research
Topic: Creativity and Innovation: Arts Journalism
In 1998, the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) published Reporting the Arts, the first comprehensive analysis of arts coverage in mainstream American news media. The report studied trends in space, format, and coverage of arts and culture in daily newspapers from 10 communities and from selected national news outlets. Five years later, NAJP revisited the same 10 communities to observe what had changed in their cultural lives and local media coverage. Reporting the Arts II identified troubling trends in overall space, format, and coverage. But an interest in arts news reporting and new approaches to arts features and cultural criticism may suggest opportunities for local arts coverage and daily newspaper format. Together, the publications yield a snapshot of how news organizations around the country are covering culture, and more importantly, how their approaches to arts coverage have evolved.
Americans for the Arts recent Monograph, Growing Interest, Shrinking Space: Arts Coverage in U.S. Newspapers, offers an overview of survey findings from the National Arts Journalism Program and other trends—online content, training programs in arts journalism, and the changing role of criticism—that demonstrate how arts journalists are trying to keep pace with a growing appetite for and interest in local arts and culture.
