Cultural Cacophony

Comment Cultural cacophony These argon noisy times in the humanities and media, but it doesnt mean we are dumbing down David Walker Guardian Tuesday October 26, 1999 Its alleged the media - and our culture - are dumbing down, aban take for granteding brain for sentiment, rigour for 1raucousness, standards for commercial success. But youthful debate has been heavy with evidence-less assertion. Too many diagnosticians of our cultural 2malaise procedure out to be self-interested (not least BBC arts producers for whom barbarism arrives with all(prenominal) minor change in the schedules). Dumbing down is hydra- showed. One head is LaLa, other Jerry Springer. One belongs to the editor of the Times Literary tack on which can no longer spell Nietzsche correctly; some other to a culture secretary who says he prefers Bob Dylan to Keats; and another to Tim Gardam, director of programmes at Channel 4: We are a bit short of unspoiled jokes in our factual programmes. thither is more place for raucousness. Complainants cite 3parochialism. The playwright Howard Brenton bemoans the medias failure to chance on the centenary of the birth of Berthold Brecht: old, white, German and socialist. Its tabloidisation in the papers, says Steve Barnett of the university of Westminster.

Latter-day news program values disfavour foreign and institutional news, prizing instead character and popcult. Its the suffocation of prime-time current affairs on ITV says the Campaign for character reference Television. Above all, it is a failure to 4discriminate. The demand that game shows and modus vivendi series be treated with the same seriousness as Cold War or Horizon, says the FTs critic Christopher Dunkley, is incision and parcel of that relativist craze which would have us believe that in that respect is nothing to choose between rap music and Bach, and that it makes good sense for Britain to be turning out thousands of media-studies graduates every stratum who can shot-list Star Trek from memory but dont know the difference between a noun and a verb. But... If you pauperism to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay

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