It would be useful if it were possible to measure artistic merit in an absolute way as opposed to a relative way. Say for example that the only talent that was celebrated was exceptional talent, talent which said something important, which was appreciated for its rarity, valued because it offered something not seen before. This is talent appreciation in the ideal and it doesn’t exist.

These days talent is what you make it. You use what you've got whether that is a lot or not very much and then maximise your opportunities. For the arts the framework where all this plays out is the world of entertainment and the media. From there you might achieve brand status or have your work converted to a commodity. This is the relative way. All works are measured in terms of their relation to this context.

If it were possible to have talent measured absolutely then sometimes there would be nothing to appraise as there would be periods when nothing put forward reached the quality standard necessary. No new films would be in cinemas or new music heard on the radio. Only material with posterity would be doing the rounds. Naturally this would be useless for the media world. This notion if adopted in other spheres such as news would mean only important news was broadcast. If there was none, then no news that day.

Of course the reality is otherwise. There are slots and the slots get filled regardless of quality or importance. Each daily or weekly offering is presented as if just as important as any other. Only the passage of time sheds a proper light and even then it is hard to identify substance. One gets blinded by a kind of force-fed presentation and eventually it becomes difficult to discern quality and importance on any given day. One is encouraged to attribute value to something which might be intrinsically empty. News is presented with great aplomb in strident, confident tones. Dozens of people killed by a bomb in Baghdad is delivered with the same veracity as an interest rate cut or that some vacuous pop-star's relationship has come apart. The only measure of importance is quantity: the more broadcast hours and extended news programmes the bigger the issue. A London bomb is more important than a Baghdad bomb.