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The culture of arts journalists

Elitists, saviors or manic depressives?

Cardiff University, UK, hrs{at}treviglas.cornwall.sch.uk

Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

Cardiff University, UK, Wahl-jorgensenk{at}cardiff.ac.uk

This article examines the self-image of arts journalists, or journalists who work in the criticism and coverage of theater, classical music, opera and dance. It is based on interviews with 20 arts journalists in the United Kingdom, including classical music DJs, arts reviewers, arts reporters, and arts and music editors for print and broadcast media. This occupational group within journalism is worthy of study because of its distinctive professional and cultural role: while arts journalists share aspects of their professional cultures with other newsworkers, their work is intrinsically linked to the project of improving `public appreciation of the arts'.

Our argument is that while many arts journalists see themselves as part of the larger professional category of `journalists', they also lay claim to an arts exceptionalism, insofar as they suggest that: (1) the ideal arts journalist is better and more extensively qualified than a conventional news reporter; (2) arts journalism is qualitatively different from news journalism; and (3) arts journalism has the responsibility of communicating the transformative nature of the arts. Drawing on such a discourse, arts journalists take on a crusading role, and describe their work as infused by a passion which is otherwise frowned upon within journalism. We also demonstrate how, within the specialist group of arts journalists, there are distinctive subcultures of freelance critics, arts reporters, and arts editors — professional categories which greatly influence these newsworkers' self-understandings.

Key Words: K E Y W O R D S • arts journalism • high culture • interviews • journalism culture • journalism sociology • objectivity • specialist correspondents

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