{"id":950,"date":"2018-12-13T21:34:02","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T21:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/convergencemag\/?p=950"},"modified":"2023-04-05T18:18:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T18:18:16","slug":"anything-but-soft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/anything-but-soft\/","title":{"rendered":"Anything but soft: Arts reporting fights for the respect it deserves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ross Lopes<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the world of news reporting, all beats tend to intersect at some point. Travel journalism intersects with environmental studies and cultural politics. Business journalism intersects with economics and technology studies. The same applies to entertainment journalism, which intersects with politics, social sciences and cultural issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, Taylor Swift \u2014 who is known for keeping her political thoughts to herself \u2014 shared a statement on Instagram in support of the Democratic party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USA Today reported on the statement. Maeve McDermott wrote, \u201cit\u2019s something she needed to do \u2026 Swift\u2019s letter is a sign of positive growth \u2014 that beyond just stumping for women\u2019s issues and LGBTQ rights, she\u2019s now willing to do more to advance these causes by publicly supporting candidates who back these ideas, even if that means potentially upsetting fans with opposing political views.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Taylor Swift posted on her Instagram account her political views on the midterm elections. Swift has kept her political views to herself, and this is the first time she has addressed them to the public. Taylor Swift\/Instagram.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By the end of November, Swift topped the list of The Most Influential Women on Twitter for 2018.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t the first time celebrities have been seen crossing over into other areas of news, but it is important to know who is behind covering these stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s media, the beat of entertainment or arts reporting seems to be undermined and criticized, and some journalists are even being referred to as \u201cnews personalities.\u201d Yet, many industry insiders say entertainment journalism should be held to the same standard of ethical, honest, and factual reporting as any other beat-journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStorytelling, regardless of the topic, requires the same skill set,\u201d Barbara Caines, the Journalism Program Coordinator at Seneca College, says. \u201cJournalists need to be able to focus their story through a subject who is actively doing something of news value and they need to find out the motive behind the action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a report from the Ethics Advisory Committee of The Canadian Association of Journalism (CAJ), any journalistic piece should meet three major criteria. There\u2019s purpose, which means evidence-based research and verification that helps to inform communities about topics they value. There\u2019s also the element of creation; all journalists’ work must contain elements of original production. Finally, there\u2019s method, meaning the piece should provide an accurate and fair description of facts or opinion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CAJ\u2019s definition of journalism states: \u201cAll three criteria must be met in order for an act to qualify as journalism. Failure to pass any one of these tests means that the act in question is not journalism, and only journalists will meet \u2013 or, at least, attempt to meet \u2013 all these criteria consistently, fully and deliberately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caines says new journalists starting to learn about these fundamentals want to be taught the skills needed, such as being trained on live reporting and asking open-ended questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI find young journalists are extremely grounded and know the hard work that\u2019s ahead of them,\u201d she says. \u201cWhile we teach students to report on all subject matter, they are also encouraged to pursue their interests in entertainment \u2014 or other [journalism] \u2014 through a fair and balanced approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centennial College expects the same standards of reporting relating to imaging, video, analytics, data journalism, mobile technology, but goes a step further and teaches young journalists how to layer on different beats, Barry Waite, Chair of Communications, says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe believe very much in arts and entertainment as a discipline, but from the perspective of the [young journalists] we\u2019re talking to, we\u2019re seeing it more as a skill that someone with journalism training wants to add on to,\u201d Waite says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centennial is developing a course specifically for Arts and Entertainment Journalism<\/a> which will include courses that fit the CAJ\u2019s standard of journalistic practice. Waite says it will also teach young journalists about developing their critical voice and help them learn about different types of photographic or video work, specifically relating to red carpet photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a legitimate profession that is going to continue [and have] a demand about it because people are always going to be interested in the whole gambit of arts and entertainment, whether it be very serious theatre down to sitcoms on TV,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kamal Al-Solaylee, a Ryerson Journalism professor and former theatre critic for the Globe and Mail, says he fell into the craft of journalism and was seduced by the world of covering