What is the future of Australian arts journalism?

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE, EDITOR

 

Arts journalism in Australia faces a challenging future. The news that Fairfax has announced it will cut 125 positions, demolishing its coverage of the arts through publications including The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, has hit our industry hard. This comes at a time when the ABC had lost $100 million in funding and its Arts Online Portal has become archived with no new content produced. With less opportunity for arts organisations and practitioners to have their stories shared, Australia risks losing access to a core part of its cultural fabric.

Diversity in arts media is vital. We must ensure Australia respects its range of voices and views. So we decided to ask some leaders in the field – ranging from broadcast to print media – to be part of the conversation. They share their independent thoughts in response to the following question:

 

What is the future of arts journalism in Australia?

 

• Miriam Cosic

Sydney journalist and critic, author, and The Australian’s former literary editor and arts editor. Miriam has been published in The Guardian, ABC, and the Australian Book Review.

I’m very pessimistic about arts journalism at the moment, certainly in mainstream media where it’s essential to find it. Without that broad coverage, everyone but the already dedicated will lose knowledge of our cultural heritage and therefore our history; will lose an understanding of how contemporary arts reflect and explain social, economic and technological change; and lose practice in reading and applying sharp, informed criticism.

We could see this happening already, long before Fairfax decided to scrap its arts desks, and in the Fairfax newspapers in particular. In a way, the cuts come as no surprise. As neoliberalism focuses attention on the economics of everything, we risk forgetting that there’s more to life than commerce and consumerism. Our economic – and moral – structures need the applied criticism that the arts hone. We need the arts themselves for that, and arts journalism to disseminate ideas out to the wider public.

 

• Lucy Rash

CutCommon Deputy Editor, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Education Manager^, and freelance arts journalist and copywriter.

There can be no doubt that we live in a multicultural country. We are rich in beautiful cultures, art forms, and a hugely diverse range of knowledge structures, all at our fingertips. But there is a difference between multiculturalism and true intercultural understanding, the latter involving open and active engagement with a range of ideas, actively incorporating these into the way we present and consume the arts. I think contemporary arts journalism is the link here. Journalists have the power to use words, thoughts, and ideas to create those active links between cultures, to facilitate true engagement. That is a wonderful position in which to be.

But the other important thing to realise is that all arts practitioners are journalists, too. Practitioners will, at some point throughout their careers, have to write about or express ideas about their or others’ work. This gives us all the power to make those incredible connections, to forge new pathways for collaborative projects for years to come.

 

• Andrew Batt-Rawden

Publisher of Arts Illuminated Pty Ltd (Limelight Magazine), leading Australian composer and multiplatform artist.

There will always be people we respect that we want to listen to – either because they’re informed and trusted, or because they can empathise with our ‘selves’ and contexts or they inspire us. The medium they communicate with is ever-changing, and as a result, so are the business structures that support them. Digital communications methods are constantly changing and becoming less trusted, but I feel that trust and regard for specific people – the ‘influencers’, ‘journalists’, ‘editors’, or any other name they may go by – will always lead to development of sustainable support structures around their expression, despite technological advances and cultural trends.

 

• Ben Nielsen

ABC Digital Producer*, and creator of LGBTI[Q&A] podcast.

The sharing of thoughts and ideas is vital to a healthy arts industry. For that reason, I’m hugely disappointed that major Fairfax mastheads are putting arts coverage under the knife. We don’t need any more reality television recaps or stories about B-grade celebrities. We need meaningful coverage that reflects and fosters the nation’s cultural landscape.

 

• Leone Knight

3MBS Fine Music Melbourne General Manager.

The future of arts journalism cannot be unhinged from the future of journalism generally, which is under increasing pressure at this time when there is such a need for speaking truth to power.

It would be a real shame to see meaningful arts journalism and criticism disappear from the major media outlets, as they are important for making visible and accessible the cultural life of the city. However, there will always be a demand for arts journalism and other channels have and will continue to emerge to take up the conversation in a different space.

The media environment is very dynamic, with punishing economic imperatives for the big players. But for niche organisations like 3MBS Fine Music Melbourne, it’s actually an opportunity to expand our arts and culture offering.

 

• Harriet Cunningham

Arts journalist, author, and critic, published in Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Review, Gramophone Online. Founder of A Cunning Plan blog.

