Word out of the San Diego Comic-Con (the cool kids call it SDCC) is that the comic book website Newsarama won an Eisner award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism. I normally don’t put much stock into awards, but seriously, Newsarama, an award for journalism?
It seems to me that whoever decided Newsarama should win an award for journalism either does not know the meaning of the word journalism or didn’t get wind of the recent Heroes Con panel entitled, “Covering Comics: Criticism, Reportage, and Gossip“. Newsarama’s co-founder and current editor Matt Brady attended the panel and made some startling comments.
Among the many things Brady said was that there had been times where he had to think about the long term picture before breaking a story. He admitted that he sometimes worried about repercussions from the publishers if he (Newsarama) was the first to break certain stories. He said that sometimes he would ask himself if it was more prudent to “hang back” and allow certain stories to break elsewhere — like a blog or a rumor column — and comment on the story then.
I would think that if you are going to hang back and allow someone else break a story so that you don’t get flack from the Marvel or DC, you are not a comic book journalist. You are certainly not an award winning comic book journalist.
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They should have gotten an award for “Best presentation of press releases and no real journalism whatsoever” instead. Really, ‘Journalism’? Who are they kidding. It’s all spoon-fed pablum from the two main publishers, with the occasional interview thrown in. Do they even have journalists?
You can hang back and still perform journalism. Some of the first places to report a news item just shoot their wad on getting the secret out and don’t really follow up with it. My piece on Wizard & their profiting off the death of Captain America issue ran a week after the fit hit the shan and I still think it was journalism.
Kevin, what exactly did Newsarama do in the past year that not only could be considered journalism, but award winning journalism?
As far as the Captain American/Wizard Universe controversy, that story was first mentioned on Newsarama in a post/article by Vaneta Rogers on March 12, 2007.
I didn’t even know there was an Eisner award in this category until today.
Brian, I think this might be the first year they have had it.
It certainly seems like one of those “which of these things is not like the other” doesn’t it?