Infotainment is: the meaning of the concept, scope

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

The modern world is oversaturated with various kinds of information that is not always easy for the general public to perceive. Journalists are constantly looking for such ways of presenting material in order to interest the masses. Recently, in the media sphere, techniques of infotainment are increasingly being used. This is a unique variety of modern culture with its own characteristics and functions.

More about the concept

Infoteinment (infoteiment) is a word borrowed from English, which was formed from two words "information" and "entertainment", in the Russian version "information" and "entertainment".

Infotainment is a new way of working in modern media, when information is presented in an entertaining way. With the help of theatricalization and play, journalists attract the viewer or reader, focusing his attention on a specific issue.

Infotainment is also a method of work of marketers and other economic agents, with the help of which they form consumer demand forcertain goods or services.

Infotainment is also understood as a whole culture that reflects the trends in the development of modern society. It is a powerful tool in the media arsenal to create opinions and trends.

Origins

A new cultural phenomenon emerged in the 1980s in America. Then the ratings of the channels began to decline rapidly, and the editors of TV shows put the infotainment format into practice: the emphasis in the selection of material was on socially important and cultural topics. On the air, official and dry expressions began to be used less, which made the information boring and difficult to perceive. More attention was paid to the details of interest to the public: garments, gait, manners. The vocabulary of reporters and talk show hosts has become more lively, emotional and controversial.

The first TV show that embodied the techniques of infotainment was the American program "60 Minutes". In it, for the first time, the presenter participated in the report along with his heroes. Thus, viewers could recognize not only certain information, but also the narrator's hidden opinion about it, which he expressed with gestures, facial expressions, or random, at first glance, grins. It was no longer an impartial monologue, but a controversial dialogue with many opinions and points of view.

Since that time, the news has been divided into two types: informational and entertainment-informational. In the first, accurate and objective facts were reported, in the second, these same facts were placed in a bright shell, which gathered a mass of people at the screens and raisedratings.

Features and signs

Once upon a time, journalists asked the following question: “What to tell the public?” Today, this dilemma sounds like this: “How to tell this in an interesting and exciting way?” This question is answered by the infotainment system with a huge arsenal of various techniques. The new media culture is characterized by the following features:

• entertainment and informative;
• predominance of form;
• some disdain for content;
• emotionality and expressiveness;
• fragmented presentation of information;
• attractive visuals;
• commercial-oriented;
• combination of different genres and styles.

Infotainment is, first of all, a way to attract the public to one or another communication channel. In pursuit of high ratings, the media dodge in every possible way, inventing new forms of providing information. The main emphasis is on the game and entertainment, which gives the content emotionality and excitement. It catches the audience, fascinates them, because they are interested to know what will happen next, when everything is over.

In creating infotainment, a creative, non-standard approach is very important. Boring news or scientific facts should be presented in such a way that the reader or listener has a sense of ease and freedom. That is why there are a lot of talk shows on modern television, where the presenter and invited guests discuss various socially important topics. Very often everything turns into the so-called"booth" where everyone is trying to shout down each other, but this is also part of attracting a large number of viewers.

Infotainment functions

Modern cultural phenomenon performs many functions. In some ways, they resemble the main tasks of the media, which are associated with society and its development.

Infotainment has the following goals:

• informative;
• entertainment;
• communicative;
• educational;
• attracts and holds the attention of the public;
• meets the needs of society;
• shapes certain behavior and opinions;
• simplifies information.

Why is this so relevant?

It is very difficult for people to navigate in a turbulent flow of information, because there is too much of it. Lost in a variety of news and discoveries, they gradually despair, find themselves unable to perceive new material. Here an innovative journalistic method comes to the rescue, presenting information in an easy, unconstrained way. It relieves people of the fear of constantly incoming information, forms a certain opinion in them about current events.

Critical opinions

Infotainment in journalism is used everywhere. However, opinions about its use are very ambiguous. Many researchers believe that the media pay too much attention to the entertainment of their products, not paying attention to the content at all. It is believed that information content in them is reduced tominimum, the public does not extract useful and important information for it. Many journalists refer to such media as low-quality communication channels that do not fulfill their main functions, but pursue only commercial goals.

Infotainment in various types of media

First of all, the role of infotainment on television is huge, because it was here that it was presented for the first time. Today, almost every program is entertaining and informative, performs all the functions and tasks of this method.

Various talk shows have become a popular television product of the new culture. These are programs in which invited media personalities and experts discuss a topic that is currently relevant. Talk shows appeared in America, where their hosts are the most famous and respected journalists in the country. On Russian television, this type of program is also very popular. Basically, the subject of discussion of the participants is social and political topics.

Infotainment is used in various educational programs or documentaries. Usually these are stories about how a particular product is produced. Such films are also advertising that attracts potential consumers. The public is initiated into the production process of this or that product. And knowledge of manufacturing technology increases consumer confidence in the product. It can be said that films of this kind combine the functions of infotainment in education and marketing. On the one hand, they inform the society, and on the other hand, they inspire it with the need to purchase this or that product.

Basically,in the print media, this way of presenting information is used in covering secular news and gossip. It is generally accepted that infotainment is a weapon of the “yellow” press. However, in modern reality this is not the case, the division of various periodicals into high-quality and tabloid ones is very conditional. The main goal of print media, as well as television media, is to increase circulation, therefore, focusing on the needs of a mass audience.

An important element of creating infotainment in the press is the title of the article, because it is the one that catches the eye in the first place. To achieve maximum expressiveness, journalists transform well-known proverbs, aphorisms or sayings. The personification of the title of the headings is also common, for example, “An hour of cinema with Anatoly”. The articles focus on colloquial words and expressions, which makes speech natural.

Very often infotainment in various types of media is intertwined with infotainment in politics, as this topic is the subject of the most heated and controversial discussions.

Infotainment in Russia

On domestic television, infotainment appeared after perestroika. For the first time, his techniques were implemented by Leonid Parfenov in the well-known TV show of that time “The Other Day”. The creators of infotainment content were guided by the experience and achievements of American colleagues. The main emphasis was placed on the diversity of genres and opinions, which were organically intertwined within one project.

Today infotainmentcontent occupies a significant share of Russian television. The main TV channels producing such programs are NTV, Rossiya and Channel One.

The most popular and successful implementation examples

In addition to the TV shows and talk shows already mentioned, there are many other examples of infotainment on Russian television:

• "Collection of nonsense" on the channel "NTV";
• "I want to believe" on the channel "STS";
• "Special Correspondent" on the channel "Russia";

TV products of Channel One:

• "Field of Miracles";
• "What? Where? When?”;
• "Let them talk";
• SpotlightParisHilton and many others.

Of course, the potential for infotainment development is incredibly high, including in Russia. In each country, it acquires its own, original features, but globalization reduces everything to one thing: meeting the needs of the audience.