Deus Ex 1 and 3's Use of News Media

The Deus Ex series is not always subtle about its messages.

It is, in fact, at times almost amusingly blunt and inelegant. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love Deus Ex 1, 2, and 3, and so far I’m also quite enjoying Deus Ex 4 (this rant is being published in the midst of my playthrough of DE4). I love what they want to say, and I even love how they say it. But to pretend that Deus Ex is always graceful about its wish to awaken the sheeple is to be delusional. Most of the time, Deus Ex delivers its messages about the quiet subjugation of humankind by the secret elites in such a forthright, nakedly earnest fashion with its exposition and dialogue that it can actually be kind of funny. I mean, I think DE1 and its protagonist JC Denton are actually by now most recognized for their memes!

Nonetheless, the Deus Ex series has its subtle moments, too. Blunt, this-is-how-the-conspiracy-works dialogue may be their favored method of communication, but the games also frequently employ more skillful methods in informing their audience of the ways in which society is coralled and controlled. You may remember, for example, that I really liked how Deus Ex 2 showed the way those in control can manufacture and use artificial rivalries as a way to distract and manipulate the common man through the Queequeg and Pequod coffee chains (even if the pace of DE2’s events completely sabotaged that revelation’s power). And 1 of these subtler methods that I think Deus Ex executes very well is the way in which DE1 and 3 show that modern news media can be used to cover up all manner of clandestine malicious activities in the world.

Now, Deus Ex makes the point that major journalism corporations shouldn’t be trusted implicitly in a few different ways, and some of these strategies are straightforward and blunt, as one might expect. With 1 method, there are multiple scenes and pieces of dialogue which have society’s shadowy masters outright speaking of how they’ll direct media outlets to report on an event or situation with the express intention to deceive the public and incite them to act (or decline to act) in a specific desired way. Another way: there are also times through the series in which you can interact with various NPC members of the public, and their dialogue will reflect natural reactions to and thought upon the content of the recent news programs. While perhaps not as hamfistedly forward as the traditional anime-tastic “mysterious dark villain council sit and discuss their sinister plans in as awkwardly vague a manner possible” approach, this is still also a pretty forthright, almost crude method of making Deus Ex’s point about news media as a tool of conspirators. Deus Ex 3’s approach of letting you read various communications in a major media corporation’s offices about what can and can’t be reported on, and their stated goals on what paths of thought they want the populace to be treading, is somewhere between Method 1 and 2 in terms of clumsy forthrightness. And in Deus Ex 4, they have sidequest content just start actively screaming in your face that corporate media can’t be trusted; 90s anti-drug PSAs have more subtlety than DE4 on this matter.

These are all fine storytelling approaches, honestly, but at the same time, they’re also as surface-level, hit-you-over-the-head-with-it as...well, as your typical vocal conspiracy theorist. The problem with that is, we’ve reached an age when for every 1 actual, earnest truther sincerely trying to keep the public safe and informed, there’s at least 10 charlatans all parroting each other’s fabricated and/or misleading “evidence” so they can prey on the gullible for profit or political gain. And these countless snake-oil salesmen of information all mimic the style of the few authentic conspiracy theorists, so they, too, are gracelessly forward with their never-ending “this is how they do it, people, this is how they control the narrative!” statements. So...when I hear and read these blunt attacks that the Deus Ex series makes on mainstream journalism, my reaction is mostly a disinterested, “Yeah, gotcha, heard it before, can’t trust the news, move on. What else have you got?”

But Deus Ex 1 and especially 3 do have another way of communicating to the player their message of major news media’s agenda and deception, and this last method is really effective and great. They use the game’s flow of events itself to make their point, and let the player do the math him/herself. There are several points in the course of DE1 and especially 3 between major story arcs at which JC and Adam have the opportunity to traverse the city streets, spending some time exploring, talking to the random citizenry, engaging in sidequests, and so on. And 1 of the things you can have Adam and JC do during this time is to listen in on or read breaking news bulletins.

And very frequently, at least 1 recent news story will be about an incident that JC or Adam was just involved in during his last mission. Only, the article will inevitably report the incident incorrectly, whether it be downplaying whatever disruptions and destruction Adam/JC caused, attributing the events to someone else’s doing (usually whatever illegal or terrorist group is the most useful scapegoat), claiming that something completely different occurred, or outright denying that anything of interest happened whatsoever. It’s a really great way of calling the audience’s attention to Deus Ex’s message about media cover-up, not just because this shows it in action without having to holler a dissertation about it into your ear as DE usually does otherwise, but also because this has the immediate attraction of being something the player him/herself was actually involved in. Since Deus Ex makes sure in every mission to give the player a lot of agency about how to approach JC and Adam’s goals, making the execution of that mission far more personally involving, the fact that the headlines are misrepresenting the events of DE1 and 3’s stories becomes more noteworthy to the player. The natural response will be for him or her to think something along the lines of, “Wait, I was just there, I did all that. That’s not how it happened at all!” They’re not just misrepresenting the game’s lore and events, they’re misrepresenting the player’s own work, and that calls a natural attention that the normal “this is what’s happening and it’s bad” approach doesn’t command so easily.

Additionally, while neither Deus Ex 1 nor 3 leaves the purposes and dangers of journalism cover-ups ambiguous in their narratives, these moments of the player’s hearing about how his or her own actions are being hidden tend to come at the player’s own pace of exploration. Rather than a part of the game’s flow with a set, specific time of revelation, these reports are generally something the player naturally discovers him/herself while playing, which makes the process of Deus Ex communicating this idea of news media distrust feel more like the player having put it together him/herself, which is a more enjoyable and compelling way to receive the lesson than just having Deus Ex 3’s Alex Jones equivalent* hollering the message directly at you whenever you pass by a radio. Yes, you find them quite easily and at the times that the game’s narrative would like you to, so there’s perhaps not that much difference in the long run, but it at least feels appealingly like a reward for the player’s exploration and puzzle-solving diligence to find, recognize, and realize the falsehood of these headlines, and that makes the message more compelling.

It all comes back to the power of showing over telling, really. Now, I’m a proponent of doing both effectively, and Deus Ex as a whole is thankfully smart enough to both show and tell its messages in a variety of ways. But there’s no denying that showing almost always has the upper hand as a narrative device than just telling, and the way that Deus Ex handles its theme of news media manipulation is a fine example of this: the many instances of the games’ characters and communiques telling you about it are perfectly functional, but what really drives the point home is the headlines and broadcasts that show you the process in action. Deus Ex 1 and particularly 3 do a damn fine job with this, so I say kudos to their writers for their work.















* There’s an endorsement that didn’t age well. Although DE3’s only got itself to blame for backing that horse; it wasn’t really much more difficult to suss out that Jones was a profiteering blowhard joke back in 2011 than it is today.