Number 4 will shock you! I’m just kidding. There’s no clickbait here because we’ve gathered here today to discuss the six most trustworthy sources of entertainment business news in the industry. These are sources that deal in cold, hard facts despite covering things that probably won’t make enormous differences in the lives of most people. Nevertheless, when we go to sources for information about the entertainment business, we want it to be accurate.
We want to know how much Robert Downey Jr. made for his role in Avengers, who was number one at the box office this weekend and when Disney is making its next move toward monopolizing the industry and achieving world domination behind the unassuming mouse logo. Just as a disclaimer, this list is in no particular order. These are the six sources I visit regularly that I know I can trust, and I always look forward to their content and its accuracy. Let’s get started!
If you’ve been following my blog this semester, first of all, thank you. Second of all, you’ve probably heard me call Variety the New York Times of entertainment news because I can always count on its accuracy, especially in the business department where it matters. I truly believe that, and Variety has never had to reveal its sources because of its history of being correct.
I called Variety the New York Times of entertainment news, but The Hollywood Reporter is the 1a to Variety’s 1. In fact, The Hollywood Reporter’s layout actually reminds me of the New York Times, which I think adds to its professional quality and credibility. While it does focus on entertainment, it’s very formal and uses many primary sources. I’d strongly suggest checking out The Hollywood Reporter’s YouTube channel to see just how close they are to the industry’s biggest names. When you can get Tom Hanks, Adam Driver, Adam Sandler, Jamie Foxx, Shia LaBeouf and Robert DeNiro at the same table, you must be doing something right.
Collider actually had what I would consider to be the best daily source of entertainment news in the video arena, but it was shut down recently, which is disappointing for those of us who love to consume our news that way. Fortunately, the website provides content that is equally enjoyable and equally credible. As far as outlets that participate in interview circuits and junkets go, Collider is one of the best, as people like Steve Weintraub and Scott Mantz have established the status to hold industry screenings with film authors like Quentin Tarantino.
IndieWire is a popular place to go for reviews, but their news is equally strong. Maybe more than any other site, I love the way IndieWire lays its news out as I can easily see different categories and different types of news. As its name might even suggest, I’ve actually found that IndieWire does an excellent job of giving me information about lower budget films, which is something I always look for as a refresher from all of the sources discussing the latest news about the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Where Vulture first attracted me was with its television discussions. I think they do the best job of offering episode-to-episode television insight, including fact-based recaps and opinions in the same articles. It even highlights those television recaps
Peter Travers is one of the reasons I’m interested in going into entertainment journalism, and other than the fact that Rolling Stone is legendary, he’s one of the reasons I trust the entire outlet. He is one of the industry professionals who has established relationships inside the industry, and I’d never doubt what Rolling Stone has to say about film or other forms of entertainment for that reason.
Overall, I don’t think my consumption of news has changed much since the beginning of the semester. This might be a personal flaw, but I use mostly the same sources I did prior to this class. That said, I’ve taken personal inventory over the sources I’ve used and assessed them for their reliability, which has only led me deeper into my fandom.
One thing I will say is that I spend a lot of time looking at movie news on Reddit, which can lead me to all sorts of sites, and whereas before I used to take a lot of what I read from random sites at face value, I evaluate every single story and every single site for legitimacy.
I’ve become something of an entertainment journalism detective through this class and the assignments. To bring it all back to media, I “follow the money.” Where did the information originate? Who picked the story up? Is it plausible? There are a lot of startup entertainment news websites looking to get any scoop they can, so it’s important to know if those sites are trustworthy or not.
In the case of sites like Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, they use a lot of primary sources, and they’ve established credit over the course of decades. I believe an introductory course at Cronkite used the term “evangelist” when referring to the ideal readers of a news outlet. Well, I’m an evangelist of these outlets, and I’d say those decades of establishing trust and relationships were not wasted.
