ABSTRACT
This work serves as a theoretical and practical guide for journalists interested in cultural journalism’s sophisticated genres. With culture pages in daily newspapers and online platforms dwindling, often replaced by basic PR news from publishers or authors, mastering these complex texts can diversify media content. Such diversity not only informs but also educates readers, expanding their cultural horizons. The decline of cultural articles in Romanian local and regional journalism is due to journalists’ unfamiliarity with these texts and a reluctance to engage with complex, less financially rewarding subjects. The financial crisis in Romanian media reduced newsroom staff, making cultural journalism the first to suffer from space limitations and fewer writers. Consequently, the focus shifted to general local and political news. This study explores the challenges faced by Romanian local and regional press in producing intricate cultural journalism, often authored by individuals with non-literary backgrounds – such as engineers and teachers who write as a hobby. It examines the structure and genres of these texts, providing guidance for their creation. Focusing on local publications in Arad, the study highlights issues like limited funding, small editorial teams, and a preference for simpler news over in-depth cultural coverage. This paper explores the treatment of cultural journalism genres in the local and regional press in Romania, a trend observable across several European countries. These insights provide valuable guidance for aspiring journalists interested in pursuing cultural journalism. The research primarily employed content analysis, focusing on three selected local and regional publications: Jurnal arădean (the sole print publication in Arad), Special Arad, and Critic Arad, all of which are available online. To ensure comprehensive findings, over 3,000 cultural articles published between September 2017 and July 2024 were examined. Each article was analyzed to identify key journalistic characteristics and to assess the presence of cultural journalism elements through discursive analysis. A comparative approach was applied to determine how these genres are represented in both print and digital formats. The findings revealed a preference for shorter cultural texts, such as brief news pieces, articles with quotes, reports, interviews, portraits, book and theatre reviews, with more in-depth content being less frequently featured. We believe that examining the local and regional press in Arad, a prominent city in western Romania, sheds light on the overall condition of the Romanian local press.
KEY WORDS
Book Review. Cultural Interview. Genres of Cultural Journalism. News. Specificities. Theatre Review. Writing Strategies in Romanian Local and Regional Press.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.34135/mlar-25-01-03