"Every week we're hearing about new projects aimed at reinventing arts coverage. Journalists, arts organizations and media entrepreneurs are trying to create interesting new models of arts journalism. Experimentation is the order of the day. We want to gather up some of the best of these projects, see what looks promising, and bring them to a wider audience."
We all know that the decline in arts journalism isn't just harmful to the arts journalists -- it's a problem for the arts in general.
The interesting part about the Annenberg School's announcement is that they not only are planning to talk about new paradigms for arts journalism in this age of ever-shrinking traditional print media, they are putting their money where their collective mouths are. In their online call for projects, the Summit asks for applicants to submit innovative and "sustainable new models that have the potential to support arts journalism" (emphasis mine). Finalists will have their way paid to the conference and will deliver a presentation on their idea. The conference will be webcast so the ideas can reach the largest possible audience, and from the ideas presented, winners will be chosen and awarded cash prizes.
(Check out the projects as they're submitted for consideration, here.)
Not only is USC looking to foster and reward innovative new models, they seem to be building a new model of their own. I like the effort to leverage the professional and cultural might of the Annenberg School -- in collaboration with a list of heavy-hitting foundations -- to actually DO SOMETHING, rather than just sit around and talk about it.
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