{"id":3371,"date":"2026-04-11T18:21:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:21:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T01:21:41","slug":"aj-chronicles-how-to-fight-the-slop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/diacritical\/2026\/04\/aj-chronicles-how-to-fight-the-slop.html","title":{"rendered":"AJ Chronicles: How to Fight the Slop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Image by Jerryyaar Designer<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/sup><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This week we collected 128 stories on ArtsJournal. Here’s what I learned:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are drowning in slop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s essentially the diagnosis in Derek Thompson’s sharp essay this week<\/a> on what he calls “zombie flow,” the algorithmic compulsion to produce vast quantities of content nobody particularly wants. Streaming platforms commissioning shows designed not to be great but to fill a queue. Studios greenlighting sequels to sequels because the algorithm rewards familiarity. Bollywood racing to adopt AI production tools<\/a> not to make better films but to make more of them faster. The logic is industrial: keep the line moving, and volume is its own justification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But volume isn’t a strategy, it’s an anxiety. And several of this week’s stories suggest that the institutions and people who understand this are starting to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The London Times<\/em> cut its story count by 20 to 30 percent<\/a>. The result: more readers, more engagement, more subscriptions \u2014 significantly more. Fewer stories, each one carrying more weight turned out to be what the audience actually wanted. Not more, but better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That word better<\/em> is doing a lot of work right now across the culture. For decades, institutions could lean on a kind of credential shorthand. Trust us, we’re the museum. We’re the newspaper. We’re the publisher.<\/em> Quality was often asserted not demonstrated. And that worked for a long time because the institutions controlled the distribution and the audience had limited alternatives. I wrote last week about another version of this \u2014 the “excellence problem”<\/a> \u2014 and the importance of getting a more precise definition of what excellence is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Thompson reports about zombie culture, the mindless slop has arrived in a tsunami. How does the “good stuff” even find us, lost in the swirling eddies? More important, with all the background noise, do we even recognize “good?” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AI detection tools<\/a> that were supposed to authenticate human-made writing can’t reliably tell human from machine, and the technology built to certify quality has itself become unreliable. Then there’re these stories, authentication barriers erected by humans:<\/p>\n\n\n\n