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diacritical

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June 18, 2006 by Douglas McLennan Leave a Comment

Over the past 60 years the idea of mass culture has taken on a life of its own; this idea that mainstream culture, mainstream media, is so powerful, so pervasive, that it touches every aspect of our lives. Indeed, it’s difficult to escape…


mass culture – it’s everywhere, and leaks into every aspect of daily life from our TVs, radio, magazines, books, music, movies, advertisements. And yet, with the current explosion of access to culture and the fragmentation of mass entertainment, we’re seeing shifts in how we produce, access, and consume culture. And so maybe it’s time to reconsider the power that traditional mass culture has.

This blog will look at the changing relationships of culture. It will attempt to connect some of the dots I see spread out among the menu of some 200+ publications I monitor daily for cultural news. And it will explore the changing relationships of consumers, critics, arts journalists, news media, cultural organizations and artists.

Every producer of “content” is nervous these days. Business models are changing, and the old rules don’t necessarily apply in the new terrain. Historically, it is at periods of cultural upheaval that critics have had their most influence. As our access to culture grows, we’re inceasingly going to need help sorting out what’s worth paying attention to. And, though much of this upheaval looks new and unprecedented, so much of this kind of change has been seen before.
And what does “diacritical” mean? From Wikipedia:

“A diacritical mark or diacritic, sometimes called an accent mark, is a mark added to a letter to alter a word’s pronunciation (ie. vowel marks) or to distinguish between similar words. The word derives from the Greek word διακριτικός (diakritikos, distinguishing). Note that diacritic is a noun and diacritical is the corresponding adjective.”

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Douglas McLennan

I’m the founder and editor of ArtsJournal, which was founded in September 1999 and aggregates arts and culture news from all over the internet. The site is also home to some 60 arts bloggers. I’m a … [Read More...]

About diacritical

Our culture is undergoing profound changes. Our expectations for what culture can (or should) do for us are changing. Relationships between those who make and distribute culture and those who consume it are changing. And our definitions of what artists are, how they work, and how we access them and their work are changing. So... [Read more]

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Recent Comments

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  • Peter Nelson on Too Many Artists Or Not Enough Value?: “For purposes of this discussion how are we defining "artist"? Are the various creatives involved in the advertising industry, the…” Mar 17, 13:02
  • David Beauchesne on Some Of Our Orchestras Seem To Be Thriving – Is This A New Trend?: “The Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra (& Music School) has experienced just under a decade of balanced budgets, and recent spectacular…” Mar 10, 06:09
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “And finally, even the term "attention span" contains an implicit judgment that only clouds the issue. It's not so…” Feb 22, 00:05
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “And about binge watching. The shows are based on constantly keeping the watcher in a fast-paced thrall. 24…” Feb 21, 23:59
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “Sure, we now have minimalist genres, and various long forms in the performing arts, but they are mostly highly marginalized…” Feb 21, 23:53
  • Douglas McLennan on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “At this point, I think it's debatable that our attention spans have shrunk. As Thomas points out, binge-watching and marathons…” Feb 20, 12:56
  • Thomas Lloyd on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “Who is placing an absolute value on attention spans? Even if that is the only option allowed by contemporary…” Feb 19, 15:37
  • william osborne on Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?: “One could take this a step farther. One of the greatest dangers facing the arts today is that too…” Feb 17, 08:14

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Recent Posts

  • Five Story Highlights From The Past Week 02.19.17: Trapped By PACs, New WTC As Cautionary Tale, Exploiting Humanities Workers
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  • Is The Institutionalization Of Our Arts A Dead End?
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