Technology has gotten to the point where it has become easy enough and affordable enough for non-creative types to put together the "appearance" of quality-looking multimedia. Anyone, for several hundred dollars, can buy a Canon HD camera, and use iMovie to put together something that looks extremely polished, and yet can be constructed with very little creativity at all. And what percentage of the populace can tell the difference between great and decent communications when both look "polished". (segue return)

Let's go back to NPR, which deals only in the single sense of sound. There's nothing else to distract us. No pretty people. No pretty graphics. No pretty transitions. Just the story. It better be good. It has to be good. Because there's no other way to trick us into thinking it is. "Polish" can make up for garbage without many of us noticing.

So, as "polish" becomes universally prevalent, what happens to art?