Guide to entertainment reporting

1) K-pop star makes news 2) call company 3) drop them your email 4) they email you back (sometimes) 5) ask for 20 min interview 6) get rejected 7) ask for 10 min interview 8) no 9) ask for 5 min 10) they ask what Qs im gonna ask EXACTLY

11) tell them I can't tell them exact Qs 12) explain about our editorial policy 13) they said no interview 14) offer them broad talking points 15) they proceed to grill me about every single points i give them 16) try to get me to promise that i won't say certain words like "BLM"

17) i say no 18) proceed to convince them that that's an imp subject 19) they say no 20) butter the topic saying not talking about the most imp topic atm might make the interview look weird 21) reluctant yes 22) set up time 23) travel to some fancy hotel or agency (zoom now)

24) awkwardly walk in while body guards look at everyone within their vicinity w suspicion 25) sign COVID form 26) temperature check (skip 24-26 if zoom IV) 26) camera set up 27) awkwardly look at wall in front of you w ten label employees staring at your back or cam monitor

28) attempt to make small talks 29) they try to get a reassurance that i won't mention some banned words 30) reassure them again and again that i won't screw them over by being unfair/biased 31) calm them down again by explaining that AP is a century-old media company

32) drop some names of stars i've interviewed (this helps!) 33) they nod and finally back away slightly to give me some physical space 34) star is, of course, 10-15 min late 35) more small talk (running out of topics) 36) drop more celeb IV stories while they ahhh and ohhh

37) The star finally appears!!!!!!!! 38) I smile widely and greet the star 39) everyone bow to each other including the star (in Korea) 40) star sits down 41) retouching star's make up while i pretend to go over my note over and over 42) five min later - interview starts

43) using up all my brain energy to frame questions in a way that won't make one of ten staffs behind me cough or step in *during the IV --5 min later (sponge bob tone)-- 44) a staff almost always nudges me slightly to let me know that the time's up 45) i quickly say ONE more Q!

46) i rattle off one more q (i mean they can't physically move me from my chair) 47) star answers while staffs behind me take one step forward 48) I quickly say "THAT'S IT!" as soon as the star finishes talking 49) i bow to everyone and thank them (vice versa) 50) pack up

~ not the end~ 51) drag my tired butt home 52) get a text/call from PR about *urgent* issue 53) get asked if I can take out soundbites A,B and C 54) i ask why 54) they explain why they are sensitive in five diff ways 55) i explain our editorial policy again

56) proceed to explain again where this interview will go (start w names of our media clients to explaining about our clients-only video platform) 57) explain why it's clients-only (explain the concept of news wire agency) 58) pinky promise them i'd send them a published story

59) they reluctantly hang up 60) i get my interviews transcribed 61) email labels and ask if we can use parts of music video and ask about restriction/ credit 62) periodically write back to get them to email me back 63) narrow down and pick soundbites 64) cut them

65) fact check details from interview 66) cut music video 67) combine soundbites from the interview and music video 68) export (~waiting~) 69) email the vid to AP to ingest 70) ~wait~ 71) move it to our internal server and put it on timeline again, export to internal server

72) open up Amazon workspaces (super duper slow publishing platform) login from computer + authenticate again from mobile 73) ~wait~ 74) shotlist (gotta abide by twenty formatting rules) 75) script writing 76) final check 77) re-upload vid 78) colleague checks. DONE.

wow no wonder i lack patience for most other things in life

Oh, this doesn't just apply to K-pop stars. I once had a PR rep from an intl music company threatening to basically blacklist me if i don't delete a certain soundbite from this American artist I interviewed. Took two very delicate and smart emails from my boss to calm her down.

wow frustration just oozing out today, bear with me. Me being a Korean/living in Korea don't help much when it comes to K-pop reporting bc labels don't know whether to put me in a category of 1) local media or 2) western media (bc i am based here, and my last name is PARK)

They treat local and western media differently. Local media gets more press releases and event invites. Western media gets releases mostly about blingy stuff - like topping charts. I asked labels if i can receive Korean press releases. Some are still ignoring me till this day.

And partially, I think that's bc 1) they don't hv manpower to translate every idol related news to eng for western media and some details are too minor, and 2) when idols screw up, companies usually apologize thru press releases - usually only sent to local media

When I ask for an exclusive interview, 9 out of 10 decline first. When I call/email/text back and beg, they are very hesitant. I always wondered why until I found out that there's this unspoken rule in the industry of not giving out exclusive interview bc of complaints

So basically other media will complain if one media gets an exclusive IV so they usually do a roundtable interview where everyoneeeee is present tgt (and again, western media not invited so I can't even go). I guess top broadcasters do get them easily.

Oh, I forgot to include this begging part. I'd give them another call and explain that we're a news wire agency (LIKE we're YONHAP NEWS! BUT FOR THE WORLD!) so the situation is a lil diff, and plus we're not a local media. i can't exactly tell you the lines I use but they work

But still, I do miss out on lots of opportunities bc labels and PR companies fail, intentionally or unintentionally, to box me into a certain category. The word 'beg' is not an exaggeration here as you can see from other comments and retweets from ents reporters. life is tough.

So ya, before you judge any entertainment article, please kindly understand that we have to report w hands tied behind our back we really try our best but the scale is really really tipped.

The easiest label to work with, personally, is YG. Their comms team is made up of ex-journos. They just get it. Can’t talk about difficult ones bc i’d be cancelled.

But maybe that’s bc i haven’t had the opportunity to interview A-listers from YG. Also, i enjoy interviewing (non-commercial) rappers. Epik High and Tiger JK were so real. I actually interviewed Epik High exactly a year ago from today #성덕 #sincelike2005?