Where is Serious Pop Culture Reporting?

Believe it or not, pop culture isn't just about Britney Spears' latest fling.

Whenever I’m asked what I write about for a living, I cringe.

“Uh … pop culture,” I’ll respond sheepishly.

It’s not that I’m ashamed to be a journalist. No, the problem is that my definition of pop culture is not the same as the generally understood meaning for the term.

For most folks in the year 2011, pop culture is synonymous with “celebrity gossip.” These days, pop culture is considered to be the latest rumours about which celebrities are dating.

Pop culture also encompasses info on those who have recently fallen off the wagon into rehab, plus tidbits about the quasi-personalities who get booted off the hot reality show du jour.

Obviously, I’m not happy about this.

I’ve been writing about pop culture since 1992. If there’s one thing my career has been about, it’s taking pop culture seriously. What do I mean by pop culture? My answer has always been: film, television, and music. In other words: low culture. Not opera. Not ballet. Not fine art.

But more important than the subject area covered, my definition hinges on how film, television, and music are treated by those of us in the media.

For the last six years, I have taught an arts-journalism course at the University of Western Ontario in London.

What I teach my students is that there are two broad categories of story they can write as entertainment reporters: product-driven pieces and idea-driven pieces.

As I see it, the role of the journalist should be to resist the Hollywood public-relations machine.

What publicists for stars would like reporters to do is publish nothing but product-driven pieces. Such stories are easy to spot; they typically begin with a sentence like, “Angelina Jolie is on top of the world” or “Sting is sitting in a hotel room, wearing a cashmere sweater and talking about his new album.”

These stories exist to get the word out about a new product, so Sting or Jolie (or whomever) doesn’t have to buy ad space in the newspaper. They are uniformly positive and have an, er, celebratory tone. They usually require the journalist to ask such questions as, “Who are you dating?” and “Is this your best album/show/movie to date?” Think Ben Mulroney or Mary Hart.

Since today’s celebrity is more product than person, I include celebrity gossip as a subset of this category of journalism. An idea-driven story, on the other hand, seeks to get at underlying issues.

So instead of just reporting on who Britney Spears is boffing, for instance, the journalist would try to explore what Britney Spears represents in our culture. What does our fascination with her say about our society?

Instead of just mindlessly promoting the latest CGI-based blockbuster such as Thor, an idea-driven story would explore how today’s special effects are the equivalent of Mannerism in painting.

The point should be to demystify celebrities. This is done by taking what they say and do seriously.

So when Sarah Polley argues that Canada’s movie theatres ought to be subject to Canadian content regulations, the writer should explore the ramifications of such a policy.

There are precious few outlets that specialize in idea-driven stories, but the ones that do – like this website – stand out from the crowd. Idea-driven stories require more from the reporter in the way of thought and effort, but they’re more satisfying to write, I tell my students.

So what I’ve tried to do in my years as a writer is take back pop culture from those who have hijacked it, dumbing it down in the process. But I can’t do it all by myself. Won’t you please help?

Photo courtesy of Reuters.