Columbia University has just published a sobering study of "Television and the Arts: Network News Coverage of the Arts and Culture in the 1990s." Students from the National Arts Journalism program studied the U.S. networks' coverage of the arts for 10 years and discovered that all the suppertime newscasts have "steadily dropped arts from their beat."

The students' clocked the minutes and calculated that Michael Jackson's sex life was the top "arts" story of the decade. Imagine how sports fans would feel if the O.J. Simpson story were categorized as the top sports story of the decade, and you can understand why the culture crowd feels pretty much ignored by the U.S. networks.

Other than pop culture scandals (Madonna supplied more than her fair share), television's coverage of the higher arts tends to be limited to controversies over government funding of artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe. The little airtime that was once devoted to classical arts has now been overtaken by coverage of Internet-related stories.

What does this have to do with Canadian culture, you ask? After reading the study and examining all the charts and graphs, I realized that our television stations north of the border do a pretty decent job of covering the arts. The dinner hour newscasts spend some time each week on local theatre, opera and jazz. The National Magazine on CBC-TV devotes about 20 minutes each week (usually on Friday nights) to some noteworthy artist or event. Newsworld has the weekly On the Arts and Hot Type, with a good range of highbrow and lowbrow. And then there's Bravo, chock-full of decent cultural coverage, with the weekly Arts & Minds program (Mondays, 7:30 p.m. ET)

Why is it that Canadian TV does such a good job on the arts? Could it be that this is the one thing our broadcasters can do easily, to distinguish themselves from U.S. competitors? And do Canadian audiences have a genuine, keener interest in culture than our American cousins?

Link:
Television and the Arts Dowload the PDF report: Network News Coverage of the Arts and Culture in the 1990s

Discussion: What's your favourite arts treat on TV?

Fine Tuning
After delivering high praise to Canadian broadcasters for their arts coverage, I've got to admit that CBC was a disappointment this weekend. Readers of this column may recall that Friday I gave notice that CBC would be airing a k.d. lang special and the fine feature film The Hanging Garden on Saturday night. Well, don't know about you, but I set my VCR and when I hit rewind, was treated to hours and hours of unexpectedly long coverage of the Reform Party convention. Turns out the results of their leadership race came in much later than expected. Now, CBC could have switched coverage over to Newsworld only and given us our fun ... but noooo, the main net stuck with the most boring political coverage in the history of broadcasting.

Meanwhile, back to culture: Winnipeg writer Miriam Toews' novel, A Boy of Good Breeding, airs today on Between the Covers (CBC Radio One, 2:06 p.m. and 10:40 p.m.). The story is set in an imaginary town full of eccentric characters.

Drop me a line.