theatre, film and concerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Solaylee says the heart and soul of writing arts content is criticism or reviewing, which means honing the skill of one\u2019s critical voice. That\u2019s something that\u2019s very unique to arts journalism, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people might think that art\u2019s a very soft subject, [that] it\u2019s about meeting celebrities and chatting and going to the theatre all the time and actually, what I\u2019ve noticed, is that it is such an under-recognized or unappreciated reporting,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One publication in particular that captivated the teenage audience using this form of arts journalism, and is starting to gain recognition, is Teen Vogue<\/a>. The magazine, which was once known for being just a fashion magazine for teenage girls, has made the switch to covering cultural and political topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophie Gilbert, writing in Atlantic magazine, said, \u201cIn many ways, Teen Vogue is simply doing what a fashion magazine does best: observing trends and disseminating them. But it\u2019s also giving young women valuable information about issues they care about, not to mention taking them \u2014 and their manifold interests \u2014 seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Teen Vogue\u2019s August issue talks about the accomplishments three diverse women in the modeling and fashion world. Teen Vogue says \u201ceach accomplishment plays a major role in a progressive sea change that positions diverse faces at the forefront of fashion.\u201d Photo by Teen Vogue. (Photo courtesy of Teen Vogue).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

However, Al-Solaylee says some mainstream entertainment programs lack journalistic standards, such as Entertainment Tonight or E Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll that stuff is hardly journalism,\u201d he says. \u201cI would not call it journalism to begin with. It is basically celebrity PR and it\u2019s just packaged pieces. They never ask any tough questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Solaylee taught an arts journalism course at Ryerson for three years. At one point in his lessons, he showed an interview between Ben Mulroney and Michael Bubl\u00e9 as an example of how not to do an interview. Al-Solaylee says the piece was a vacuous and vapid interview, and Bubl\u00e9 was asked nothing about his music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the better investment is investing in sort of arts journalists and people who ask hard questions. There are many of them at the Globe and Mail \u2026 who are very ethical and take the role of art very seriously,\u201d Al-Solaylee says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I try to do in my arts journalism course is that I need to make [students] believe what they are doing is important \u2026 I think the incentives or the other route is to invest in good training for journalists. Ask them to ask tough questions,\u201d Al-Solaylee says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are tough questions to ask, and important stories to be told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early 2018,\u00a0 the Canadian music scene was rocked by allegations of sexual assault against Hedley, a popular band that had just been nominated in four categories at the Juno awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CBC\u2019s Judy Trinh followed the story. Her reporting involved talking to a woman who alleged she\u2019d been assaulted by the band\u2019s singer, and verifying as much as possible. She spoke to lawyers about the ongoing court case, and even the band\u2019s former drummer, who made accusations of his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reporting obviously meant asking tough questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hedley arrives at the Juno Awards on Sunday, April 1, 2012, in Ottawa, Ont. The band is set to head out on a Canadian tour. (THE CANADIAN PRESS\/AP\/Arthur Mola)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back in 1981, Salem Alaton worked for the Globe and Mail. He had an extensive career there writing in the features department, which included arts, entertainment and sometimes travel. For the past 15 years Alaton has been a journalism professor at Humber College. He agrees with Al-Solaylee\u2019s approach and says criticism is important for journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s programming by journalists that features no critical projective at all, absolutely we can come in and deconstruct that and be critical of it,\u201d Alaton says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Alaton says journalism has always been beholden to commercial enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you go back three centuries, newspapers were more or less shipping news and royal pronouncements, but even that, of course, is also a form of PR,\u201d he says. \u201cBut to say one thing is journalism and the other thing isn\u2019t journalism misses the point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaton says there\u2019s always been some version of \u201cinfotainment\u201d in the news. News can be entertaining, but the work still has to be careful, accurate, serious and professionally produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe arts are important; entertainment is one of those words that may be a little bit self-trivializing,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen it\u2019s called entertainment, it doesn\u2019t sound as if it has much nutrition in it. But it can, and it does.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alaton says that even big, hard news-focused outlets even sometimes focus on entertainment. He was a cultural correspondent in New York City in the late \u201980s. The New York Times ended up deciding to put a picture of a Broadway show on its front page because Madonna was one of the actors in the play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, what\u2019s the big deal?