Infotainment

Infotainment, formally defined by Merriam-Webster's dictionary as “a television program that presents information (as news) in a manner intended to be entertaining,” is a neologism that refers to the blurring between information and entertainment in news and current affairs programming, whether it be in the selection of news stories (e.g., more emphasis on celebrity gossip, crime stories, and human interest pieces) or in their presentation (flashy graphics, sound effects, and sensationalism).

The media environment in the United States and around the world has undergone dramatic changes since the late 1970s and early 1980s. Not only have technological innovations changed the way citizens consume various media, but the structure of the industry has changed as well. Growing conglomerations of media companies have led to a dramatic increase not only in the amount of information available but also in competition for audiences. Newspaper readership is down as is viewership of the major network news programs. As audiences turn to Internet-based news sources, media companies are searching for ways to maintain if not expand their audience shares while increasing advertising revenues. News divisions of media companies, once treated by management as insulated from market pressures, are now considered additional sources of revenue. These economic challenges have helped blur the newsentertainment distinction as news producers rely on entertainment value to “sell” news stories.

Infotainment is a buzzword, first popularized in the 1980s, and commonly used by communications scholars and critics to describe the erosion of the line that once divided news (information) and entertainment. Historically, news organizations maintained a distinction between “hard” news and entertainment, or “soft” news, programming. Infotainment is generally used as a synonym for “soft” news, defined broadly as either

So where does “soft” news, or infotainment, come from? It is often the result of standard journalistic practice combined with market influence. Researcher Doug Underwood describes five ways in which news and marketing goals interact. He argues that the “marketing and bottom-line influence” upon today's media can be seen in

Taken together, this mixture of market forces and journalistic practices begets infotainment.

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