Infotainment
conceptual elements, analytic insights,criticisms and virtues
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34629/cpublica794Keywords:
Journalism, Infotainment, Information, EntertainmentAbstract
Infotainment is a media strategy commonly used to capture the public's attention and engage it to consume news that informs and entertains them. This article compiles theoretical and empirical contributions, especially in the political sphere, and provides a brief contextualisation of infotainment, describing its conceptual and characteristic aspects. It also discusses its main effects, identifying some of their criticisms and virtues.
Downloads
References
Aguiar, L. A. (2008). Entretenimento: valor-notícia fundamental. Estudos em Jornalismo e Mídia, 5(1), 13–23. https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-6924.2008v5n1p13.
Alencar, A. & Kruikemeier, S. (2016). Audiovisual infotainment in European news: A comparative content analysis of Dutch, Spanish, and Irish television news programs. Journalism, 19(11), 1534–1551. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916671332.
Altheide, D. L. (2004). Media logic and political communication. Political Communication, 21(3), 293–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600490481307.
Andersson, U. & Wiik, J. (2013). Journalism meets management: Changing leadership in Swedish news organizations. Journalism Practice, 7(6), 705–719. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2013.790612.
Bartsch, A. & Schneider, F. M. (2014). Entertainment and politics revisited: how non-escapist forms of entertainment can stimulate political interest and information seeking. Journal of Communication, 64(3), 369–396. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12095.
Bastien, F. (2018). Breaking news? Politics, journalism, and infotainment on Quebec television. University of British Columbia Press.
Baum, M. A. (2003). Soft news and political knowledge: Evidence of absence or absence of evidence? Political Communication, 20(2), 173–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600390211181.
Baum, M. A. (2005). Talking the vote: Why presidential candidates hit the talk show circuit. American Journal of Political Science, 49(2), 213–234. https://doi.org/10.2307/3647673.
Baum, M. A. & Jamison, A. (2011). Soft news and the four Oprah effects. In G. C. Edwards, L. R. Jacobs & R. Y. Shapiro (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of American public opinion and the media (pp. 121-137). Oxford University Press.
Baym, G. (2005). The Daily Show: Discursive integration and the reinvention of political journalism. Political Communication, 22(3), 259–276. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584600591006492.
Beckett, C. & Deuze, M. (2016). On the role of emotion in the future of journalism. Social Media + Society, 2(3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116662395.
Bennett, L. W. (2005). News as reality TV: Election coverage and the democratization of truth. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 22(2), 171–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/07393180500093802.
Benson, R. (2002). The political/literary model of french journalism: Change and continuity in immigration news coverage, 1973–1991. Journal of European Area Studies, 10(1), 167–185. https://doi.org/10.1080/14608460220148437.
Blumler, J. G. (1999). Political communication systems all change: A response to Kees Brants. European Journal of Communication, 14(2), 241–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323199014002006.
Bolin, G. (2014). Television journalism, politics, and entertainment: Power and autonomy in the field of television journalism. Television & New Media, 15(4), 336–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476414525671.
Boukes, M. (2019). Infotainment: Forms of journalism. In T. P. Vos, F. Hanusch, D. Dimitrakopoulou, M. Geertsema-Sligh & A. Sehl (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0132.
Brants, K. (2005). Quem tem medo do infotainment? Media & Jornalismo, 7, 39–58. http://fabricadesites.fcsh.unl.pt/polocicdigital/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2017/03/n7-02-Kees-Brants.pdf.
Brants, K. & Neijens, P. (1998). The infotainment of politics. Political Communication, 15(2), 149–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609809342363.
Canavilhas, J. (2012). O domínio da informação-espectáculo na televisão. Biblioteca on-line de ciências da comunicação, 1–11. http://www.bocc.ubi.pt/pag/canavilhas-joao-o-dominio-da-informacao-espectaculo-na-televisao.pdf.
Coan, E. I. (2012). O domínio do entretenimento na contemporaneidade. Revista Ação Midiática – Estudos em Comunicação, Sociedade e Cultura, 2(2), 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.5380/am.v1i4.32457.
Cohen, S. (1972). Folk devils and moral panics. HarperCollins Publishers LLC.
Compton, J. & Dyer-Witheford, N. (2014). Prolegomenon to a theory of slump media. Media, Culture & Society, 36(8), 1196–1206. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443714544867.
Dai, X. & Wang, J. (2023). Effect of online video infotainment on audience attention. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(421), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01921-6.
DeFleur, M. L. & Ball-Rokeach, S. (1993). Teorias da comunicação de massa. Jorge Zahar.
Dejavite, F. A. (2007). A Notícia light e o jornalismo de infotenimento. Apresentada no Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, XXXIII, Santos, Brasil. http://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2007/resumos/R1472-1.pdf.
Delli Carpini, M. X. (2014). The political effects of entertainment media. In K. Kenski & K. Hall Jamieson (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of political communication (pp. 851-870). Oxford University Press.
Dorneles, F. R. (2010). O infotainment e a crítica ao processo de comunicação televisivo. Apresentada no Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação, XXXIII, Caxias do Sul, Brasil. http://www.intercom.org.br/papers/nacionais/2010/resumos/R5-1745-1.pdf.
Gonzalo, S. B., García, M. R., Jiménez, V. M. & Domínguez, E. C. (2014). Presence of infotainment in Spain’s mainstream DTT channels. Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, 69, 85–103. 10.4185/RLCS-2014-1002en.
