One partial solution to the decline of media that often gets ignored—yet has the potential to both alleviate the deepening crisis and also help restore public trust in the media as a whole—is for the government to create and finance a truly public media system. The idea of public media is often conflated with state-run media in the eyes of skittish libertarians, but public media systems in other democracies have proven entirely capable of retaining editorial independence despite being government-funded. – The New Republic
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How Newsweek Became A Zombie Magazine
These controversies hollowed out Newsweek’s staff and its brand. Its clickbait-heavy approach, aimed at gaming search engines, has declined since it was spun off from parent company IBT Media in 2018. But it remains a publication that privileges the interests of Google over those of its hypothetical readers. While other publications are abandoning the “scale” model pioneered by BuzzFeed and others in favor of building a loyal audience and raking in subscriptions, Newsweek is something of a throwback. – The New Republic
In Iran, Female Dancers (And Their Male Accompanists) Face Relentless Pressure And Danger
It’s not news that the Khomeinite doctrines that drive the Islamic Republic’s authorities are dead set against dance, music, and any other way that women might display themselves to the public. That applies not only to cultural imports from the West, but even to classical Persian art forms. What’s more, disapproval of public dance performance has a very long history in Iran. Reporter Rachel Spence talks to a classical dancer and a musician about the arrest, exile, and imprisonment they and their colleagues face for practicing and preserving their art. – Financial Times
Mask Tasks: How Texas Tinterow Pulled Off the Early Reopening of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
As New York City’s major museums prepare to reopen, the experience of the the first major U.S. art museum out of the re-starting gate — the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, which intrepidly invited its public back three months ago — is an object lesson on how it might (or might not) work for others. – Lee Rosenbaum
Dreamstage – A New Virtual Concert Hall
The design of Dreamstage simulates a traditional live event with virtual ticket offices, an entrance for the audience, artistic entrance, and a post-performance lounge. Ticket proceeds will go to musicians. – The Strad
Reissued Asterix Comics Have An Ugly-Racial-Stereotype Problem
A series of collected strips, in a new English translation, about the funny little Gaul and his fellows resisting the Romans is now being released in the U.S. That’s bringing new attention to an old problem: the way the original artist in the 1960s depicted African slaves. The U.S. publisher wanted to change the drawings, but the rights holder, Hachette France, refused to allow anything but minor cosmetic alterations. – Publishers Weekly
The “Demographic Bias” Built Into The Machine
Recent studies from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have confirmed that computer facial recognition is less accurate at matching African-American faces than Caucasian ones. One reason for the discrepancy is the lack of non-Caucasian faces in datasets from which computer algorithms form a match. The poor representation of people of color from around the world, and their range of facial features and skin shades, creates what researchers have called a “demographic bias” built into the technology. – Nautilus
John Cage, Master Mycologist
Mycologist? That’s mushroom maven to you and me. The late composer was fascinated by the fungi throughout his life, often foraging for them and at one point making money selling his finds to New York restaurants. In 1959, he won the grand prize on an Italian quiz show with his expertise on the subject. He refused, however, to make any connection between mushrooms and music. – The Guardian
That Fine Line Between Collecting And Hoarding
People don’t gather ‘surplus’. Instead, they collect cars, harvest grain or store canned foods. In reality, accumulation is practised and thought about in relation to the specificity of the material world. Only in the abstract models of scholars does ‘surplus’ mean anything without reference to the real world of things. For that reason, the theory that mere ‘surplus’ somehow launched civilisation is wrong. – Aeon
Now This Is Zoom Opera That Works — And It’s For Young Kids
“Admittedly, preschoolers, Zoom and opera don’t immediately sound like the makings of a successful project, but each installment I watched of Opera Starts With Oh! — helmed by director, choreographer and teaching artist Emma Jaster and Opera Lafayette community engagement manager Ersian François — kept its grid of budding opera buffs rapt with an action-packed half-hour of activities, performances and assorted operatic antics.” – The Washington Post