ArtsJournal.com Understands and Uses Blog Power
ArtsJournal.com understands the power of blogs and uses them well from setting up online “Critical Conversations” on topics like this one: Classical Music Critics on the Future of Music: A 10-Day AJ Topic Blog (July 28-August 7, 2004) to having more than a dozen critics write blogs covering everything from music to architecture.
Here is Arts Journal’s editor-in-chief Douglas McLennan on why he set up the Critical Conversation on the future of classical music:
There was a time when great cities had multiple newspapers and culture was hashed out daily in the press, strongly-held opinions battling for the hearts and minds of readers. Today it’s rare for a city to have more than one or two outlets where culture can be publicly discussed, let alone prodded and pulled and challenged…
Our culture is the lesser for it, as critical opinions about art, music, theatre, and dance get squeezed, and public debates about culture in the print media grow fainter. That doesn’t mean there isn’t great writing about culture still to be found in print (there’s evidence of it every day in ArtsJournal). But the writing is one-way, and rarely do we see a good back-and-forth debate bubble up.
Now comes the internet, where a lively mob of voices has taken up discussions of culture, politics, and just about anything else you can think of. Daily, thousands of bloggers fire up their computers to register opinions, and one of the things that makes the best of them interesting is their willingness to engage in dialogues with their readers.
So what if we gathered up some of the best print critics and asked them to engage one another over an issue in a blog? Their opinions could be challenged, their ideas explained, and a lively debate might ensue.
The online discussion was followed up with a live panel discussion at the Aspen Music Festival and School, and the discussion lives on as seen in an Anne Midgette article in today’s New York Times Arts Section.
