You can also make your subjects appear topical or newsworthy by ‘pegging’ the interviews and features to anniversaries, adaptations of their work, trends, waves, success stories, controversies, protests and scandals. You can cover arts events ahead of time, as previews or ‘curtain-raisers’, or as reviews. You should be clear and accessible, but you can also introduce audiences to new things, by communicating your own interests and enthusiasm to them, and showing how those aspects of culture touch their lives.

You can cultivate your own authority as a cultural journalist and critic by following the ethical standards of journalism in checking facts and giving accurate information; being balanced in your coverage and taking into account opposing views; and respecting the distinctions between fact and opinion. You should also keep up with your chosen art form and with culture more widely, and aim to be original in discovering new art and artists.