(Editor’s note: This article is part of a new weekly series featuring Columbus Dispatch journalists and their work in our community.)
As the entertainment and things-to-do reporter, I like to think I provide “info-tainment.” I write about an assortment of events in Columbus and central Ohio, often related to the arts and entertainment community. I also write longer features on the city’s performing arts organizations and interview locally, nationally and globally known musicians, writers, comedians and other artists.
Before coming to the Dispatch in October 2022, I was a page designer for the AIM Media Midwest newspaper family. I also worked for AIM as the assistant editor of the Miami Valley Times in Troy, and as a content editor for Lexis Nexis.
While living in California, I was a writer for The Hollywood Reporter — and yes, Tinseltown is as wonderful and horrible as you’ve heard. I have the therapy bills to prove it.
Here’s a bit more about me.
Why I became a journalist
There was never a 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 me occupied — and from following her around asking questions (like a true reporter). By age 5, I was writing and illustrating short stories.
I wrote stories throughout my teens, mostly absurdist humor that I shared with my friends. I still have a folder full of those cringeworthy but hilarious scribblings, including a parody that made “Weird Al” Yankovic laugh when I shared it with him during an interview in 1999.
Despite knowing my desired career early on, I arrived there by a rather circuitous route. On my father’s advice that, “Writers don’t make good money. Computers — that’s where it’s at,” I decided to major in computer science. I quickly learned that coding is the devil and switched to community-based corrections, intending to become a counselor at the minimum-security penal facility where I was an intern.
I continued to write during this time, including for the school paper. It was my escape, my outlet and deep down, I knew it was my reason for being. And I knew it was a passion no amount of money could replace. So, after graduating in June, instead of applying for jobs, I applied to journalism school at Ohio University in Athens. I left in August.
Why I chose entertainment journalism
I have always been a pop culture vulture. It’s not an understatement to say that I’m OBSESSED with most things entertainment, especially music, and that I’m kind of a walking encyclopedia of trivia about a variety of artists and songs.
My music collection, which dates back to age 5 (yes, I still own my first vinyl record), is a sonic hodgepodge ranging from bubblegum pop to obscure 1930s blues. As a tween, I kept a notebook in which I meticulously listed hundreds of songs and how many times I heard them. What seemed like a pointless, neurodivergent trait actually kept my finger on the pulse of who and what was new and hot. (I wish I’d kept that notebook.)
I’m also a celebrity newshound, but without paparazzi or parasocial tendencies. I like hearing about the new Broadway show Cyndi Lauper’s working on, or when a half-hour interview with Paula Poundstone turns into a 90-minute gabfest. I like learning interesting things about interesting people and then sharing with interested people and showing them the human side of these larger-than-life personalities.
My love for pop culture has served me well as a journalist on a beat requiring a breadth of knowledge about various facets of entertainment. Understanding the inner workings of a cutthroat industry helped me tread the shark-infested waters of Hollywood entertainment reporting, while my useless fact retention has come in handy for formulating some pretty creative interview questions.
What stories stand out to me?
Early in my career, I was contacted by a former actor seeking to reconcile with his famous son. The actor had been burned by a piece in a well-known entertainment magazine and wanted to set the record straight. Through a series of interviews, I slowly gained his trust, and he opened up about having abandoned his first wife during her pregnancy with none other than filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. The story that resulted from those interviews was one of my best works at the time.
Since I’ve been with the Dispatch, one story that stands out is a piece I wrote for the “Under Fire” gun violence series, one of the few newsier features I’ve done. I interviewed two students who were in the lockdown at Pickerington Ridgeview STEM Junior High School during an active shooter drill in February 2023. Months later, one girl’s fear was still palpable, and both had lost a little innocence in the experience. I hope I was able to convey that with my words.
I was also impacted by an interview I did with Columbus poet, essayist and activist Hanif Abdurraqib, one of the most creative and nimble minds I’ve ever delved into. Because I am my own worst critic, I rarely applaud my own work, but this was an instance in which I was peacock-proud and hyena-happy with my writing. It meant a lot to receive an email from a colleague at USA TODAY saying, “Your story on Hanif Abdurraqib is one of the most beautiful things I’ve read.”
What I like best about my job
Among the things I enjoy most about features and entertainment is that it’s rarely monotonous and I’m always learning. In order to inform others, you must first inform yourself.
I love the diversity of the people I meet in the course of my job. A microcosm of society, they comprise different genders, races and ethnicities, occupations, sexual orientations and life experiences.
I don’t feel like this is a job I have to do; it’s a job I get to do.
Belinda M. Paschal can be reached at [email protected].
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