ArtPrize, criticism and the Press

As we have mentioned in a previous posting, GRIID has been tracking the Grand Rapids Press coverage of ArtPrize since the day after Labor Day.

To date we have seen 76 total stories, with 21 of them being on the front page. The articles have dealt with everything from artist profiles, to venues, to how to make your ArtPrize experience more meaningful.

What we haven’t seen much of are stories that have offer up any real critical perspective of ArtPrize, apart from some of the stories that have pointed out the electronic voting flaws due to not getting all the broadband companies on board from the get go.

The lack of any critical stories changed as of Wednesday, when the Press ran four articles that could fall under the broad tent of criticism.

The first of the four articles appeared on page A15, written by art critic Ed Riojas. Riojas calls himself an “art curmudgeon” in the opinion piece since he has issues with people submitted works of art made from what he called recycled or found material. Riojas raises some interesting points about how one defines what art is and the potential dangers of allowing people to submit virtually anything.

The other three articles (all appearing on page A17) were stories that originally appeared on the Grand Rapids-based citizen journalism site The Rapidian. One article by George Wietor, entitled “Essays and Critique,” was more of an explanation of what The Rapidian does and how ArtPrize coverage has been one of the main sources of stories generated in recent weeks. The other two stories dealt with the role of social media in ArtPrize and the other dealt with the role of the public vote in ArtPrize.

In some ways it was very refreshing to see these pieces included after two weeks of nothing but glowing accounts of ArtPrize or stories that were nothing more than shameless promotional pieces for downtown businesses. It is extremely important for sources of journalism such as the Grand Rapids Press to provide either criticism of the role of art in society or at least a forum for that dialogue to take place.

However, each of these criticism pieces all focused on very narrow aspects of the social implications of art. There was and has been little about how ArtPrize is perceived by racial and cultural minorities in this community, how ArtPrize impacts the economically & socially marginalized populations that make up part of the Heartside community, the use of public space and how ArtPrize impacts local artists and local art year round. One other aspect that has not been explored in the Press coverage are the economic impact that the event has on the community as a whole and who are the primary beneficiaries of the money being spent/invested in downtown Grand Rapids because of ArtPrize.

These are all important and valid questions that news agencies should be exploring but have yet to do so in any serious way. The four pieces in Wednesday’s paper were a positive contribution to the beginnings of that questioning, but three of those stories were from non-staff.

Using the stories from The Rapidian raises questions about why the Press has not paid its own staff to write these kinds of stories. Did they choose to run somewhat critical pieces from non-Press staff as a way of avoiding any backlash from ArtPrize supporters? Certainly it makes it easier for the Press to deflect any criticism, since they can always say that such criticism is from a source independent of the Press.

In addition, the Press’ decision to run stories from The Rapidian also raises questions about what relationship the monopoly daily newspaper has with this recent citizen journalism experiment. Will we see more of this kind of collaboration? If so, then what is the ultimate function of citizen journalism? Will it just supplement the kind of news that the Press should be doing without having to pay anyone to do this kind of work or will it provide the Press with a greater pool of free lance writers, thus making it easier to downsize its fulltime staff?

These are not minor questions, since it leads us back to the obligation of journalism in this community, particularly journalism that will fulfill the fundamental tenets of that profession. Some of the most important aspects of journalism are to be an independent source to monitor power, all kinds of power – political, economic, etc.

Another important function of journalism is its obligation to the truth and its loyalty to the public. If journalism is true to these principles, it means that it will not shy from making critical observations or investigating the implications of anything that will impact the community. The Grand Rapids Press and any other entity that claims to practice journalism has an obligation to practice these principles, otherwise they should not deserve our trust or respect.