AN
INVITATIONAL CONFERENCE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S GRADUATE
SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
Conference
Summary
The National Arts Journalism Program announces CONVERGENCE--NEW
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTS JOURNALISM, a one-day invitational
conference at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism
on Thursday June 15, 2000.
This meeting brings together,
for the first time, traditional print arts journalists engaged
in new media initiatives, television and radio producers exploring
new programming possibilities afforded by advances in technology,
and representatives from major foundations considering electronic
arts journalism funding proposals. To coincide with the conference,
NAJP will release two specially commissioned research projects
assessing arts journalism on-line and on television.
At the dawn of the television
era, there were those who believed the medium could be the
ultimate vehicle for bringing the arts to vast new audiences.
But aside from a few noble efforts over the years, electronic
mass media have never fulfilled the promise some saw for them.
The digital revolution promises
to break down the monolith of mass culture. Suddenly new opportunities
are becoming available to present the arts in electronic form.
The internet and the interactive possibilities of broadband,
plunging costs of production for television and radio, and
a convergence of all media, hold out once again an opportunity
to bring the arts to new and wide audiences. Is it possible
that the arts are the ultimate niche in an increasingly niche-driven
media landscape?
Along the way, arts journalism
is being reinvented. Increasingly the way journalism about
the arts is being delivered is becoming both more and less
relevant. More because digital technology brings down the
cost of production and expands channels of distribution and
delivery. Less because these channels of distribution are
merging and therefore becoming interchangeable.
How can we as arts journalists
take advantage of these new technologies to expand both the
quality and quantity of arts journalism available? Inherent
in the explosion of available media choices are new opportunities
to produce and deliver content coupled with the danger of
getting lost among the plethora of suddenly-available new
media.
A wide range of writers, editors,
producers, programmers, and executives at major new-media,
radio, and television organizations, including National Public
Radio, Public Radio International, PBS, MSNBC, CBS, CBC, Salon,
Slate, New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times will attend
this unprecedented meeting. In addition, officers from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NEA, and the Ford, Luce,
Markle, Pew, and Rockefeller foundations will be present.
Please note the conference is an invitational event, solely
for creators, programmers, and funders of arts journalism.
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