Infotainment as a hybrid of information and entertainment: a conceptual analysis
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-08-2021-0169 |
| Published date | 06 December 2021 |
| Date | 06 December 2021 |
| Pages | 953-970 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Reijo Savolainen |
Infotainment as a hybrid of
information and entertainment:
a conceptual analysis
Reijo Savolainen
Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences,
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –To elaborate the nature of infotainment as a mediating concept between information and
entertainment by analysing how the concept of infotainment is approached in diverse domains such as
communication research.
Design/methodology/approach–Conceptual analysis was conducted by focussing on 41 key studies on the
topic. First, it was examined how researchers have approached the relationships between informational and
entertaining elements of infotainment. Thereafter, attention was directed to the ways in which people make use
of infotainment. The conceptual analysis is basedon the comparison of the similarities and differences between
the characterizations of the above issues.
Findings –Early studies characterized infotainment in terms of soft news which is distinct from hard news
offering factual information. Later investigations offer a more nuanced picture by approaching infotainment as
phenomenon with diverse dimensions depicting the topics, focus and presentationstyle. Studies on the use of
infotainment offer contradictory evidence of the extent to which infotaining programmes can increase people’s
interest in social, political and health issues, for example.
Research limitations/implications –As the study concentrates on the analysis of an individual concept,
that is, infotainment, the findings cannot be generalized to concern the ways in which informational and
entertaining phenomena are related as a whole.
Originality/value –By elaborating the conceptual nature of infotainment, the study contributes to
information behaviour research by refining the picture of the relationships between information and
entertainment.
Keywords Concepts, Entertainment, Information behaviour, Infotainment, Soft news
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
One of the most obvious research gaps in information behaviour research can be found in the
analysis of the relationship between information and entertainment. The gap is probably due
to the assumption that information seekers and users are primarily rational “thinking beings”
who look for serious and fact-based information (Case and Given, 2016, p. 127). This bias
reflects a normative preference for information, as opposed to entertainment, which is
regarded as a threat rather than an enrichment of information behaviour. More generally,
approaching information and entertainment as categories aversive each other suggests a
utilitarian perspective on human behaviour: anything labelled as entertainment cannot
inform anyone and is thus not worthy of our attention (G€
orke, 2001, p. 221). This is
particularly the case if entertainment is merely associated with soap operas, light fiction
books and computer shooting games, for example.
However, there are non-normative (neutral) approaches to the relationship between
information and entertainment in that the latter is not seen inferior to the former in
importance. This is particularly characteristic of the uses and gratifications (U&G) approach.
It suggests that media consumption is influenced by users’goal-directed motivations such as
information and entertainment. They are approached as equally relevant though separate
categories. For example, McQuail (1983, pp. 82–83) conceptualized the motivation of
information as the need for “finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate
Infotainment
as a hybrid of
information
953
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 30 August 2021
Revised 5 November 2021
Accepted 13 November 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 4, 2022
pp. 953-970
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-08-2021-0169
surroundings, society and the world; seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and
decision choices; satisfying curiosity and general interest; learning, self-education; gaining a
sense of security through knowledge”, while entertainment denotes “escaping, or being
diverted, from problems; relaxing; getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment; filling
time; emotional release; sexual arousal”. In the domain of information behaviour research,
Matni and Shah (2015) offer a pioneering example of the attempts to define the relationships
between information and entertainment. They examined the motivations and affective
dynamics of surfing the Web for pleasure. It appeared that some Web information seeking
activity can be classified as entertainment, a pleasurable activity in itself. To characterize
how informational and entertaining elements are intertwined while surfing the Web for
pleasure, Matni and Shah (2015) proposed the concept of info-entertainment. It describes
incentives related to seeking entertaining information such as celebrity gossip. Ultimately,
however, the construct of info-entertainment is indicative of the duality of information and
entertainment, and it may not offer a sufficient answer to the question of how to conceptualize
the amalgamation of information seeking and entertainment.
The above attemptto elaborate the relationships between information and entertainment is
exceptional because in informationbehaviour research so far, most studies tend to treat these
two concepts “as if they had nothingto do with one another”(Caseand Given, 2016, p. 127). Yet,
as Case and Given (2016, p. 127) suggest, they existon a continuum, withsome sensory input
being “purely”enjoyable, other input being “purely”informative, and much of what we
encounterin everyday life fallingsomewhere betweenthe two extremes. Thepresent study was
inspired by the above idea of approaching information and entertainment on a continuum
wherethey may appear as an amalgamationor hybrid of somekind. An attempt will bemade to
delve deeperinto the relationships ofinformation and entertainmentand thus contribute to the
conceptual elaboration of information behaviour research. To achieve this, the focus will be
placed on the construct of infotainment –a portmanteau of information and entertainment.
As the term suggests, infotainment represents the intersection of informational and
entertaining phenomena. The nature of infotainment has been discussed intensively in the fields
of communication research and political science since the 1990s (Boukes, 2019). In
communication research, infotainment is one of the manifestations of the hybrid turn. It refers
to the desire to understand that which does not necessarily fit into long-used categories that have
come to govern theoretical and empirical work, for example, hard (factual) versus soft news or
fake versus real news because the traditional binaries such as these do not hold any longer
(Witschke et al.,2019). The same applies to the dichotomy of information versus entertainment.
Somewhat surprisingly, the construct of infotainment has not aroused interest among
information scientists although the component of “info”suggests that infotainment is potentially
relevant for the examination of information behaviour. This may be due to the assumption that
infotainment is a marginal issue because it primarily deals with entertainment. However, it is
evident that the phenomena of infotainment are particularly relevant to the study of everyday
information seeking from television programmes, newspapers, magazines and Internet.
To elaborate the picture of infotainment, the present investigation will examine how
researchers have characterized the relationships between informational and entertaining
elements constitutive of infotainment. Another issue to be examined is the way in which the
use of infotainment is conceptualized in studies on this topic. The findings will not only
deepen our understanding of the relationships between information and entertainment but
also serve the ends of holistic information research recently advocated by Polkinghorne and
Given (2021). Similar to the hybrid turn in communication studies, information research of
this kind suggests that to make sense of their daily world, people seek both information and
entertainment and that these elements are often amalgamated. This approach offers a more
balanced picture of the ways in which people find diverse materials, for example, television
programmes and newspaper items as meaningful, both informative and entertaining.
JD
78,4
954
To continue reading
Request your trial