The place of journalism in the dance ecology

Journalism in arts and culture has been hugely diminished this century. Where specialist magazines existed, they have closed. Culture pages in newspapers have been reduced to a tenth of their size compared with 20 years ago, or cut entirely. Online magazines operating on different models have sprung up – and died away. Most have no or negligible editorial process whereby text is worked on before publishing, and so operate as platforms rather than publications.

A guiding principle of journalism is to serve your readers – the public. The journalist is a witness, and communicates what they see on behalf of a public who were not present themselves.

Contrast these with two other fields of publishing: scholarly and promotional. Scholarly publishing is communication for peers, not the public. Promotional publishing is communication on behalf of the presenter or producer, not the public.

There is a place for all of these kinds of publishing, but their niches are different.

Should we let journalism ‘go extinct’, in an age of defunding, privatised business models and social media? We believe its core values are worth cultivating, and that it can play a vital role in the dance ecology, now and in the future.

Three principles, and a story

What underlies good public-service journalism? The founding mission of the BBC, one of the first public service broadcasters, was ‘to inform, educate and entertain’. Let us adapt those principles a little (because ‘educate’ sounds too much like school and ‘entertain’ sounds too much like distraction) as follows:

• Inform. Give the readers the information they need to know what you are writing about, and why you are writing it. Information is based on facts and evidence.
• Illuminate. Offer insight, context, interpretation or opinion.
• Engage. Don’t be boring.

These three aims can be applied to all kinds of text (reviews, interviews, essays, profiles, etc.) and can be combined in the idea of a story.

Stories generally have some common features:

• Beginning
• Situation or setup
• Characters
• Actions
• Scenes
• Sequence
• Ending

Often we think of stories as something fictional, not factual. But look at any documentary and you will find a story being told. A story is different from documentation or reporting. Here’s how:

‘… readers read for two reasons: information and experience. There’s the difference. Reports convey information. Stories create experience. Reports transfer knowledge. Stories transport the reader, crossing boundaries of time, space, and imagination. The report points us there. The story puts us there.’

(from Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, by Roy Peter Clark)

Think of your writing like this: don’t write fiction, but do write stories. Your writing will improve, immediately.

Three kinds of non-fiction story

Reviews

A review is the most defined format. It is a re-view of a work of art (performance, painting, film, book, etc), which communicates what the artwork was and how it was experienced, to readers who have not experienced it themselves. Commentary and context can be built on top of that.

Interviews

The subject is not yourself, it is the interviewee. Your task is to ask questions of them that would interest your readers, and then to keep the conversation on topic. It is also to build a portrait of the person. Ask short, open questions, then listen to the answers. This is not about you or your opinions, it is about them.

Features

A ‘feature’ article is not a defined format, in terms of subject or style. As with other writing, it should be a story that informs, illuminates and engages, but it is typically more wide-ranging and free-ranging than other formats, and gives more leeway to the writer’s voice.