Open Letter to the Mainstream Media: How to Cover Star Wars News

Hello, mainstream media. It’s me, Eric. Since you’ve already started writing a lot of stories about Star Wars, I thought it would be a good idea for us to clarify a few things. Some of your reporters may have never seen a Star Wars movie, but they still ought to employ proper journalistic skills in covering developments pertaining to the franchise. Let’s review a few of the do’s and don’ts so that you don’t have to make embarrassing mistakes and I don’t have to go on Twitter and criticize and/or mock you (usually both).

Do...

Double-check your spelling, grammar, and formatting. Club Jade’s Star Wars style guide is a thorough, excellent resource, but I want to highlight a few exceptionally annoying mistakes. First, it’s not Wookie like cookie; it’s Wookiee, with an extra “e.” The omission of an article can mean the difference between referring to an ongoing animated TV show (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and referring to a decade-old show set in the same timeframe (Star Wars: Clone Wars). Here’s one that really grinds my gears: It’s not LucasFilm, LucasFilms, or Lucas Films; it’s Lucasfilm, with a lower-case “f,” no space, and no “s” at the end. Speaking of which, LucasArts (emphasis added) is the video game publishing arm of Lucasfilm and is not responsible for making any decisions about the new Star Wars films. Which brings us to…

Verify your facts. You don’t want to end up like The Associated Press, which published a story that said that Episode VII was “set for a 2014 release” when the actual projected release year is 2015. This is especially important given your status as respected, enduring journalistic institutions. When the AP says something, I tend to believe it until I’m told otherwise. Fans jumped at the AP’s story because some of them thought that the release of Episode VII had been moved up a year. If you make that kind of mistake, it will light a firestorm among Star Wars fans for absolutely no reason, and I’d rather not have to sit through that again.

Try to get a fan perspective. All of you have deadlines. I understand that. However, it is always nice to see comments from members of the fan community in your articles. Even if you don't end up using most (or any) of the material that you gather from interviewing a fan, you'll be better-informed personally as a result of the conversation. You might even learn something that will help you write your next Star Wars-related article. If you're an entertainment reporter and you find yourself covering Star Wars on a regular basis during this new Sequel Trilogy era, talking to fans can make your job a whole lot easier. Think of Star Wars fans as a vast, diverse resource into which you can tap for both your article and your personal edification.
 

Don’t...

Make assumptions about fans or fan opinions.

@ericgeller Remember that women like Star Wars too. And treat fans like humans instead of assuming they’re antisocial freaks.
— Jessica Molinaro (@TheSenator) January 30, 2013

That Star Wars fans are not all single male nerds living in our parents’ basements should be so obvious as to not require even a passing reminder. (And yet here I go reminding you. I’m not taking any chances.) Suffice it to say that the Star Wars fan community, like any other group of people united by a common interest, is diverse enough to contain all types. True, some of us give the rest of the community a bad name. But most of us are mature, respectable, responsible human beings who don't let our passion for Star Wars consume us, even if we do let it define part of who we are.

Demographic stereotyping is bad, but how you characterize fans is actually less important and potentially harmful than how you characterize fan opinion. These days, most rational people realize that pejorative definitions of "nerds" and "geeks," with their connotations of anti-social behavior and an unhealthy fixation, are inaccurate. As unacceptable as it is, ill-informed journalists stereotyping us is no longer our main concern. The more damaging mistake you can make involves stereotyping what we think about the Star Wars franchise.

To my knowledge, no one has ever conducted a survey of the entire population of Star Wars fans, nor has anyone ever taken a scientifically rigorous poll of Star Wars fans. With that in mind, it would be irresponsible of you to make any statement in your article that either implies or outright asserts that most fans disliked, or were disappointed by, the Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I, II, and III). Such a claim would be unsubstantiated, and unsubstantiated claims –– especially when they’re also inflammatory –– contribute nothing to the business of reporting the news. Just because you hated the Prequels, just because eight of your friends also hated the Prequels, doesn’t mean that most people hated the Prequels.

Overdose on the clichés and puns. Each of your newsrooms gets to write three headlines per month containing some variation of either “The Force is with [X]” or “[X] Strikes Back.” Use them wisely.

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If you read and understood all of these tips, you can proceed with confidence. Your articles about Star Wars won't make me want to gouge out my eyeballs in frustration. Considering how critical I am of mainstream media writers covering Star Wars news, that's really saying something.