{"id":155,"date":"2008-12-09T10:37:30","date_gmt":"2008-12-09T10:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=155"},"modified":"2008-12-09T10:37:30","modified_gmt":"2008-12-09T10:37:30","slug":"power_to_the_people_and_to_the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2008\/12\/power_to_the_people_and_to_the\/","title":{"rendered":"Power to the people. And to the federal government."},"content":{"rendered":"

Gawker<\/a> <\/i>reports that Mark Pinsky from The New Republic <\/i>wants Obama to bring back the Federal Writer’s Project<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The Federal Writers Project operated from 1935-1939 under the
\nleadership of Henry Alsberg, a journalist and theater director. In
\naddition to providing employment to more than 6,000 out-of-work
\nreporters, photographers, editors, critics, writers<\/b>, and creative
\ncraftsmen and -women, the FWP produced some lasting contributions to
\nAmerican history, culture, and literature. Their efforts ranged from
\ncomprehensive guides to 48 states and three territories to interviews
\nwith and photos of 2,300 former African-American slaves. These are
\npreserved in the seventeen volumes of Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves<\/i>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wonder how our numbers compare to those 6,000 from seventy years ago. <\/p>\n

Other solutions for the lack of journalists problem – correction, lack of jobs<\/i> for journalists problem – are being explored by Joe’s Pub<\/a> and The Brooklyn Museum<\/a>. As mentioned here before, Joe’s Pub has added a comments feature to all of their concert pages, essentially skipping (or, attempting to skip?) the need for listings on music blogs like Brooklyn Vegan<\/i><\/a>: <\/p>\n

\"Brooklyn-Vegan.jpg\"<\/span>And here is the Joe’s Pub site:<\/p>\n

\"Joe's-Pub.jpg\"<\/span>The problem is that the Joe’s Pub site is less-visited than a lot of music listings blogs, so a concert getting a mention with users’ comments on Brooklyn Vegan<\/i> will drive new audiences to Joe’s Pub, whereas the comments on the Joe’s Pub site presumably drive folks who are already there to other\/additional concert options. <\/p>\n

Along similar lines, when I was at the Gilbert & George<\/a><\/i> exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum a couple weekends back, I was thrilled to see that they had a computer comment kiosk in the gallery space!<\/p>\n

\"Gilbert-&-George-comments.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a bit hard to read, because I took the faux toe with my friend’s trusty iPhone, but it says, “The Brooklyn Museum wants to hear from you. Comments left here about Gilbert & George<\/i> will be visible to others in the gallery and on our Web site.” Sparkling comments include, “the guy with the glasses looks like a cat”, and if that doesn’t make undecideds cruising around the Brooklyn Museum’s website jump on the 2\/3 to see Gilbert & George<\/i>, then I don’t know what will!<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I think what both Joe’s Pub and the Brooklyn Museum are doing is great. What better way to sell concerts and exhibitions than to show potential buyers what average Joes\/Janes like themselves thought of the exhibition, or think of a venue’s programming choices. And, if a classical presenter had a computer(s) in their lobby for comments before the concert, at intermission, after the concerts, potential future buyers who weren’t there could get a sense of the concert experience. Maybe someone was excited about the concert before it started, didn’t like the first half, and then loved the second half. To me, those reports are as interesting as the official reviews. But are they only valuable when balanced with professional opinions? Can they stand alone? <\/p>\n

What’s your verdict? Should the federal government subsidize journalism again, or do online comments from the people = a new journalism? <\/p>\n

[And, yikes, will your answer be along “party” lines?]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gawker reports that Mark Pinsky from The New Republic wants Obama to bring back the Federal Writer’s Project: The Federal Writers Project operated from 1935-1939 under the leadership of Henry Alsberg, a journalist and theater director. In addition to providing employment to more than 6,000 out-of-work reporters, photographers, editors, critics, writers, and creative craftsmen and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}