Infotainment, a portmanteau of information and entertainment, is a type of media, usually television or online, that provides a combination of information and entertainment. The term may be used disparagingly to devalue infotainment or soft news subjects in favor of more serious hard news subjects. Infotainment-based websites and social media apps gained traction due to their focused publishing of infotainment content, e.g. BuzzFeed. It is also called soft news as a way to distinguish it from serious journalism or hard news.
Background
The terms "infotainment" and "infotainer" were first used in September 1980 at the Joint Conference of ASLIB, the Institute of Information Scientists, and the Library Association in Sheffield, 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,
An earlier slightly variant term, "" was the theme of the 1974 convention of the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, 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 only by 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, Hannity and Colmes, The Alex Jones Show, The Daily Show, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. 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." 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[s] 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 world's 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 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 chemical attack on then-U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Well-known infotainers
Infotainers are entertainers in infotainment media, such as news anchors or satirists who cross the line between journalism (quasi-journalism) and entertainment. Barbara Walters, was for many an iconic infotainer; she pioneered many techniques still used by infotainment media today. and tabloid talk show host, on which he and others would review controversial and sensationalistic topical subject matter.
On social media
Infotainment is now able to reach an ever-growing audience through the widespread popularity and use of social media applications. In the case of social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook, 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.