While most arts journalists are critics in the broadest sense, not all engage in the business of writing reviews, those 300 or 400 words of appraisal that mean so much to performers and artists and can cause lasting resentment. Overnight reviewing of concerts and plays - when a reviewer rushes out as soon as the show is over and writes a review that will be printed in the late edition of the next day's paper - is dying out in some newspapers (though it continues in The Irish Times). Traditionally the response to the first night of a new play, or a one-off concert performance, is regarded as news, which needs to appear in print as quickly as possible.
Reviewers tend to have mixed feelings about overnight reviewing: obviously, it's a pressurised way of writing, which flattens out subtleties and simplifies complexities. Reviewers often cringe slightly when they re-read what was written at top speed and in the heat of the occasion. Yet, while they might wish they could rephrase something with more polish, they often find that their first, instant judgement was the truest, after all.
At the most basic level, the reviewer is a tipster, telling the readers whether a show is worth their time - and money. But reviewers should do much more than that; they give a flavour of the work and, for the performing arts, convey what the experience of watching or hearing the work was like. They also deliver their considered verdict, and explain the reasons for their conclusions. No reviewer is infallible, and judgements are inevitably subjective, to a degree, but rooted in a body of knowledge.
Newspaper reviewers of visual arts (painting, sculpture etc.) are very constrained; they need to have descriptive as well as analytical skill. Many people find such art inaccessible and even intimidating - newspaper art reviewing has an important role to play in cutting through the jargon.
However, the power of the critic in this field is often overstated; nowadays, wealthy collectors can set fashionable taste as much as critics. Inevitably, arts journalists build up relationships with artists, through a shared passion for the arts and frequent contact. Reviewers' judgements may be influenced by their respect for an individual artist's commitment to his or her work, or the fact that they had dinner with the theatre's artistic director the previous week.
Artists can feel a sense of betrayal when their pal from the press dismisses four years' work in a crisp 300 words. The reviewer needs to cultivate detachment and a very thick skin.
