Einsdreissig - Die Arbeit mit der Nachricht (1988)

1'30 - One minute and thirty seconds - that is the average news' footing of the German TV news. Ten of such news contributions fit in a fifteen - minute TV-broadcast. News of various kinds. News from the nowhere - reports from unknown places about unknown people with unknown faces. Wars, murderous attacks and catastrophes penetrate into the viewer 's perception, being pushed away immediately. All this happens in a speed, which neither allows nor requires a thorough examination. Despite the time allowance of one minute and thirty seconds for the presentation of each news contribution or just because of it, the reality of what is seen in the news of the day is hardly doubted by anybody. This world of segments and discontinuity transmitted by TV seems natural and not bizarre to the viewer. What seems bizarre is rather the apparatus behind the news of the day producing day by day, the always-the­same fifteen-minute daily news output of the incredible information input.