Entertainment Journalism

Entertainment Journalism presents a comprehensive overview and clear practical guidance on the key elements of entertainment journalism: one of the most highly visible areas of global media practice.

James Morrison, Department of Journalism and Publishing, Kingston University, UK: ‘There are a great many strengths – principally, the fact that no such ‘how-to’ book of this kind, dedicated to this specialist area, currently exists, and this one appears to cover all the necessary bases well’ […] ‘ The idea of incorporating the author’s own personal experiences/anecdotes and testimony and tips from others working in the field, as well as illustrative examples of best practice in the form of extracts from articles, is also excellent.’ […] ‘this looks to be breaking new ground in this particular subject-specialist area.’

Andy Plaice, Leicester Media School, De Montfort University, UK: ‘Relevant, broad, practical, input from professionals, writer’s clear experience in the field.’ […] ‘ There doesn’t seem to be much value placed on history. The ‘now’ is essential of course but where we’ve come from is important in helping to understand current trends.’ […] Would you consider adopting this book for your module or course? ‘Yes. Essential/required text.’

Jenny McKay, Dept of Journalism, Media and Culture, University of Sunderland, UK: ‘There is no single book pulling together all or even much of this material into one volume. For that reason this is definitely a project worth pursuing.’ […] ‘Much of what is proposed is worthwhile and would be very useful to lecturers and their students.’ […] ‘it might be good to include a short chapter on the phenomenon of celebrity culture since that's what some students mean by arts and ents journalism.’ […] ‘We would definitely want to see it for consideration as Required Reading and almost certainly use it on the Arts and Ents module especially if some of the proposed suggestions were incorporated.’

Ben Falk is Senior Lecturer in Digital Journalism at Coventry University, UK, and a freelance entertainment journalist. The author of celebrity biographies Robert Downey Jr: The Fall and Rise of the Comeback Kid and The Wonder of Brian Cox , he has written about showbiz for 20 years, contributing to dozens of magazines, newspapers and websites, including Yahoo Movies, BAFTA, Look , and BBC Films Online. He was Hollywood bureau chief for the Press Association and has worked as an entertainment television producer for ITV, Channel 4 and Sky.