Infotainment (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words also called soft news as a way to distinguish it from serious journalism or

hard news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. N ...

, is a type of

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

, usually television or online, that provides a combination of information and

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...

. The term may be used disparagingly to devalue infotainment or soft news subjects in favor of more serious hard news subjects. Infotainment-based

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google, Facebook, Amazon, and W ...

s and

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social me ...

apps are gaining traction due to their focused publishing of infotainment content, e.g.

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ke ...

Background

The terms "infotainment" and "infotainer" were first used in September 1980 at the Joint Conference of

ASLIB ASLIB: The Association for Information Management (often stylized ''Aslib'') was a British association of special libraries and information centres. It was founded in England in 1924 as the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux. ...

, the

Institute of Information Scientists The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in th ...

, and the

Library Association The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, since 2017 branded CILIP: The library and information association (pronounced ), is a professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers in the U ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

, UK. The Infotainers were a group of British information scientists who put on comedy shows at these professional conferences between 1980 and 1990. In 1983, "infotainment" began to see more popular usage, and the infotainment style gradually began to replace soft news with communications theorists. An earlier, slightly variant term, "" was the theme of the 1974 convention of the

Intercollegiate Broadcasting System Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS) is an organization with a membership of over one thousand non-profit, education-affiliated radio stations and webcasters. Founded in 1940, IBS is headquartered in New Windsor, New York, with a legal offic ...

, the association of college radio stations in the United States. The event held April 5–7, 1974, at the Statler Hilton Hotel (now the Hotel Pennsylvania), defined the term as the "nexus between Information and Entertainment". Historically, the term infotainment was used to discredit woman journalists who were assigned soft news jobs. Soft news was expected to be consumed by only women, but eventually it became its own genre of news media.

Infotainment as news

Infotainment can generally be identified by its entertaining nature. Infotainment may also involve the use of flashy graphics, fast-paced editing, music, sensationalism, and sometimes satire to catch the viewer/readers' attention. Popular examples of infotainment shows include '' Larry King Live,'' ''

Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American first-run syndicated news broadcasting newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Paramount Streaming. ET also airs in Aus ...

'', ''

Hannity and Colmes ''Hannity & Colmes'' was a live television show on Fox News in the United States, hosted by Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes, who respectively presented a conservative and liberal perspective. The series premiered on October 7, 1996, and the final epi ...

'', ''

The Alex Jones Show Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American far-right and alt-right radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network broadcas ...

'', ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form fr ...

'', and ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced ...

''. A precise academic consensus on the definition of what constitutes infotainment/soft news as opposed to hard news has not yet been reached. Many authors have commented that the ideas “are often not clearly defined or not defined at all”. Multiple authors have published their ideas of what each type of media involves, but they vary widely. Wilbur Schramm was one of the first to describe a dichotomy between types of news in relation to human consumption. He separated news into a delayed reward class (including news of public affairs, economic matters, social problems, science, education and health), which closely resembles hard news, and an immediate reward class (including news of crime/corruption, accidents and disasters, sports, social events, and human interest) which closely resembles infotainment/soft news. Some authors use only the topicality and timeliness aspects of a story to determine whether news is hard news or soft news; the more topical and timely, the "harder" and more serious the news is. Other authors have more complex definitions, defining hard news as "breaking events involving top leaders, major issues, or significant disruptions in the routines of daily life," and soft news as "news that typically is more personality-centered, less time-bound, more practical, and more incident-based than other news." There may also be serious reports which are not event-driven—coverage of important social, economic, legal, or technological trends— investigative reports which uncover ongoing

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, th ...

, or immorality—or discussion of unsettled political issues without any special reason. Anniversaries, holidays, the end of a year or season, or the end of the first 100 days of an administration, can make some stories time-sensitive, but these reports provide more of an opportunity for reflection and analysis as opposed to a typical news report on a particular event.

"News you can use"

The spectrum of "seriousness" and "importance" is not well-defined, and different media organizations make different tradeoffs. "News you can use", a common marketing phrase highlighting a specific genre of journalism, spans the gray area. Tips, advice and hobby-based news fall at the infotainment end of this genre. Warnings about imminent natural disasters or acute domestic security threats are considered more serious, and other media programming (even non-news channels) is usually interrupted to announce these events as

breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...

. The importance of "news you can use" on a personal level is rather subjective.

