In this four part series, ‘Arts Critics and Exploitation’, theQR will make the case that the current state of arts journalism & criticism is untenable. In place of offices bustling with writers, editors and photographers, the industry is increasingly dominated by online portals reliant on the labour of the unpaid volunteer. The old system was rife with classism, and a dearth of diversity in recruitment. The scant surviving writers still in print are fewer every year, victims of the same ‘won’t pay for news’ crisis which has beset the broader industry in the Internet age.
The replacement system is certainly more accessible – on the surface – but this digital industry is overwhelmingly built on the backs of unpaid workers. That, I argue, is fundamentally unethical, and change isn’t only desirable – it is necessary. First, however, we need to outline the scale and consequences of this unpaid labour.
The H-word
With August in Edinburgh approaching once more, social media is erupting with thousands upon thousands of pleas from incoming Fringe performers for media attention. With the majority shows relatively, or completely unknown to audiences, a winning interview, or a good review could be all that stands between a show losing money, and breaking even (dare I say, even make a profit?). Which is to say that arts journalism & criticism has value, both to the ticket buying public, and the performers themselves.
However, the overwhelming majority of the writers dedicating their time, skill, and talents to creating those thousands of reviews will go completely unpaid. We live in the age of the voluntary critic. That is writers, aside from a few retirees, for whom arts journalism is something done in their spare time when not working, studying, or both. We have a word for this:
That is not to insult the capabilities of the hundreds of unpaid hobby writers who now contribute the bulk of coverage of the Edinburgh Fringe, and indeed the global Arts world year round. The work of The Wee Review, for example, is of an exemplary standard, both in terms of output and management.
It would be amiss of me, however, not to point that such quality standards are far from uniform throughout the unregulated Wild West otherwise known as the online arts journalism industry.
Where the legacy print media operated horribly narrow paths to entry, recruitment into the new digital world of arts journalism is open to all, all year round. In fact, entry into the ranks of theatre reviewers, feature writers, even editors, is so open-access, it’s been picked up by nothing less than MoneySavingExpert as a ‘hack’ to score free theatre tickets.
The qualifications for volunteering? Apparently not being shy, and being able to string a sentence together. Now that’s hugely insulting to many of the people upon whom the 3000+ shows coming to Edinburgh in August will rely. However, what other conclusion could those outside the industry possibly reach?
Devaluing Arts Journalism is a lose, lose proposition
When, in theory, just about anyone can become an arts journalist on a whim, why should the public consider our work more than a handy way to score free seats in the theatre? Why should the public consider the output of such open-door operations worth their attention, or money?
The ultimate consequences of embedding such a view in public thought are pretty clear. Artists and venues will increasingly be unable to depend upon press coverage to drive ticket sales, whilst writers will suffer declining readership of their progressively devalued work. Making theatre reviewing accessible to all (or near enough) it turns out, is simply destroying arts journalism as a viable career for almost everyone. (You might fairly ask, ‘but isn’t theQR’ part of this problem?’ and this is something I will also return to later in the series.)
#EDFRINGE 2023 – Young Writers Scheme is not a solution.
Today, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society announced a new scheme to recruit young writers into the world of arts journalism. It’s a well intended scheme,…
No one benefits though, right?…right?
If the entire arts industry was heading towards destination ‘HOBBY’, then we could look at the arts writer/critic as simply one more passenger on a doomed ship. However that’s just not true. For so long as news, reviews, and interviews have any worth, plenty of professional, wage-earning individuals stand to gain.
Everyone from theatre-owners, through artists, and even some of the volunteer-reliant website owners can expect to benefit financially – directly and indirectly. Which is to say that all manner of stakeholders are making money off the back of thousands upon thousands of hours of unpaid labour every year. Even the general public are saving money, no longer needing to buy access to arts news, views, or reviews.
The ‘hobby-isation’ of arts journalism indeed, stands to financially benefit all sorts of people, just not the writers themselves. But are those unpaid writers being suitably rewarded in some other way? In the next espisode then, we’ll explore the world of ‘free tickets’!
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