\u201d Alaton asked. He says because Madonna had such a cultural pull, the New York Times \u2014 which he says is known as \u201cbeing ostensibly the most serious and the most reserved publication on the continent\u201d \u2014 had to feature it in their publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat would never have happened if Madonna had not been part of that show,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Errol Nazareth, the host of Big City Small World on CBC Radio One<\/a>, has been a music journalist for over 20 years, and a radio professor at Humber College. He says he doesn\u2019t see this type of arts coverage anymore. He also says over the last ten years he\u2019s noticed news outlets dedicating less space to traditional entertainment and music journalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the \u201990s, when Nazareth worked at the  Toronto Sun, he says, \u201cThey had a full-time music writer that focused on all the big bands that came to town, had someone that \u2026 would write strictly about the independent music scene \u2026 and I was writing about hip-hop and world music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nazareth says that there\u2019s a different focus in entertainment journalism now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have that [anymore],\u201d he says. \u201cNow they\u2019re trying to fill the pages of celebrity journalism, like what Kim Kardashian is doing and what\u2019s Kanye doing. I don\u2019t see much substance in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Solaylee says arts writing in Canada is still very much focused on American culture, and there just isn\u2019t enough coverage of what Canadian artists are doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of great stuff happening in Canadian film, in Canadian theatre, in Canadian music. And by that I don\u2019t mean just the Ryan Reynoldses or the Justin Biebers \u2026 I just find that it\u2019s such a shame that our \u2014 at least our mainstream media \u2014 pays so little attention to it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Evan Goldberg, left, and Seth Rogen stand by their star at the 2018 Canada Walk of Fame during a red carpet event in Toronto on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2018. (Photo courtesy of Chris Young \/ THE CANADIAN PRESS).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nazareth says one reason this is the case is the introduction of the internet and how people are now consuming their news. From what Nazareth has seen, publications are filling entertainment sections with fluff pieces like \u201cTop 5 tweets from 5 different celebrities.\u201d He says this shouldn\u2019t discredit or undermine journalists, because journalists have simply been pushed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMajor papers feel like, \u2018Hey, you know give the people what they want,\u2019 and if people want more information on Kim Kardashian and Kanye West and Lady Gaga, then people just feed this stuff to them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nazareth says journalism has come to a stage where mainstream media is hurting, television is hurting, and everyone is hurting. He says publications are just trying to find \u201cclicks\u201d or views for their publications in order to gain advertising dollars. But, he says, not all hope is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any plan to undermine [journalism],\u201d he says. \u201cI think those of us who are in the trenches are still doing it and still using whatever few platforms we have to get the word out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ross Lopes In the world of news reporting, all beats tend to intersect at some point. Travel journalism intersects with environmental studies and cultural politics. Business journalism intersects with economics and technology studies. The same applies to entertainment journalism, which intersects with politics, social sciences and cultural issues. In October, Taylor Swift \u2014 who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[353],"tags":[286,287,284,285,19],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",853,640,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online-170x120.jpg",160,113,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online-768x576.jpg",696,522,true],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",696,522,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",853,640,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",853,640,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",150,113,false],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",200,150,false],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",300,225,false],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",324,243,false],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",480,360,false],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",696,522,false],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",853,640,false],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/ENT.JRNL-Canadawalkoffame-online.jpg",853,640,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"convergencemag","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/author\/convergencemag\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ross Lopes In the world of news reporting, all beats tend to intersect at some point. Travel journalism intersects with environmental studies and cultural politics. Business journalism intersects with economics and technology studies. The same applies to entertainment journalism, which intersects with politics, social sciences and cultural issues. In October, Taylor Swift \u2014 who…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4256,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/4256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/convergencemag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}