Criticism

Most infotainment television programs on

networks Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

and broadcast cable only contain general information on the subjects they cover and may not be considered to have high levels of substantive informational value. For example, an infotainment broadcast may frame accusations of a celebrity or other individual committing a crime as a reality, with no verifiable factual support or evidence of such claims. Some disapprove of infotainment media, especially TV and cable, because it "seem to hurtle from one event to another, often dwelling on trivial, celebrity-driven content." Today's broadcasting of what is considered "hard" informative news is sometimes diluted with attributes of fiction or drama, and infotainment. Some argue that a catalyst for this may be the acquisition of major news networks by conglomerates primarily based in the entertainment business (e.g. Viacom‐Paramount owned CBS News; ABC News has been part of the Disney corporation since 1996; CNN is a key constituent of Time‐Warner, Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, one of the worlds biggest media conglomerates) .The ownership structure can be traced using infotainment. For example, there may be an infotainment story on celebrities that are involved in the making of a movie produced by the news channel's parent company.

Public critique

In October 2010 at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, American political satirist

Jon Stewart Jon Stewart (born Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz; November 28, 1962) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He hosted '' The Daily Show'', a satirical news program on Comedy Central, from 1999 to 2015 and now hosts '' ...

made a metaphorical statement regarding the media today: "The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems . . . illuminating issues heretofore unseen, or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected, dangerous flaming ant epidemic." This statement referred to the news media's ability to focus in on the real problems of people, and transform them into infotainment that is publicized to entertain, possibly exacerbating the issue at the same time. In a critique of infotainment, Bonnie Anderson of ''News Flash'' cited a CNN lead story on February 2, 2004 following the exposure of Janet Jackson's breast on national television. The follow-up story was about a

ricin Ricin ( ) is a lectin (a carbohydrate-binding protein) and a highly potent toxin produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant, ''Ricinus communis''. The median lethal dose (LD50) of ricin for mice is around 22 micrograms per kilogram of bo ...

chemical attack on then- U.S. Senate

Majority Leader In U.S. politics (as well as in some other countries utilizing the presidential system), the majority floor leader is a partisan position in a legislative body.

Bill Frist William Harrison Frist (born February 22, 1952) is an American physician, businessman, and politician who served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1995 to 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as Senate Majority Lea ...

Well-known infotainers

Infotainers are entertainers in infotainment media, such as

news anchors A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet. ...

or satirists who cross the line between journalism (quasi-journalism) and entertainment.

Barbara Walters Barbara Jill Walters (born September 25, 1929) is an American broadcast journalist and television personality. Known for her interviewing ability and popularity with viewers, Walters appeared as a host of numerous television programs, including ...

, was for many an iconic infotainer; she pioneered many techniques still used by infotainment media today. Other notable examples from U.S. media include

Oprah Winfrey Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', b ...

, Bill O’Reilly,

Rachel Maddow Rachel Anne Maddow (, ; born April 1, 1973) is an American television news program host and liberal political commentator. Maddow hosts '' The Rachel Maddow Show'', a weekly television show on MSNBC, and serves as the cable network's special e ...

, Alex Jones and

Geraldo Rivera Geraldo Rivera (born Gerald Riviera; July 4, 1943) is an American journalist, attorney, author, political commentator, and former television host. He hosted the tabloid talk show '' Geraldo'' from 1987 to 1998. He gained publicity with the liv ...

. When

became the host of his own news-oriented talk show on

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...

, others within the NBC organization voiced their protest, including

Tom Brokaw Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American retired network television journalist and author. He first served as the co-anchor of ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anchor and managing editor of '' ...

who was reported to have threatened to quit. Rivera had a notorious history as a "sleaze reporter" and tabloid talk show host, on which he and others would review controversial and sensationalistic topical subject matter.

Infotainment on social media

Infotainment is now able to reach an ever-growing audience through the widespread popularity and use of

applications. In the case of social media websites such as

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

, which were originally created for the purpose of connecting, re-connecting and sharing personal thoughts and information with public, they have now provided a new medium for the spread of infotainment. The interactive nature of social media has also allowed for the consumers of infotainment to become producers, generating their own news and commentary, some of which is often used by journalists as material for stories.

Impact

The broadcast of important or interesting events was originally meant to inform society of local or international events for their own safety and awareness. However, local news broadcasters are more regularly covering local events in a way that provokes entertainment in viewers, with arresting footage, animated visuals, and rhetorical headlines that generate opinions. The media's ability to tell and sell stories allows them the ability to not only to document tragedy, but to misrepresent or exploit it. As is seen in the news (with stories of extreme obesity or unusual deformities) some forms of infotainment can commodify real people through their personal tragedies or scandals.

Footnotes

External links

"Soft news and critical journalism eroding audiences"

{{Authority control Influence of mass media News media manipulation

Background

Infotainment as news

"News you can use"

Criticism

Public critique

Well-known infotainers

Infotainment on social media

Impact

See also

Footnotes

External links