Good cultural criticism is dying out

Belgian cultural journalists bemoan the fact that their country's media has little or no place for critical commentary. Belgian papers have little money, and worse still, articles must be dumbed-down to meet readers' tastes, they say. While generally supportive of this view, the author Oscar van den Boogaard also puts the blame on the journalists themselves: "Cultural criticism must not be relegated to the sidelines. Space must be made available for experienced and dignified analysts. The features sections must not become the domain of underpayed, frustrated commentators who seek to shine by causing a ruckus instead of putting themselves in the service of the papers and their readers. Such slapdash wordmongers compensate for their own lack of experience and vision with vociferation. Better no articles or reviews than twaddle such as that. The standard must be raised. Cultural journalists have an important function. They can be the bridge between a work of art and the public, making art accessible to the rest of the world. They educate, inspire and astound. In a world that has stopped thinking and looking, art is nothing more than decoration."

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