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Baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky Dead Of Brain Cancer At 55

“A favorite of audiences thanks to his alluring voice and heartthrob presence, Mr. Hvorostovsky cut a striking figure, his trim 6-foot-1 frame topped by a mane of prematurely white hair. He also had a compelling personal story: He escaped the street-gang life as a teenager in a grim Siberian city, found his talent there despite the region’s cultural isolation, and overcame a tempestuous drinking problem that could have ruined his career.”

Why Journalism Needs A ‘Language Beat’

Michael Erard: “Immediately after the election, Masha Gessen … called for a ‘language beat’ to track the erosions [in the meanings of words in the current climate]. But here’s a reality check that I hope isn’t merely pedantic: language consists of more than words. This gives the writer interested in politics, language, and the shifting of realities many topics to tackle beyond lexicography and semantics. As someone who’s been writing about language and linguistics for a long time – I consider myself a ‘language journalist’ – here are some that I have my eyes on.”

Top Posts From AJBlogs 11.21.17

Soft power and the arts (3/3)
The rituals behind cultural diplomacy leave me wondering about its effects. That cultural diplomacy is a soft-power approach to achieve hard goals is known by all participants in this game. We “see through” attempts by a nation to use carefully chosen works of art to convey a particular message … read more
AJBlog: For What It’s Worth Published 2017-11-21

 

Are Digital News Media Publishers Crashing?

“Online advertising is looking more and more like a contest that publishers can’t win—not on a large scale, at least. Advertising can help to cover some of their costs, but online ads alone won’t pay for big, serious, high-quality journalistic enterprises the way that print ads once did. The idea that the news business needs to find different revenue models—subscriptions, memberships, events, nonprofit status—is hardly new. But it’s time for online media companies to take a harder look at it than they have before.”

Modern Languages Association: Full-Time Jobs Teaching English In Universities Declines To New Low

The association’s Job Information List — a proxy for the tenure-track (or otherwise full-time) job market in English and foreign languages — included 851 jobs last year in English, 11 percent (102 jobs) fewer than the year before. The foreign language edition list included 808 jobs, or 12 percent (110 jobs) fewer than the year before.

Shannon Michael Cane, 43: He Transformed The World Of Art Book Fairs

One force behind the rise of these fairs was Shannon Michael Cane, an exuberant, heavily tattooed Australian expatriate and autodidact book aficionado who in 2013 took over the Printed Matter book fair in New York, the granddaddy of such gatherings. He proceeded to transform it into a radically inclusive affair, attended by venerable rare-book dealers alongside obscure zine makers so scrappy that they could barely afford the plane fare to participate.

Study: Why So Much Sexual Harassment? It’s All About The Power (Or Lack Thereof)

“People who see themselves as chronically denied power appear to have a stronger desire to feel powerful, and are more likely to use sexual aggression toward that end,” writes a research team led by psychologist Melissa Williams of Emory University. “Power can indeed create opportunities for sexual aggression, but it is those who chronically experience low power who will choose to exploit such opportunities.”