Responses
Anonymous, 8/15/2005, 1:55:32 PM
It really depends where your school is, what type of school it is, and what your student body is like.
I'm the editor of a college paper and we're lucky to be in New York City and have access to a lot celebrity interviews, special screenings, etc. Our Arts & Culture section also focuses a lot on music as well as school & Broadway theatre. City art shows and school art shows are mixed in as well.
But, we don't include all of that just because we can. We do it because that's the type of student body we have -- a relatively upscale college community in the middle of NYC that expects celebrity, music, and art.
Hope this makes sense.
J.D., 8/18/2005, 2:23:05 AM
What entertains them? We find the ENTERTAINMENT part of the equation a no-brainer. Typically: gaming & software releases, DVDs, music technology, video technology, local concerts, movie reviews (by experienced/trained student critic), top ten lists. THE ARTS seems to get less interest - unless, as was mentioned - one is in a magor metro area or at an arts-centric college. We keep to on-campus arts...such as our music and theatre and fine arts programs. I think ARTS should not be excluded, but YOU KNOW YOUR READERSHIP best....what do they like.
Liz, 8/19/2005, 3:59:58 PM
What makes someone a trained student critic? I don't personally have much experience with critiques, and I don't know anyone who honestly has experience. What about the trained? What kind of trianing would be appropriate?
Josh, 9/2/2005, 10:34:13 PM
Being the editor of a college newspaper like you all, I do sometimes have a hard time deciphering exactly what students want. So for my Entertainment section, I did the same, content-wise, as the others mentioned. Video game reviews, music reviews, movie previews/reviews etc..
Using art is tough in today's world of college kids. Unless it's a top-knotch, classy, $50,000 "snob" school (ok, I was a little harsh there, but couldn't put it in any other words) students dont seem to be interested in artists/books/poetry/non-main stream music/environmental etc issues. Sure, you'll find a good handful at a college that actually show off their flare for art, but I just don't believe it to be common. Location is obviously another things, as someone mentioned.
John, 9/6/2005, 12:20:28 PM
Art sections need to have as much attention as if you are in the center of an art capital, i.e. NY.
Exposing young minds to art is making them culturally aware and this should not be neglected. Make it new and trendy to gain the interest of students that might otherwise overlook it. Have fun with this section. Explore new ideas on layout of this section that will capture your readers attention.
Good Luck.
Marie, 9/7/2005, 5:23:18 PM
Okay, it's been established that the main focus for an arts and entertainment section is location and student interest.
Likewise, I am the A&E editor of my university newspaper and I often have trouble finding the median for my section.
I don't attend an artsy school, nor are we located in a city or metropolitan area, and most of my readers are video game addicts. There are only so many ways to publish video game, television and movie reviews. Are there any ideas to possibly adjust how we design our pages to our readers?
, 9/11/2005, 3:23:12 PM
I've been trying to run my section with a wide variety of information, focusing on stuff to do. i'm not in a major metropolitan area, and we don't have much of anything going on. When we have enough room, I try to do something on events, be it art exhibits or plays, but I also try to include at least one more mainstream element, such as a band interview. Our paper is a bi-weekly that usually doesn't have more than 3 pages for my section (more like 2 counting ads...) so I don't have much room to run much of anything. I am trying to vary it up, but I still don't think I'm doing much that would interest the students.
I don't want to bypass our on-campus events in favor of reviews of stuff I may or may not be qualified to review, but I want it to be interesting.
I get the impression from my campus that the majority of the students would rather just go to parties and get drunk than do anything else.
May East, 3/28/2006, 10:13:52 PM
I really appreciate when someone takes the time to introduce me to music, art, theatre, dance or community goings on that are relatively inexpensive and that I would otherwise have missed.
Kim, 3/30/2006, 10:53:05 PM
We try to include a lot of what is going on in the community, campus entertainment events, and of course reviews. But we've had really good response from readers about using more local arts/music coverage. For instance, we just did a section on local bands and venues that got great response from readers. Obviously, you can't do that all the time, but we do try to angle a lot of our entertainment section that way.
Jonathan, 3/31/2006, 11:07:58 AM
I'm the editor of a small college newspaper in California. We do run a lot of articles on movies/music/video games/tv/etc., but we've also found that our readership often enjoys quirky, off-the-wall articles. We call our A&E section "Detour" because we really put whatever doesn't fit anywhere else in there. A couple examples. One of our writers, we found, was "ordained" as a "reverend" at some online "church." We thought that was pretty funny so we let him write about it (and yes, we're a Catholic school). Also, each week we run a feature called "of the week," which is basically anything the Detour editor wants: "Vending Machine of the Week," "Spaceballs movie quote of the week," "Johnny Depp of the Week," "Person we like to make fun of of the week" (it was Tom Cruise)...it sounds a bit silly, but we get a pretty good response out of stuff like that.
