We have been taught and socialized not to see it and to think of our own experiences as universal. This blindness allows many men to remain blissfully unaware of what roughly half of all gamers experience on a daily basis. One of the luxuries of being a member of the dominant group is that the benefits afforded us often remain invisible to us. As in the rest of society, male privilege can manifest in both overt and subtle ways inside gaming culture. The term may sound a little bit like academic jargon, but it’s useful in helping describe the set of unearned advantages men automatically receive, and which women do not given the same social circumstances. This phenomenon is often referred to as Male Privilege.

When women as a group are systematically targeted by discrimination, it means that men are elevated by default. We can't work to fix something unless we first see and understand its effects. Working towards solutions requires that, as male gamers, we become aware of the ways in which we unconsciously benefit from sexism. It’s not all bad news though as a result of the expanding discussion in and about gaming spaces, it’s been encouraging to see a small but growing number of male gamers who seem to genuinely want to understand the problem and be part of the solution. We can't work to fix something unless we first see and understand its effects The fact that a great number of women have been speaking out about how they experience prejudice, alienation or worse on a fairly regular basis seems to hold little weight. Despite the abundance of evidence, I’ve seen many of my fellow male gamers, in comment thread after comment thread, dismiss the issue as 'no big deal' and insist that everyone is essentially treated the same. One particularly astounding theme I’ve noticed running through online discussions surrounding these incidents has been a consistent denial that there is any real problem with the way women are treated in gaming. This backlash, along with a number of other recent high-profile harassment incidents targeting women, has highlighted sexism in the gaming community and brought the issue to wider public and media attention. During that time, I have been taken aback by the intense and often abusive reaction to the project. Therefore, the infrequent and unbalanced coverage should be changed and improved.Over the course of the past two years I’ve had the opportunity to serve as producer on the Tropes vs Women in Video Games web series. This could lead to both little knowledge and to false knowledge about the video game industry, Norway´s biggest cultural export, which could both affect its potential future success, and the understanding of the industry, games, gaming and players in the public. In general, the Swedish coverage is more positive and balanced than the Norwegian coverage, while the Norwegian coverage is more negative and sensationalist. This difference in coverage was influenced by the financial crisis, which changed the Norwegian coverage entirely, but did not alter the Swedish coverage as much. Second, the Norwegian media tries to bust myths about the industry, games and players, while the Swedish media keeps the myth of the game wonder alive. This could make the Norwegian industry less important for the public, politicians and investors. First, the Norwegian video game industry is invisible, but “the Swedish game wonder”, which the Swedish industry is called, is not. It does so by using a theoretical framework mainly consisting of discourse theory, agenda-setting theory and framing, and by using the methods of content analysis and critical discourse analysis (CDA). AbstractThis thesis studies the differences in the Norwegian and Swedish media coverage of the international and national video game industries, and the possible consequences of said differences.

Invisible video game