In the interest of improving The Badger Herald as a source of quality journalism, the position of ombudsman was established last semester to act as a kind of public editor — an editor whose role is both critic of the publication and advocate for the reader.
As a former editorial page editor, I've never been the artsy type. When I was an undergrad at UW, I rarely read any entertainment or arts pages — whether in the Herald, the Onion, the Isthmus or any other Madison publication. My interests have always been with politics, opinion, controversy and policy.
And it is with a reader like me that an ArtsEtc. editor must begin. The UW student body is a large, diverse, sometimes finicky readership with a wide range of interests. We have hip-hop artists, country-music fans, Tom Cruise haters, Led Zeppelin worshippers and "Lost" addicts. (I'd probably fit into those last two categories.) The list can go on and on, whether related to television, movies, music, art, the local scene, the Internet, pop culture, college culture, sex, relationships or simply life. The ArtsEtc. editors face the seemingly insurmountable task of determining what readers want and how to deliver it.
But the ArtsEtc. editors face another problem as well. Just like the readers of the Opinion page, readers of the ArtsEtc. page have strong views on subject matter. Sometimes angry feedback comes along, and it must be handled with care. But unlike the Opinion section, few people eagerly try to write for Arts. Thus, the ArtsEtc. editors must always be recruiting and retaining great talent. This is not easy, even for an editor on a campus of this size.
The last problem is one of design. News is there to deliver information. Opinion is there to stimulate conversation, usually based on information from the news section. Sports is a bit of both. But with Arts, the role is primarily to entertain, inform and stimulate. And that's the catch: how do you create a page that is entertaining while maintaining the overall feel and integrity of the newspaper?
In all of these respects — content, quality, and design — the current ArtsEtc. editors have done an excellent job. While by no means perfect, the section is certainly meeting some major challenges.
Regarding content, the editors have included stories from nationally known musicians and movie stars. At the same time, we've also read stories about the diverse Madison music scene. And for the nerd in all of us, Sundeep Malladi and Ryan Gauthier have selflessly shared their dorky knowledge for all to enjoy — and we've laughed at them for it. (Well, maybe just me.)
This semester has also seen a crop of writers develop with distinct, often amusing voices to enhance the diversity of content in the ArtsEtc. section. Clare Diegel has revealed the harsh truth of dating. (No, sometimes we're really not that into you.) Ben Freund has reminded us that it's okay to be young and overly connected: "I'm a media junkie. … If I'm not playing a video game, listening to music, reading a book and instant-messaging friends at the same time, I feel like I'm wasting my potential." To quote Clinton: I feel your pain, I feel your pain. I'm not a big fan of your column title, though.
Finally, we've also seen some creative design work from the editors. Movie screen-shots six columns wide, offset columns, and varying lengths have all made the pages more interesting to peruse. If anything, the page could use some more graphics and pictures embedded in columns to make them more attractive.
The ArtsEtc. ages could use some more prominence, however. The Herald has the benefit of being the largest independent college newspaper in the United States. Editors should use that chip to try to get personal interviews — by phone or otherwise — with people the likes of Martin Sheen or Dave Matthews. To the average reader of this article, my objection seems ridiculous. But in recent years, the Herald has printed results of personal interviews with Bradley Whitford (Arts), Howard Dean (Opinion and News), David Cross (Arts), and Henry Rollins (Arts). A recent ArtsEtc. editor even attended, then wrote about, the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. It's hard — and requires a lot of work generating contacts and getting resources — but not impossible.
The ArtsEtc. editor job is a challenging one. The current editors are getting it done.
Paul Temple ([email protected]) is the former Badger Herald editorial page editor. He is a 2004 graduate of the UW and lives in Madison.