I do not have a crystal ball. I believe arts journalism will continue, in the same way that the arts continues, in the face of adversity. People still sing, dance, and play, whether they’re funded or not. And where people sing, dance and play, people will talk and write about it. Indeed, maybe that’s part of the problem. There’s this idea that you don’t need to pay people to make art, because they’re going to do it anyway. (Maybe it’ll make them more inventive? Maybe you have to suffer to make art?)

The tiny, guttering, bloody-minded candle of optimism I hold for arts journalism is fuelled by my belief that while you might not have pay to get ‘good’ art and ‘good’ arts journalism, if you don’t pay you’ll have to possess infinite energy to guarantee finding it. You might get lucky and chance upon a brilliant website, or accidentally walk into a pub where the world’s greatest hurdy-gurdy player is just about to be discovered. You’re much more likely to read through drivel or hear a 1980s cover band, unless you have a guide or a curator. I’d like to think that arts journalism will find new curatorial hubs — perhaps online, perhaps attached to a place or a publication — funded by a mixture of government, philanthropic, and public money. There’ll be plenty of lone wolves but, like artists, arts journalists will find safety in numbers, in collaborations and group projects which make the much of little. There will be taste-makers and play-makers and the conversation will continue.

 

• Matthew Lorenzon

Partial Durations Editor (a collaboration with RealTime Arts), and Making Waves’ Making Conversation podcast producer.

I’m quite optimistic about the future of music journalism because it is currently about as bad as it can get. If you are a musician, imagine that there were no grants, trusts, or travelling scholarships, and nobody would pay to hear you play. If you are an academic, consider that there are even fewer jobs in music journalism than in universities. The mainstream press has not provided a robust discourse around music for decades, so we needn’t mourn their loss. If you’re a real, live audience member, then perhaps you could step in to fill the void; though only the independently wealthy need apply.

Actually, I think those three groups will be the future of arts journalism: practitioners, academics, and dilettantes. I have a name for a site where musicians review each other anonymously: pire review. (Well, I think it’s funny.) But anonymity will be the only way to ensure frank appraisal. Some academics really do provide excellent copy when they have the time. David Larkin is a stand-out. Unfortunately, our Karl Kraus is yet to arrive with his bottomless pockets to rescue us from the banality of musically illiterate reviews and turgid interviews. On a more positive note, RealTime launched their gorgeous new website this week, which is definitely worth a look. They’ve been paying reviewers for 20 years now. And Andrew Ford’s not dead yet.

 

• Mary Jo Capps

Musica Viva CEO, and 2016 Creative Partnerships Australia Arts Leadership Award winner.

At Musica Viva, we stand behind the expert journalists who dedicate their lives to making the arts accessible and relevant to a wide public. Their role is crucial on so many levels. As we strive to share the greatest local and international music with our audiences, they are the ones who hold us to account and enable us to benchmark ourselves against others. They drive the cultural conversation, constantly questioning our place in a rapidly evolving world.

To marginalise informed cultural dialogue is to render the world a narrower, greyer place and deny a fundamental aspect of what makes us human. To do this in the name of profit is short-sighted. It puts the future of our children at risk.

Through our Musica Viva In Schools program, we seek to share the benefits of music with all children, irrespective of means or sociocultural background. The media must play a similar role – making the full breadth of human experience available to all Australians. That responsibility cannot be taken lightly.

What is the future of arts journalism? Sites like CutCommon give us hope that it’s the traditional delivery model that is broken, not the desire for intelligent, well-informed and thought-provoking arts coverage.

 

• Samuel Cottell

University of Sydney Music Department academic tutor, PhD candidate, music critic, and CutCommon’s former lead writer.

If we take away the commentary on culture and the arts, any dialogue between the arts and the public will fail to exist. But I have a somewhat bright hope for the future. I’m currently teaching a class, Music Journalism, with my colleague James Wierzbicki, in which there are 30 aspiring music journalists. They are extremely bright, snappy, and clued-in to culture and the changing media, and they known their craft. Whatever happens in the meantime, these young people will certainly do something about it. The future of arts journalism, in this country, is in their hands.

 

What do you think the future holds for Australian arts journalism? Leave a comment below to have your say.

 

*These views and opinions are not representative of the ABC.
^These views are those of the author, and not necessarily of the MSO.

Disclaimer: CutCommon is an independent publication facilitated by a volunteer team of leading editors and contributors across Australia.