The Critical Situation. On Culture Journalism

This time, the series of critique seminars entitled The Critical Situation, initiated by the Estonian Writers’ Union, delves into an especially exciting area: the position of literature in journalism and the role of a cultural journalist where the two meet. It seems that cultural journalists must be good at walking a tightrope. On the one hand they must represent journalism, which is in constant change, looking for a balance between its traditional mission of enlightenment and ratings fever or economic perspectives. In once again independent Estonia, we have seen enough cases, where the coverage on culture in both commercial publications as well as public media has disappeared or dried up, yet Estonian dailies still consider the existence of cultural pages important. On the other hand, the cultural journalist must consider the artists, whose demands and expectations on the press may completely diverge from the actual possibilities at the journalist’s disposal – even in the case of state-funded publications and channels. This presents a good chance to ask about the state of Estonian cultural journalism – including literary journalism. The relations of fiction and journalism will be discussed at the festival HeadRead by renowned figures: Heili Sibrits, the literary and theatre editor of the daily Postimees, Pille-Riin Larm, the literary editor of the weekly Sirp, Mari Rebane, a cultural editor of the Estonian Public Broadcasting, and Peeter Helme, a presenter at the Vikerraadio radio station. The discussion will be held on Saturday, 30 May at 3 pm in the Tallinn Central Library.