July 2000, ArtsOhio Page 2

State Representative Stephen Buehrer (R)

Office
Ohio House of Representatives, 82nd District, Fulton County

Legislative Committees
Commerce and Labor, Criminal Justice, Ethics and Standards, Public Utilities, State Government

Years In Office 1

Personal
32; hometown, Delta; BS in social studies and education, Bowling Green State University; JD, Capital University Law School; married to Cathy, son Benjamin Stephen

Recent Honor
National Conference of State Legislators Leadership Institute

Favorite Artist
Andrew Lloyd Webber

Favorite Cultural Pastime
Working with youth as a coach and counselor at a drug-free camp; assistant director of several high school musicals.

Beth Fisher, director of the public information office of the Ohio Arts Council for 13 years, has been hired as development director at the Wexner Center for the Arts. During her two decades on the staff of the Ohio Arts Council, Fisher lead redesign of agency publications, developed marketing plans, coordinated partnerships with media and other arts organizations and played a key role in international cultural exchanges. Congratulations and farewell, Beth. The Ohio Arts Council staff will miss you.

(CON'T From Page 1) on the visual arts, architecture, dance and radio, the least-covered arts topics. By contrast, a 1998 poll by the Newspaper Association of America found entertainment was the second most-read section of the paper. Sixty-eight percent of respondents cited it as a section they usually read, trailing only news at 90 percent and surpassing sports at 63 percent and business at 62 percent.

The Columbia study also looked at network television news and found that morning news programs gave the most attention to the arts. More than 20 percent of morning coverage featured interviews with authors, movie reviews, features on the performing arts and actors promoting their latest projects.

Evening and prime time news shows paid less attention to the arts. Only 11 of 315 stories on the evening news on ABC, CBS and NBC centered on arts and culture. Those segments tended to be presented near the end of the broadcasts. Prime time news magazines on the three major networks also gave minimal coverage to the arts and culture. Of 169 features only seven segments related to arts and culture. Both 60 Minutes and 48 Hours featured no topics related to the arts.

With 1,700 member newspapers, the Associated Press can have a large influence on media coverage, very little of which focuses on the arts. The AP has no visual arts reporter. Of the 570 stories covered during the study, only a handful related to the arts. Those stories were more likely to relate to celebrity scandals or box office statistics than to performing arts or literature. It is safe to say that arts and entertainment is not a priority for the wire service.

View the original report by the National Arts Journalism Program at www.najp.org/research.

The Ohio Arts Council is preparing a News Media Guide to help organizations that receive OAC funding deal effectively with reporters and editors. The guide will be mailed to grant recipients this summer.