Media Ethnography

The website that I probably visit the most on a daily basis is Kotaku. I think that Kotaku’s audience is more general than specific since they do a decent job at appealing to casual gamers and “hardcore” gamers. They even cover indie games that most of the other video game websites don’t, so they have that part of their audience covered as well. Most of the people who visit Kotaku also like anime too, which I’m assuming has a little something to do with the title of their blog. But I feel like Kotaku isn’t just a blog because it has such a large following. Yes, people are critical of it like people are critical of anything, but Kotaku has to be successful in at least one or two ways if they have such a large audience, which is important to look at.
Whatever interests the editors and the writers is what gets published at Kotaku; everything is informal. This might sound like a bad thing, but it leaves room for a more casual atmosphere and a more casual read. The site feels friendly and I feel like I’m having a conversation with the writers. I don’t mind that the articles are usually opinionated because I’m not looking for “hard news” when it comes to video games anyway. By imposing their opinion on their audience, they encourage a dialogue. Not only does the audience get a chance to read about what’s happening in the industry, but they also get to know the authors a little better too. Some audience members are critical of the way that Kotaku is run and say that it lacks journalistic integrity, but I think that these people forget that Kotaku isn’t some news giant that’s supposed to try to be objective. It is a blog, and arguably one of the better ones out there.
Kotaku’s posts are random and aren’t limited to specific content. Most of it is video game related, but this isn’t necessarily a must. Many of their posts are videos from YouTube, usually something comical having to do with video games, such as a mod. There are also video game reviews and videos from big game events like E3. I like when they take apart controllers or video game systems so people can see how they’re built. A lot of their posts are reposts from other tech websites, but they always attribute the source and provide a link to look at the content from its original place. Kotaku occasionally gets criticized for doing this instead of reporting things themselves, but I think that this is perfectly acceptable in an online atmosphere where information is shared everywhere. If Kotaku wasn’t posting content from other websites, I wouldn’t even know that those other websites exist. They even repost people’s blogs if they think that somebody had an interesting thought. I don’t see this as a negative so much as I see it as Kotaku moving along with changing media.
I think the main thing that Kotaku is trying to accomplish is a laid-back dialogue between its writers and its readers. They don’t take themselves too seriously and revel in all things comical. Although there is a lot of funny content on the site, it is also an intelligent forum where gamers can go to talk about things like Ayn Rand’s philosophy being used in Bioshock. They treat gaming more like a subculture than a hobby unlike many other news organizations.