In support of what’s arguably a good idea (giving media companies an antitrust exemption so they can band together and bargain for revenue sharing with Google and Facebook), the News Industry Alliance released a study claiming that Google News alone earns more than $4.7 billion for the search engine. That is, argues Jordan Weissman, “a stunningly flimsy conclusion. … This effort is so amateurish that I’m guessing it will probably do more harm than good for the industry’s cause.” – Slate
Category: issues
Brazil’s Museums Exempted From Bolsonaro’s Massive Change To Cultural Funding Law
“Among the changes [to the “Rouanet Law“] due to come into effect next year is the reduction of the annual funding cap per project from 60m reais ($15.44m) to 1m reais ($257,000), but museums, material and immaterial heritage projects, conservation initiatives and some entertainment productions will be exempt.” – The Art Newspaper
Does Your SmartPhone Add Or Subtract From Your Concert Experience?
The research shows that when we decide to use our phones to check work email, to check up on the kids or any other activities that have nothing to do with the festival, our satisfaction with the experience goes down. When we do use our devices at festivals it doesn’t affect our satisfaction with the event if we are using our phones for festival-related activities like looking at the festival schedule, the venue map or even texting to meet up with friends who are joining us. – The Conversation
Maker Faire Has Shut Down And Laid Off Its Staff
For 15 years, MAKE: guided adults and children through step-by-step do-it-yourself crafting and science projects, and it was central to the maker movement. Since 2006, Maker Faire’s 200 owned and licensed events per year in over 40 countries let attendees wander amidst giant, inspiring art and engineering installations. – TechCrunch
Why Is The U.S. So Far Behind Europe On Digital Privacy?
The U.S. permits shocking abuses of privacy online. Why? Well … “Congress’s earliest attempts to regulate computing in the 1980s and 1990s were embarrassing.” – The New York Times
YouTube Spends A Week Bungling Announcements, Making Harassment Worse
Reading the history of this week of YouTube announcements, discussions, demonetizing of right-wing accounts, and the subsequent high-profile, high-volume, high-intensity harassment campaign against Vox journalist Carlos Maza, well … “In short, YouTube’s big policy announcement ended up acting as incitement to harassment against one of its own creators.” – Vice
Critic Margo Jefferson On Coming To Terms With Her Writing About Michael Jackson
Jefferson, author of On Michael Jackson: “Am I chagrined and shamed that when I wrote my book I couldn’t push myself to acknowledge that this damaged man was almost certainly a sexual predator? Of course I am. As a critic I’m invested in believing I’m not in the grip of naivety or denial. … [But] the crises that have created #MeToo and similar movements show how little we knew and how little we chose to know.” – The Guardian (UK)
Why Is Public Funding For The Arts So Problematic?
After 70 years, most people still don’t live within easy reach – in any sense – of the artistic riches enabled by Arts Council funding. After 70 years, most artists still earn very little for their creative work. Changing both situations involves redistribution, and that necessarily has losers as well as winners. One criticism that can be fairly made of Arts Council England is that it has not used the increases it gained in the past 25 years to change the underlying principles or pattern of its support. – Parliament of Dreams
Attacking The Financial Industry: These Artists Bought Debt With Art And Blew It Up (Literally)
They sold money they printed themselves as art works, and used the funds to buy up £1.2 million of debt on the secondary market, where lenders sell bad debts. – The New York Times
Board Exodus At Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre
Thirteen out of 34 members of the board of directors, including chairman John Svoboda, resigned this week following a disagreement with Roosevelt University, which owns the building, over the hiring of a new CEO. – Crain’s Chicago Business