How did the pandemic lockdown affect the media’s outlook on gaming? A case study of Türkiye as an emerging market

In this work, we aim to research whether and how the perceptions of mainstream news media (specifically print-based news outlets) toward videogames, gamers, and gaming industry changed during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. During the lockdown, many individuals and families explored different options for home entertainment and distractions, and digital gaming proved to be one of the biggest outlets. Even sources like World Health Organization (WHO) recommended videogames as an effective way to keep people at home and prevent virus spread. Accordingly, mainstream news outlets’ approach to videogames coverage that was characterized as vilifying, biased, and portraying games as threat became more positive. We collect 3,566 news articles about videogames, gamers, and gaming industry from various Turkish news outlets over a period of 4 years and analyze them to capture this shift in an emerging market and industry. Our sentiment analysis reveals that although the negative coverage around games decreased post-pandemic, the positive coverage did not increase accordingly. The thematic coding revealed that games were less discussed regarding health risks and safety concerns post-pandemic, and more with their business potential. However, we still report a lack of nuance and depth.