Irving the giant lizard here to discuss television.
Television is of great concern to film news. After all television uses all the same elements as movies do. There are actors, directors, producers, editors, etc. In fact to many film lovers television is cinema. It’s simply a different format. There are feature length fiction films and feature length documentaries. There are short films of both the fiction and documentary variety and now there is television. This acceptance of television as cinema only happened recently though. For a long time television was looked down on by film news, but it has recently been embraced.
For example take this article that ran late last year. This is a part of a running series of articles on the site Indiewire, that proclaim TV as the new cinema. So, television is pretty crucial to the film news world now.
Television as a source of news about film is a totally different thing. There really aren’t that many shows dedicated to bringing film news to their audience. There used to be critics shows like Siskel & Ebert, but people now prefer to read their film criticism on sites like RottenTomatoes or from a YouTuber they’ve become a fan of recently. Plenty of channels are dedicated to celebrity gossip, but this rarely crosses over into the world of film journalism. Television just isn’t that effective at delivering film news.
The only aspect that television is a better medium of film journalism in, is interviews. Take, for example, this interview with director Martin Scorsese it’s funny and you learn a little about how the film was made.
Film journalism thrives online because of the immediacy and let’s be honest, there just isn’t a large enough audience for film news to justify the existence of a show. There might of been at one time when film news was limited to print and television, but now there’s the internet and that has changed how film news is consumed.
There really aren’t channels or shows, as stated above, that are dedicated to film news. However, basic channels like ABC host the Oscars every year. Late night hosts are constantly interviewing people from the film industry. IFC and AMC are great channels for film lovers to watch, but there isn’t any film news on them. The existence of shows and channels like this make it easier for people to get a little film news, but if they want more they’ll have to seek it out in other places.
-Irving the giant lizard
Off Reel 