Reporting the Arts study

[Jeanne Klein]

Thought CANDRAMA subscribers might be interested in this recent U.S. study.
 Note no mention of "theatre" here?

Jeanne Klein
University of Kansas

>Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 10:09:33 -0600
>From: Rick Jones <rjones at falcon.cc.ukans.edu>
>Subject: [advwatch] FW: Current, November 23, 1999
>To: Advocacy Watch <advwatch at onelist.com>

>Excerpts from the new Arts Wire Current.
____________________________________________________
>MAJOR STUDY ON NATIONAL ARTS REPORTING RELEASED
>
>Media coverage of television, movies and music dominate arts news
>at the expense of dance, architecture and the visual arts, and
>newspapers have come to rely on listings-heavy weekend sections as
>they struggle to keep pace with America's thriving arts scene.
>These are some of the findings of Reporting the Arts, News
>Coverage of Arts and Culture in America, a research report just
>released by the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) at
>Columbia University.
>
>"Journalistic coverage of the performing, visual and literary arts
>in the United States is almost always camouflaged or hybrid in
>form," the study observes. "Hence the sharp eye required for
>analyzing it. It appears under labels like 'Arts and Features,'
>'Arts and Leisure,' 'Arts and Entertainment,' 'Living/Arts,' 'Arts
>and Lifestyle,' and so forth .... At the heart of today's arts
>coverage and its packaging,  moreover,is a defiance of
>categorization. For the boundaries between the arts and mass
>entertainment are today relative and debatable."
>
>"The Columbia study proves what a lot of people have suspected all
>along -- that the nonprofit arts are not well served by the mass
>media," Oakland-based arts writer/art and telecommunications
>expert Gary Larson commented. "Ironically, newspapers tend to
>squander their critical energy, such as it is, on items of popular
>culture that are almost impervious to criticism, supported as they
>are by enormous marketing-and-promotion budgets."
>
>"But let's not shoot the messenger," Larson added. "To a certain
>extent, the media's general disregard for the arts reflects larger
>social and cultural values, and we all bear a measure of
>responsibility for that.  In terms of encouraging serious writing
>about the arts, the answer probably lies in online efforts,
>outside of the traditional media marketplace.  And curiously
>enough, such efforts will probably have to be underwritten by the
>same sources of public and private funding that support the same
>artists and institutions that the media so blithely ignore in the
>first place."
>
>Sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, REPORTING THE ARTS: NEWS
>COVERAGE OF ARTS AND CULTURE IN AMERICA is a comprehensive
>analysis of how the arts are reported in the mainstream press. The
>report reveals that while newspapers across the United States are
>maintaining a commitment to arts coverage, they do so principally
>with once- or twice-weekly entertainment sections dense with
>features and listings. In many newsrooms, arts journalism
>continues to be a lower priority than other fields such as
>business and sports. The study also describes battles being waged
>in many editorial offices as editors and journalists try to define
>the very nature of arts journalism.
>
>"We have more than doubled our staff in 30 years, while the number
>of Providence's arts organization has increased at a much greater
>rate," the study quotes Jack Major, Managing Editor, Features,
>THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL as saying. "So we have twice as large a
>staff, but we must have four or five times as many things that we
>have to cover. That s where the frustration is. There is not
>enough space and not enough people." Major also noted that the
>staff was all male with and there is only one minority hire who is
>also the only staff member under 30.
>
>With data assembled over the course of one month, October 1998,
>Reporting the Arts provides a detailed examination of 15 dailies
>in 10 cities across the country including Charlotte, Chicago,
>Cleveland, Denver, Houston, Miami, Portland, OR, Philadelphia,
>Providence, RI and the San Francisco Bay Area. Conspicuously
>absent is the Washington, DC area, where the WASHINGTON POST's
>arts coverage is consistently reliable on public policy arts
>issues.
>
>The study also looks at how the arts and culture are handled by
>three national papers -- THE NEW YORK TIMES which it calls "a
>leader in arts journalism for most of the 20th century"; THE WALL
>STREET JOURNAL; and USA TODAY. Additionally it examines arts
>reporting by the Associated Press and network television.
>
>Among the key findings:
>
>The visual arts, architecture, dance and radio get only cursory
>coverage. The visual arts are rarely covered by a full-time
>staffer. By contrast, television, movies, music and books are
>usually heavily covered.
>
>There are indications that public radio and local alternative
>weekly newspapers sometimes take the arts more seriously than
>metropolitan daily newspapers.
>
>Mechanically generated content, such as listings, constitutes
>close to 50% of arts and entertainment coverage.
>
>Big city newspapers cover the arts in more detail and in greater
>diversity than those in smaller cities.
>
>Local museums and major civic not-for-profit institutions that
>have mastered the technique of the blockbuster presentation win
>prominent coverage, even in competition with the entertainment
>industry's publicity machine.
>
>The daily Arts & Living section lags behind both business and
>sports as a priority on almost every newspaper,both in its
>allotment of pages and of staff.
>
>Network television arts journalism is concentrated in their
>morning programs, not their nightly newscasts or their prime time
>magazines. Publishing is the most frequently covered medium,and
>the book-tour interview with the author is the dominant format.
>
>In addition to providing a comprehensive picture of mainstream
>arts coverage, the study attempts an overview of the arts
>environment and arts growth in the areas which it covers --
>detailing for instance the influence of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg
>Arts & Science Council in Charlotte, NC and the role of the Rhode
>Island School of Design in Providence, and noting that in the San
>Francisco Bay area: "In the dead of winter, snowed-in Bostonians
>or Minnesotans might opt for a cozy visit to museums or the
>theater. But Bay Area residents can always choose a hike at
>Stinson Beach,followed by citrus risotto at gourmet restaurant
>Chez Panisse. The great outdoors and a thriving culture of food
>compete with the arts year-round"
>
>The primary authors and researchers of the 140-page study are:
>Michael Janeway, NAJP's Director and former editor of the BOSTON
>GLOBE; Daniel S. Levy, author, senior reporter for TIME magazine
>and former NAJP fellow; Andras Szanto, NAJP's associate director
>and a sociologist of culture and media; and Andrew Tyndall, media
>researcher and publisher of the TYNDALL REPORT.
>
>Because, in addition to providing background on the arts climate
>in each locality, Reporting the Arts details the hiring practices
>and present staff of many the studied news sources, it is an
>excellent resource for art journalists. Among its findings:
>In-house staffing and resources have not been increased to match
>an explosion of arts activity.
>
>However, the study devotes very little meaningful coverage to
>changes wrought by the Internet -- such as instantaneous
>International access to local arts journalism, (both mainstream
>and alternative) and the ability of online publications to target
>and attract a growing audience for informative, in depth art news.
>
>Sources/resources:
>
>For more information on the NAJP, or copies of Reporting the Arts,
>News Coverage of Arts and Culture in America, please contact:
>Michele Siegel, National Arts Journalism Program, Columbia
>University Graduate School of Journalism, New York, NY 10027 Tel.:
>212-854-6842 Fax: 212-854-8129 email: najp at columbia.edu
>
>The full report, including detailed summary statistics, is
>available posted on the NAJP's web site at http://www.najp.org
>Reflecting the report's print focus, the online version is
>currently available only in pdf files.
>
>Gary O. Larson is the author of THE RELUCTANT PATRON, THE UNITED
>STATES GOVERNMENT AND THE ARTS, 1943-1965. His website --
>http://www.artswire.org/glarson/home.html-- contains a selection
>of his writings on the arts in the telecommunications environment
>____________________________________________________