1st Edition

Entertainment Journalism Making it your Career

By Ben Falk Copyright 2018
    162 Pages
    by Routledge

    162 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    Topics include:

    • breaking a story
    • interviewing techniques
    • working at press junkets and red carpet events
    • working with PRs
    • selling as a freelance
    • using social media for reporting and networking
    • breaking into the industry.

    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.

    1. Getting the scoop & breaking stories 2. Entertainment and Arts Journalism: In Context 3. Interviewing 4. Reviewing 5. Junkets/Red carpets 6. Working with PRs/Relationships with celebrities 7. Multimedia: acting as your own paparazzo/videographer/blogger 8. Using social media 9. Law & Ethics 10. Selling as a freelance 11. Breaking into the industry

    Biography

    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.

    James Morrison, Department of Journalism and Publishing, Kingston University, UK: ‘There are a great many strengths – principally, the fact that no such ‘how-to’ book of this kind, dedicated to this specialist area, currently exists, and this one appears to cover all the necessary bases well’ […] The idea of incorporating the author’s own personal experiences/anecdotes and testimony and tips from others working in the field, as well as illustrative examples of best practice in the form of extracts from articles, is also excellent.’ […] ‘this looks to be breaking new ground in this particular subject-specialist area.’

    Andy Plaice, Leicester Media School, De Montfort University, UK: ‘Relevant, broad, practical, input from professionals, writer’s clear experience in the field.’ […]There doesn’t seem to be much value placed on history. The ‘now’ is essential of course but where we’ve come from is important in helping to understand current trends.’ […] Would you consider adopting this book for your module or course? ‘Yes. Essential/required text.’

    Jenny McKay, Dept of Journalism, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland, UK: ‘There is no single book pulling together all or even much of this material into one volume. For that reason this is definitely a project worth pursuing.’ […] ‘Much of what is proposed is worthwhile and would be very useful to lecturers and their students.’ […] ‘it might be good to include a short chapter on the phenomenon of celebrity culture since that's what some students mean by arts and ents journalism.’ […] ‘We would definitely want to see it for consideration as Required Reading and almost certainly use it on the Arts and Ents module especially if some of the proposed suggestions were incorporated.’