Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Pew Study: Where Americans Get Their News
A large majority of U.S. adults (86%) say they often or sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 56% who say...
MuchMusic Was Canada’s Answer To MTV. Its Demise Says Much About What Happened To...
MuchMusic is often commemorated for its halcyon days, but a proper examination of the decline of media and the dearth of music coverage today...
Siskel And Ebert And The Chemistry Of Being Critics
These fundamental conundrums of criticism involve questions about specialism, authority, personality, art, and business. And, with Siskel and Ebert, these dilemmas came into play...
Are We Headed Into A New Romantic Age?
That’s the world, circa 1800. The new paradigm shocked Europe when it started to spread. Cultural elites had just assumed that science and reason...
Why Are New TVs So Amazingly Cheap? Your Data!
Whatever you’re watching on your smart TV, algorithms are tracking your habits. This influences the ads you see on your TV, yes, but if...
A Use For Empty Downtown Buildings: Universities
I’ll say straight off: It’s not architecture for the ages, but it’s an interesting, high-end model of an urban quad and a good example...
University Finally Opens A New Concert Hall, Just As It Shuts Down Its Music...
“One of the ironies of Brookes history will be that the university will finally offer a proper performance space, at the same time that...
Young Person Goes To Her First Orchestra Concert. This is What She Thought
"I can totally admit that these questions highlight my naivety. But overall I really did enjoy my first experience at the orchestra, and although...
Behold The League Of Live Stream Theatre
The League of Live Stream Theater, the nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing live performances to audiences around the world via livestream, can play a...
Syracuse Opera Suspends Operations
Syracuse Opera board chair Camille Tisdel said ticket sales are down 40-60% from where they were prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. The opera company...
Ticket-Sellers Beware: We’re Coming After Your Junk Fees!
“We know that junk fees resonate with American consumers. They don’t like being taken for suckers,” said Lael Brainard, the director of the White...
Redefining And Redeploying Expertise
The phenomenon is sped by automation, which usurps routine tasks, leaving employees to handle the nonroutine and unanticipated—and the continued advance of which throws...
Stuck In Algorithmic Hell (We Really Know What You Want To See/Hear)
"We used your personal account in a recent brainstorming meeting as an example of why Netflix should start charging for screen time instead of...
How Digital Celebrity Works
The open infrastructure of the Internet allowed ordinary people to reach a level of renown once reserved for politicians or Hollywood starlets. These newly...
Why Activism Leads To So Much Bad Art
"During the past decade, politics has intruded on daily American life more than at any time since the 1960s; in the same period, technology...
The Making Of Puzzle Master Will Shortz
With a 15-year stint as the editor of Games magazine, his founding of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, a 30-year tenure at The Times...
Precipitous Drop In Students Studying Foreign Languages
Even though we live in an increasingly globalized world, the number of college students taking languages is rapidly falling. - The Conversation
Mass Resignations Of Documenta Selection Committee: “No Room For Ideas”
“In the current circumstances we do not believe that there is a space in Germany for an open exchange of ideas and the development...
Matias Tarnopolsky: Why Cultural Diplomacy Is Important
"It may seem naïve to argue that a symphony orchestra can help solve the world’s problems. But a lifetime in music has convinced me...
Can This Enormous Music Archive Be Saved?
The Arc preserves copies of every recording in all known formats. It has electronically catalogued more than 400,000 sound recordings and digitised 200,000 with the...
Newest-Gen Versions Of AI Image Creators Upend Everything
With the advent of AI image synthesis, it's looking increasingly like the future of media creation for many will come through the aid of...
Seattle Indie Radio Phenom KEXP Buys San Francisco Station
KEXP has purchased San Francisco’s KREV 92.7 radio station, and pending FCC approval, “will be taking full ownership and operation” of the station “within...
Why Spoilers Don’t Really Spoil Your Favorite Shows Or Books
In a series of psychological experiments published in 2011, researchers in California found that knowing the end of a story did not diminish readers’ enjoyment. In...
Comparing The 233 Surviving Copies Of Shakespeare’s First Folio (Fascinating Differences)
None of the folios were identical; sometimes a letter or word would be different, evidence of the typesetter at William Jaggard’s London printshop tinkering...
Obsolete? Schools Are Getting Rid Of Their Librarians (But Here’s What’s Being Lost)
Some K-12 decision makers perceive school librarians as little more than quaint remnants of a bygone era. And if the number of our nation's...
