Review
Arts Implores Help to End Shoddy Event Coverage
To
the Editors:
As
an arts writer for The Oberlin Review, I want to join the call of
those who feel Oberlins flagship publication does not do justice
in covering arts events on this campus. Unlike many organizations
when criticized, I would like to assert that the entire hierarchy
of the arts section stands firmly in support of those who demand
increased campus arts coverage. This letter, in response to senior
James Blachlys perspective, comes in full support of an improved,
more informative arts section, and I commend Blachly for his time
in highlighting this point.
The problem here is large, but cannot be ignorantly blamed on those
who run the arts section, who take literally two to three nights
of their life every seven days to bring Oberlin what, not them,
but their writers are able to cover. No, the problem is horridly
frustrating for those who do take time to commit themselves to the
publication, and enigmatic for those on the outside who have a legitimate
gripe when their event, any event, goes left uncovered.
The staff of the Review is small compared to those who read it;
writers are students like yourselves who do naturally what most
interests them, and it is unfair to condemn the occasional shoddy
reporting of these writers when editors are pressured by professors
and students to cover certain events even when their well has run
dry. At last count, according to an editor, three people on staff
have any classical music background. That is a travesty for Oberlin.
The only thing you can blame the paper for in that respect is lack
of recruitment, a questionable excuse that I will dispel now:
ALL INTERESTED IN WRITING ARTICLES ABOUT MUSIC FOR THE REVIEW ARTS
SECTION, PLEASE E-MAIL ARTS@OBERLINREVIEW.ORG, ASAP!
There, unfortunately, also needs to be more done. One more way which
I commend Blachlys perspective of last week is its carefully
thought-out, creative solution to our Catch-22 situation: if you
plan to see an event, have to critique it anyway, why not write
an article? For the price of taking a little time to meet the artists,
jot down a couple quotes, you could get published in the most widely
read paper on campus. Your field knowledge is precious. The article
itself hardly has to be of stellar quality, because editors can
make sense out of anything, and gladly meet with writers Thursday
night to go over revisions.
We must follow the cardinal rule of any open publication: to read
it someone has to write it. To ignore this problem is to perpetuate
it, to cast blame is to antagonize it. From the hallways of King
to the basement of Wilder, and especially the stairwells of Robertson,
the call must go out: submit to arts. As it is, we have an unsolvable
situation, where everybody has the right to blame, but no one deserves
to accept it. But if we at Oberlin can stand and do something about
administrative cutbacks and unfair tenure rejections, we can certainly
do something about adding more arts in the Review. Were not
fighting the administration or sources of power. Its the students
paper, and our effort directly relates to its well being and improvement.
How much more can you ask for?
Douglass
Dowty
College first-year
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