That's Infotainment
These days when AOL Instant Messenger starts up in the morning, it shows me a helpful little screen with links important stuff like bands it thinks I'll appreciate learning more about. But it's the news links that I think are telling: I can read zippy, just-barely-longer-than-the-headline pieces about Spider Terror, or get the lowdown on vital topics like (actual headline here) "Naked Woman Seeks Sex at Airport".
Those crafty bastards at AOL/TimeWarner/Netscape/Pfizer/Honda aren't stupid: in their massive pyramid-HQ outside of Washington they brood deeply on the zeitgeist. I think we're about to see a new paradigm in the "news" industry. I used to think that coverage of celebrities was going to complete its takeover of national journalism (leaving local outlets the departments of violent crime and the weather), but now, appropriately following the rise of cheaply-produced reality TV, my prediction is that the "News of the Weird" format will make the leap from Internet meme to media dominance:
"Good Evening. I'm Peter Jennings. In tonight's top story, a Tallahassee woman has been raising an orphaned alligator as if it were her child -- and now she's sending it to college! But first, let's go to a village in the Czech Republic where a natural stone formation resembling actress Annie Potts has been drawing international attention."
By this time next year. I swear it.
Posted by B T at August 16, 2001 09:04 AM