(Publisher’s note: This article is part of a new weekly series featuring journalists from Columbus Dispatch and their work in our community.)
As entertainment and things to do a journalist, I like to think that I provide “information”. I write on a Assortment of events In Columbus and in the center of Ohio, often linked to the Arts and Entertainment Community. I also write longer features in the city Show arts organizations and interview locally, national and worldwide known to musicians, writers, comedians and other artists.
Before coming to La Dépêche in October 2022, I was a page designer for the Aim Media Midwest newspapers. I also worked for AIM as a deputy editor -in -chief of Miami Valley Times in Troy and as editor -in -chief of Lexis Nexis.
By living in California, I was a writer for the Hollywood Reporter – and yes, Tinseltown is as wonderful and horrible as you heard. I have therapy invoices to prove it.
Here is a little more on me.
Why did I become a journalist
There was never time in my life that I didn’t want to be a writer. I credit this to my mother, who taught me to read and write when I was 3 years old to keep myself busy – and to follow her to ask questions (like a real journalist). At the age of 5, I wrote and illustrated the news.
I wrote stories through my adolescence, especially an absurd humor that I shared with my friends. I always have a file full of these scribbles worthy of Trépas “Weird Al” Yankovic Riche when I shared him with him during an interview in 1999.
Despite the knowledge of my desired career from the start, I got there by a rather circuit route. On the advice of my father, “writers do not earn much money. Computers – that’s where it is”, I decided to specialize in computer science. I quickly learned that coding is the devil and passed to community corrections, with the intention of becoming an advisor in the minimum safety criminal installation where I was an intern.
I continued to write during this period, including for the school newspaper. It was my escape, my outlet and basically, I knew it was my reason for being. And I knew it was a passion that no amount of money could replace. Thus, after having obtained my diploma in June, instead of applying for jobs, I applied to the Ohio University journalism school in Athens. I left in August.
Why I chose entertainment journalism
I have always been a vulture of pop culture. It is not an understatement to say that I am obsessed with most things of entertainment, especially music, and that I am a kind of trivia walking encyclopedia on a variety of artists and songs.
My music collection, which dates back to the age of 5 (yes, I still have my first vinyl record), is a hodgepodge sonic going from Bubblegum Pop to the dark blues of the 1930s. As a tween, I kept a notebook in which I have meticulously listed hundreds of songs and how many times I have heard them. What seemed to be a useless neurodivergent line in fact kept my finger on the pulse of whom and what was new and hot. (I would have liked to keep this notebook.)
I am also a Newshound celebrity, but without paparazzi or parasocial trends. I like to hear about the new Broadway show Cyndi Lauperworks on or when an interview of half an hour with Paula Poundtone turns into a 90 -minute gabfest. I like to learn interesting things about interesting people, then share with interested people and show them the human side of these personalities larger than life.
My love for pop culture served me well as a journalist on a rhythm requiring a width of knowledge about various facets of entertainment. Understanding the interior functioning of a sponsored industry helped me walk on the infested waters of sharks for Hollywood entertainment reports, while my retention unnecessary in fact was useful for formulating fairly creative interview questions.
What stories distinguish me?
At the start of my career, I was contacted by a former actor seeking to reconcile with his famous son. The actor had been burned by a room in a well -known entertainment magazine and wanted to set the record straight. Thanks to a series of interviews, I slowly gained his confidence, and he opened for abandoning his first wife during his pregnancy with none other than the filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. The story that resulted from these interviews was one of my best works at the time.
Since I was with The Dispatch, a story that stands out is a play that I have written for the series of armed violence “Under Fire”, one of the few features I have made. I interviewed Two students who were in locking At Pickerington Ridgeview Stem Junior High School during an active shooting exercise in February 2023. For months later, the fear of a girl was still palpable, and the two had lost some innocence in the experience. I hope I was able to transmit this with my words.
I was also touched by an interview that I made with the poet, essayist and activist of Columbus Hanif abdurraqibOne of the most creative and agile spirits that I have ever plunged. Because I am my worst criticism, I rarely applaud my own work, but it was an example in which I was Peacock Proud and Hyena-Happy with my writing. This meant a lot of receiving an email from a colleague from USA Today saying: “Your story about Hanif Abdurraqib is one of the most beautiful things I have read.”
What I like most about my work
Among the things I appreciate most about features and entertainment is that it is rarely monotonous and that I always learn. In order to inform others, you must first inform yourself.
I love the diversity of people I meet during my work. Microcosm of society, they understand different sexes, races and ethnic groups, professions, sexual orientations and life experiences.
I do not have the impression that it is a job that I to have TO DO; It’s a job I get TO DO.
Belinda M. Paschal is reached in bpaschal@dispatch.com.