News as Entertainment The Rise of Global Infotainment [Hardcover]

Richly detailed and empirically grounded, this first book-length study of infotainment and its globalization by a leading scholar of global communication, offers a comprehensive and critical analysis of this emerging phenomenon. Going beyond - both geographically and theoretically - the 'dumbing down' discourse, largely confined to the Anglo-American media, the book argues that infotainment may have an important ideological role, a diversion in which 'soft news' masks the hard realities of neo-liberal imperialism.Richly detailed and empirically grounded, this first book-length study of infotainment and its globalization by a leading scholar of global communication, offers a comprehensive and critical analysis of this emerging phenomenon. Going beyond - both geographically and theoretically - the 'dumbing down' discourse, largely confined to the Anglo-American media, the book argues that infotainment may have an important ideological role, a diversion in which 'soft news' masks the hard realities of neo-liberal imperialism.Thussu brings to this project the passion for news of a socially committed former journalist, the political economy of his international relations education and a formidable assembly of global detail, examining the recent explosion of 'infotainment'.Thussu's account of war as infotainment, the Bollywoodization of news and the emergence of a global infotainment sphere, is as compelling as it is alarming. This is a significant and essential book for anyone interested in exploring the connections between news journalism, informed citizenship and democracy.Introduction
The evolution of Infotainment
The infrastructure for global infotainment
Global circulation of 24/7 infotainment
Indian infotainment
the Bollywoodization of TV news
War as infotainment
Infotainment and 'neo-liberal imperialism'
A global infotainment sphere?