Infotainment is a neologistic portmanteau of information and entertainment, referring to a type of media that provides a combination of information and entertainment.
The term infotainment was popular by media critics such as Neil Postman, who critically questioned television. In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death (Postman, 1985), Postman asserts that television transforms the rational public discourse, that every subject – politics, culture, education, etc. – appears as an emotionalized, superficial entertainment. The political election campaign was no longer a serious discourse about the content, but similar to a large variety event. Through this process Postman is destroying one of the most important achievements of the Education: the ability to make rational judgments; A development which, according to Postman, breaks down the foundations of democracy and leads to a new nonage.
NEWS, I’m Lovin’ It
Media installation, LIVE TV NEWS
Loogie.net TV – Be the First to Know!
Interactive online news channel
Loogie.net TV – Be the First to Know! shows you the latest world news about the subjects you choose. Using individual search queries with a special TV remote control, you can determine what is currently being shown on TV and receive a customised news programme. In a second step, the current TV programme can be thematically focused according to your own interests and priorities. Loogie.net TV searches for text, audio, image and video documents on the Internet, analyses, classifies and presents them in the format of a television news programme. Loogie.net TV is highly unusual in that it offers broadcasts compiled solely by computer algorithms without human intervention. Loogie.net TV – Be the First to Know! is the first interactive news TV channel.
Breaking the News – Be a News-Jockey
Interactive net-based multi screen installation
Just tell us a headline or your favorite words and we’ll create a modifiable streaming news-station for you. Breaking the News – Be a News-Jockey is an interactive installation, transmitting in realtime information from the internet. The user becomes a live performer, a News-Jockey.
Friends ask: Could you help me to cook up a news that I’ll like? Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Friends told us their favorite headlines, and we in turn created new stories. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal News-Jockeys. We created Breaking the News – Be a News-Jockey so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you.
The Show Must Go On. Social Media Fights for the Presidency!
Online News Channel
The Show Must Go On by Marc Lee captures the circulation flow and momentum of the social media-fueled campaign, exaggerating it to the point where it tips into a theatre of the absurd. The online work filters the most recent Twitter, Instagram and Youtube messages that mention terms like “Clinton”, “Trump” or “US Election”, weaving them into a wild TV show. A new version of Lee’s TV-Bot (2004). The Show Must Go On was specially created for the US elections. The original version was designed as an Internet news service that grabbed its content from more traditional TV and radio channels. Its sole principle was that of novelty. Additionally, what counts today is the ‘Likes’ and ‘Retweets’ that migrate across the screen as stars (Clinton) and hearts (Trump), fighting for the presidency. Whatever the ending of the show, it will be historical – and it will be just the beginning.