Celebrity Journalism and “Tabloid” Games

Reuters is reporting that Americans think the media needs to chill out on the celebrity gossip.

This is based on a Pew Research Center for People & the Press study that showed 87% thought celebrity issues enjoyed too much coverage. They blame television for most of this and the Internet for little. This surprised me. Not because TV was the worst, but because 50cent banner ads and Paris Hilton news links seem to be a Net staple. Some of these banner ads have a game mechanic built in like, “Help Britney shave her head and get a pink Razr.” After the player uses a cartoon razor to make sure Britney’s head is thoroughly shorn, they “win” by being directed to an affiliate marketing site. 50 Cent is currently suing for such a game based on himself. In this game the player is encouraged to “shoot the rapper” to win a prize.

So, ads like these have an interactive mechanic and they are based on current events. Does that make them newsgames? Maybe. Zach Wahlen of Gameology.org wrote a great article suggesting that certain newsgames follow a form and function in line with tabloid news. He focused primarily on Game Show Network’s website, which has released a series of flash games on things like Mel Gibson’s drinking incident, the Mark Foley scandal, and Paris Hilton’s trip to prison. This is my favorite observation from the article:

Not only do most of these GSN games rely on celebrities and sex, but like tabloid news, they also revolve around a hook or punchline and are more concerned with framing a reaction to something having happened rather than reporting what actually did happen. In other words, when I call these tabloid gaming, I mean that not only in terms of their content but also their form. These are designed to grab your attention amidst a swirling, debris-filled solar system of casual games on the web. If they succeed in doing so, it’s through the audacity or relevance of their hook, not the quality of their production (which is relatively high, incidentally).

At this point, I’m not necessarily for a hard and fast taxonomy when it comes to newsgames. Instead, I like Wahlen’s point. As games with news content arise, we can evaluate their content and form through a lens that we use for other forms of media as well.