El Espectáculo Informativo

Sometimes semiotics seem just to have been a literary fashion. When the initial fasciation for a new discours is gone the remaining texts may appear to exemplify only a strange obsession with rhetoric and style. Analytical concepts are reduced to mere theoretical disguises which have no value outside of an academic language game. This decadence of media theory causes widespread mistrust of theorising among professionals who are actually involved in the media production process. Requena shows that theoretical education for media professionals (like television journalists) does make sense. El espectáculo informatico is the expanded version of a text which was used in a training course given by Radio Televisión Española. first part of the book consists of an introduction to the semiotics of news reporting. The second part is dedicated to a detailed analysis of four news items which appeared on Spanish television. Densely written, it offers no easy reading, but a convincing approach for teaching hard theory to dedicated students. A minor point of criticism is that only the first part of the book is fully accessible for those who don’t possess the video tape of the analysed news items.