A guide to Ana
Ana Diaz is a internet culture and video games journalist based in New York. She has written for NPR, Wired, Business Insider, The Verge, and many other publications.
Her work focuses on video games and social media trends (and the intersections between the two). Scroll on to learn a bit more about her and her work.
From Tumblr to digital journalism
My first foray into online life started with running a successful fan blog dedicated to The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon on Tumblr in 2011. Fast forward to today, and I engage these same passions by reporting on video games, fandom communities, and online culture as a journalist, writer, and editor.
Some of my favorite games
Being online can be overwhelming. I can help you figure it all out.
As a games, culture, and service writer at Polygon for over four years and a freelance writer and podcast host for more than ten, I juggled roles and responsibilities needed while working at lean websites. I researched and identified SEO trends on Google, created my own graphics and art, pitched my own stories, and produced quality writing that informed and entertained the website's audience.
I bring a deep understanding of digital and consumer trends on platforms like TikTok and over a decade of expertise on massive video game franchises like Pokémon, Genshin Impact, and The Legend of Zelda. I understand what makes fans tick, and why certain trends stick.
As seen in...
Roblox for Adults? Dress to Impress Draws a Crowd.
What does it take to become a Top Model? In the real world, joining the ranks of the modeling elite requires determination, discipline, a supportive agency and a whole lot of luck. But in the world of Dress to Impress, a wildly popular online game, it demands a very different set of skills.Produced by a loose collective of young developers, known only by their usernames, and released in November of last year on the online gaming platform Roblox, Dress to Impress has quickly become one of the pla...
What does a TikTok "ban" mean, exactly? | CBC Arts
You may have seen the headlines about the so-called TikTok "ban" that U.S. president Joe Biden recently signed.It's not a ban, exactly, but what it means for the future of the hugely popular app remains unclear. Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud chats with culture writer Ana Diaz from Polygon to find out what exactly is going on, and what TikTok users can expect going forward. You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elami...
The hype for a fake movie, 'Zepotha,' goes viral on Tiktok
There's a hit movie getting rave reviews on TikTok — except it is not a real movie. The movie Zepotha doesn't exist. What does this say about the sway, and of viral culture?LEILA FADEL, HOST: Folks on social media are hyping up a cult classic horror movie from the '80s. But here's the catch - the movie, it doesn't exist.MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: It's called "Zepotha." And it is the brainchild of an 18-year-old musician from Oxford, England, named Emily Jeffri. Just a few nights ago, she made a post...
Numlock Sunday: Ana Diaz on the biggest pop culture release of the year
This week, I spoke to Ana Diaz of Polygon all about the new Legend of Zelda game and a fascinating new app that’s poised to change the way manga is consumed in America. Here’s what I wrote about her story about the latter: Ana’s work is excellent, and I wanted to talk to her about this smash-hit game release and why it’s not getting the kind of coverage from mainstream cultural publications that a movie of a similar scope would enjoy. Ana can be found at Polygon, and she’s also on both TikTok an...
What Charli XCX’s Roblox Concert Reveals About the Future of the Music Industry
Two Fridays ago, I rode a hoverboard around a giant facsimile of Charli XCX’s body and bounced on a smartphone as if it were a trampoline. This all happened in Samsung’s Superstar Galaxy, a virtual concert experience featuring the pop star, staged in the online games platform Roblox to promote a silly-looking flip phone. For five weeks before the performance, participants could roam around a gleaming white space station, completing mini-challenges in order to unlock virtual prizes like a Charli...
Numlock Sunday: Ana Diaz on the box office smash hit of the pandemic era
This week, I spoke to Ana Diaz of Polygon, who wrote “Demon Slayer has biggest US foreign-language box office debut ever”. Here's what I wrote about it:Demon Slayer has been a real delight to see, mainly because I’m incredibly fond of box office stories and the evolution of cinematic tastes, and this has been a pretty rough 15 months for that kind of storytelling. Demon Slayer has smashed all kinds of records, and has done so at a fascinating time. Beyond its hits at the box office, it’s also a...
Outside/In: Depicting the Natural World in Video Games
The open world environment of Skyrim is beautiful, and one of the most celebrated video game landscapes of all time. But an imagined world can be transformative ... and contain ideas about nature that are quite real.Open WorldsJustine ParadisThe world of Skyrim is vast. The open world video game contains cities, villages, and rugged wilderness: high waterfalls cascading into deep pools, packs of wolves roaming the edges of misty alpine forests, echoes in the canyons. The fifth installment of the...
Get in touch
anadiazwrites@gmail.com