Ben Falk - Entertainment Journalism

Entertainment Journalism is a practical guide to one of the most highly visible areas of media practice. Drawing on 20 years experience as an entertainment journalist, Ben Falk gives a comprehensive overview of journalistic reporting on the arts industries, with particular focus on film, music, TV and celebrity gossip. This is coupled with an extensive range of tips and tools to help students and young professionals hone the key skills required for a career in entertainment journalism. Interviews with industry professionals appear throughout, from current editors of the biggest entertainment brands, Hollywood bureau chiefs and critics to consumer publicists, multimedia content producers, live radio correspondents, video makers, TV presenters and social media specialists.

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With up-to-the-minute expert advice, accessibly written guidance on writing and reporting and invaluable perspectives from those within the entertainment world, this is an instructive and insightful book for any aspiring showbiz journalist.

Ben Falk is Senior Lecturer in Digital Journalism at Coventry University, UK, and a freelance entertainment journalist. The author of celebrity biographies Robert Downey Jr: The Fall and Rise of the Comeback Kid and The Wonder of Brian Cox, he has written about showbiz for 20 years, contributing to dozens of magazines, newspapers and websites, including Yahoo Movies, BAFTA, Look, and BBC Films Online. He was Hollywood bureau chief for the Press Association and has worked as an entertainment television producer for ITV, Channel 4 and Sky.

ENTERTAINMENT JOURNALISM

Making it your Career

First published 2018

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2018 Ben Falk

The right of Ben Falk to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-1-138-64937-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-64938-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-62585-0 (ebk)

Obviously, this book wouldnt have been written without the generosity and expertise of friends and colleagues who contributed their advice, so for that, thank you: Colin Paterson, Andy Welch, Alex Stanger, Ben Robinson, Chris Smith, David Smyth, Hannah Hargrave, Jill Foster, Joel Rapaport, Julia White Cohen, Lucy Preacher, Mel Bromley, Natasha Bird, Nikki Cain, Orlando Parfitt, Rosie Nixon, Sophia Moir, Sophie Vokes Dudgeon, Suzy Cox, Tim Muffett, Toby Earle, Tom Butler, Victoria Hollingsworth, Lisa Perry and Zak Brilliant.

Thank you to Jane Crowther for loan of her narrative skills and to Mum, Dad, Christina, Hannah and Marnie for putting up with me while I wrote this thing. Pops, obviously I wouldnt have even got into this racket if it wasnt for you.

Thanks to Kitty, Margaret and Niall at Routledge, Maggie for copy-editing, and my brilliant colleagues at Coventry University and London Met for helping me hone my teaching chops, some of which Ive hopefully disseminated here.

And finally to every commissioning editor or boss whos ever hired me thank you, and if you can keep doing it, that would be awesome

This is not a textbook. I mean it is, kind of, in that its published by an academic publisher and youre likely reading it having got it out of a library or from the reference section of your local bookshop.

No, I prefer to call this a how-to guide. A training manual really aimed at helping you become a working, successful journalist in the world of arts and showbiz. Its a fun world, and while tough and requiring hard work, its a world you can make your living in. Do it well and it also means you get to indulge your hobby as a job. And before anyone tells you that popular culture is trivial and meaningless, consider this. Donald Trump was part of popular culture before he became president. The entertainment sphere is worth billions around the globe, and it involves deals which shape governmental policy. The depictions in movies and the actions of celebrities and the like help people decide what to wear and how to act as well as being barometers of social equality, arbiters of change and predictors of technological shifts. Entertainment can be a short news story about a structured reality show which you read while you wait for the dentist. It can also matter very deeply.

So how am I planning to help you?

There needs to be some background, which is why theres a chapter about the history (or some of it anyway) of entertainment journalism. That may sound academic to you, but knowing how we got to where we are will make you a better journalist now. Its also vital that we consider our place as media creators in a post-Leveson world. While the 2012 report into journalistic behaviour didnt facilitate the kind of seismic change some thought it would, there has nevertheless been a fundamental shift in newsroom attitudes, especially in terms of entertainment reporting.

Youre going to hear from experts. As an aspiring journalist, the best thing you can do is learn from people who are already in the industry. Why? you may ask. Theyre all dinosaurs, social medias changed everything, and the job Ill get probably hasnt even been created yet. Those two latter things may be true maybe even the first one if you mean they are either a fearsome predator who never gets messed with or a tranquil though even less destructible creature who goes about their business with an unflappable rigour. But remember this: they will likely be the ones deciding whether you are right for the job and letting you cash that pay cheque. They will be the mentors at whose feet you figure out what makes a good story or whether that sentence or sequence youve created is up to snuff compared to the hundreds of successful ones theyve outputted. And they will be the ones you look to for information when Google isnt proving to be the information panacea you need it to be.

You will find expert advice dotted throughout this book from current editors of the biggest entertainment brands, Hollywood bureau chiefs and critics, consumer publicists, multimedia content producers, live radio correspondents, video makers, TV presenters and social media specialists. They bring with them decades of collective wisdom as well as up-to-the-minute knowledge on the minutiae of working in this industry. Youd do well to listen.