 users posting original messages over three days. Baio noted that
the most retweeted users were pro-Gamergate, with ten times as many
tweets being reposted by a larger, veritable army of pro-Gamergate supporters (although, Baio also pointed out, the most popular individual
tweets were by anti-Gamergate individuals such as the former NFL
player and gamer, Chris Kluwe). Baio’s final estimate was that between
90 and 95 per cent of tweets took a very clear stance for or against the
movement, and that there was virtually no crossover between the two
sides, indicating a clear polarity that made this a microcosm of culture
wars in the United States.
It is worth repeating that support for Gamergate does not indicate
any intrinsic link to what would be more clearly labelled alt-right two
years later. Many of those involved were against certain types of progressivism though not automatically for white supremacism (and, indeed, anti-feminism seems to have been a much more immediate target,
hence #NotYourShield), a few may indeed have been concerned with
ethical questions, and an indeterminate number were trolls in it for the
lulz. Likewise, questionable tactics such as doxxing and death threats (if
not rape threats) were to be found among both pro- and anti-Gamergate
supporters, although they seemed more common among the former –
perhaps because the former was a more vocal group on social media.
While bearing both these points in mind, however, it is significant that
some of the patterns that emerged during the Gamergate controversy,
most notably the mobilisation of opinion against a mainstream media