The GamerGate controversy and journalistic paradigm maintenance

GamerGate is a viral campaign that became an occasion, particularly from August 2014 to January 2015, to both question journalistic ethics and badger women involved in game development and gaming criticism. Gaming journalists thus found themselves managing a debate on two fronts: defending the probity of gaming journalism and remediating attacks on women. This study explores how gaming journalists undertook paradigm maintenance in the midst of the controversy. This was analyzed through interviews with gaming journalists as well as a discourse analysis of the texts responding to GamerGate that were produced by their publications. Although gaming journalists operate within a form of lifestyle journalism, the journalists repaired their paradigm by linking their work to traditional journalism and emphasizing a paternal role.