Racial Diversity By Sandy Ong: Article Analysis

Magazine articles have numerous criterion thy can be evaluated upon ranging from an interesting and captivating title to the correct usage of grammar. Most Notably, an exemplary feature story in a popular magazine article is written by an author who is well informed about the topic and is a credible source, provides statistical and factual data that can validated, and informs an audience about the topic and its relevance in society. Published by Newsweek, the article “The Video Game Industry’s Problem with Racial Diversity”, written by Sandy Ong in 2016, meets most of the criteria to be somewhat of a commendable article.
Ong begins introducing a Mafia 3 and how it is different from most video games by having an African American protagonist.

In this case, Sandy Ong credibility elevates the article’s overall effectiveness. Although she does not explicitly say why she is qualified to write about this topic, she does have experience in this field. On the Newsweek Website, there is a page with numerous links to all of the articles written by Sandy Ong. According to that specific web page, Ong is known for writing numerous articles within the “Tech and Science” field. The knowledge and experience Ong has gained from all of the articles she has written within the field of technology and science qualifies her to write about topics such as the racial diversity issues in the video game industry. Although she never explains her credentials in the article, ultimately, Sandy Ong is qualified to write about this subject. Despite the author not explaining why she is qualified to write about the topic, News articles, for the most part, do not discuss the authors credibility within the article itself. The sum it all up, the article’s effectiveness is thereby elevated because it is written by a credible source who knows what their writing

Included in the article are bits of information found by research conducted by The International Game Developers Association, such as the fact that “only 3 percent of game developers are African-American” (Ong). Although not explicitly written in the article, Ong notes that the video game industry’s diversity levels are paralleled in the games that are created. In the article The Video Game Industry Has a Diversity Problem – But It Can Be Fixed includes that “industry representation [of Black, Asian and other minority ethnicities] stood at 4% in 2015” (Ramanan). In addition, Ong also included in the article data about racial diversity statistics of gamers organized by the Pew Research Center, which show the uneven balance of perspectives for game designers to people who play the games created. Likewise, in another academic journal, namely Gender and Racial Stereotypes in Popular Video Games, found that there were less than a quarter of each Black, Asian, and Hispanic minority groups of characters within the games that were in the study (Mou and Peng 925). Not only does this verify that Ong’s findings were accurate, but it also elevates the audience of perceiving Ong as a reputable source. Furthermore, to elevate the effectiveness of the article, the version online