Graber, D. A. & Holyk, G. G. (2011). The news industry. In G. C. Edwards, L. R. Jacobs & R. Y. Shapiro (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of American public opinion and the media. Oxford University Press.
Hanitzsch, T. & Vos, T. P. (2016). Journalism beyond democracy: A new look into journalistic roles in political and everyday life. Journalism, 19(2), 146–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916673386.
Hanusch, F. & Hanitzsch, T. (2013). Mediating orientation and self-expression in the world of consumption: Australian and German lifestyle journalists’ professional views. Media, Culture & Society, 35(8), 943–959. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443713501931.
Hoffman, L. H. & Rotich, G. K. (2023). The geopolitics of infotainment. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.1042.
Jebril, N., Albaek, E. & de Vreese, C. H. (2013). Infotainment, cynicism and democracy: The effects of privatization vs personalization in the news. European Journal of Communication, 28(2), 105–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323112468683.
Kilby, A. (2018). Provoking the Citizen: Re-examining the role of TV satire in the Trump era. Journalism Studies, 19(13), 1934–1944. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2018.1495573.
Kunczik, M. (1997). Conceito de jornalismo: norte e sul. Editora da Universidade de São Paulo.
Luhmann, N. (2000). The reality of the mass media. Stanford University Press.
Maffesoli, M. (2003). A comunicação sem fim (teoria pós-moderna da comunicação). Revista Famecos, 10(20), 13–20. https://doi.org/10.15448/1980-3729.2003.20.3198.
Marinov, R. (2020). Mapping the infotainment literature: current trajectories and suggestions for future research. The Communication Review, 23(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2019.1682894.
Marinov, R. & Saurette, P. (2023). Infotaining Canadian politics? Measuring infotainment in English-language newspaper coverage of the 2019 Canadian federal election. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 56(4), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423923000586.
Mason, P. & Monckton-Smith, J. (2008). Conflation, collocation and confusion: British press coverage of the sexual murder of women. Journalism, 9(6), 691–710. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884908096241.
Mellado, C. (2015). Professional roles in news content. Journalism Studies, 16(4), 596–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2014.922276.
Mellado, C., Márquez-Ramírez, M., Mothes, C. & Humanes, M. L. (2021). News beat fluidity in civic, infotainment, and service role performance across cultures. Journalism Practice, 15(9), 1240–1271. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1971548.
Moreira, L. F., Jerónimo, P. & Botelho, M. (2015). A expansão do info-entretenimento nos media portugueses em tempo de eleições. Revista Estudos de Jornalismo, 3, 33–47. http://www.revistaej.sopcom.pt/ficheiros/20150209-revista_3.pdf.
Parkin, M. (2010). Taking late night comedy seriously: How candidate appearances on late night television can engage viewers. Political Research Quarterly, 63(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912908327604.
Pelzer, E. & Raemy, P. (2022). What shapes the cultivation effects from infotaining content? Toward a theoretical foundation for journalism studies. Journalism, 23(2), 552–568. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920922704.
Prado, E. (2007). Nuevas tendencias de la programación televisiva. Tendencias internacionales de programación televisiva. Telos, 31, 66–71. https://telos.fundaciontelefonica.com/archivo/numero031/tendencias-internacionales-de-programacion-televisiva/?output=pdf.
Prior, M. (2007). Post-broadcast democracy: How media choice increases inequality in political involvement and polarizes elections. Cambridge University Press.
Savolainen, R. (2022). Infotainment as a hybrid of information and entertainment: A conceptual analysis. Journal of Documentation, 78(4), 953–970. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-08-2021-0169.
Schudson, M. (2003). The sociology of news. W. W. Norton & Company.
Silva, F. M. (2008). A não-notícia, um produto do infoentretenimento. Estudos em Jornalismo e Mídia, 5(1), 99–108. https://doi.org/10.5007/1984-6924.2008v5n1p99.
Stoll, M. L. (2006). Infotainment and the moral obligations of the multimedia conglomerate. Journal of Business Ethics, 66, 253–260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-005-5590-2.
Tandoc, E. C. & Thomas, R. J. (2015). The ethics of web analytics. Implications of using audience metrics in news construction. Digital Journalism, 3(2), 243–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2014.909122.
Thompson, J. (2000). Political scandal: Power and visibility in the media age. Polity.
Thussu, D. (2007). News as entertainment: The rise of global infotainment. SAGE.
Thussu, D. K. (2015). Infotainment. In G. Mazzoleni (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of political communication (pp. 1–9). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118541555.wbiepc152.
Van Aelst, P., Sheafer, T. & Stanyer, J. (2012). The personalization of mediated political communication: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings. Journalism, 13(2), 203–220. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884911427802.
Van Santen, R. (2009). Popularization and personalization in political television journalism: A conceptual exploration. Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap.
Vettehen, P. H., Beentjes J., Nuijten, K. & Peeters, A. (2011). Arousing news characteristics in Dutch television news 1990–2004: An exploration of competitive strategies. Mass Communication & Society, 14(1), 93–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205431003615893.
Weber, P. (2019). Infotainment als kognitiv-affektives Metaerleben: ein Operationalisierungsvorschlag. Emotions Meet Cognitions, 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25963-1_5.
Winch, S. (1997). Mapping the cultural space of journalism: how journalists distinguish news from entertainment. Praeger.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Comunicação Pública
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Os conteudos da Comunicação Publica estão licenciados com uma licença Creative Commons - Atribuição-NãoComercial 4.0 Internacional.
