infotainment
Under Infotainment ( portmanteau word from the English info rmation and enter tainment ) refers to a media deal where the recipients specifically informed both want to be entertained as well. The term primarily refers to media products that combine features of information and entertainment formats. Often it is about conveying complex facts from science, economy and politics in an entertaining way.
medium
Typical means of infotainment are personalization, dramatization, visualization and accelerated change of content.
Neil Postman
The term infotainment became popular with media critics like Neil Postman , who questioned television critically. In his book Wir amüsieren zu Tode (1985), Postman makes the claim that television is transforming rational public discourse so that any subject - politics, culture, upbringing, education, etc. - appears as emotionalized, superficial entertainment . The political election campaign is no longer a serious discourse about the content, but rather resembles a vaudeville event. According to Postman, this process destroys one of the most essential achievements of the Enlightenment : the ability to form rational judgments ( judgment ); a development which, according to Postman, decomposes the foundations of democracy and leads to a new immaturity .
criticism
The debate about infotainment relates primarily to television, and here particularly to relevant political formats such as news programs, magazines, etc. Infotainment is a means that tries to bring political issues closer to population groups with little political interest. It is criticized that the media no longer fulfill their political function and thus the credibility of the reporting is dwindling. In this context, the talk is of tabloidization, de-professionalization, trivialization and depoliticization.
Infotainment in advertising
Infotainment also presents and stages information on products or services. Infotainment is used successfully in both B2C and, in particular, B2B marketing. In this way, the advertising messages or "hidden" properties of products that are not immediately apparent or the advantages of services, but also competing comparisons, are presented in an entertaining way. Infotainment is more than integrating and actively entertaining, because “keeping busy” does not guarantee the staging of the advertising messages and the information to be conveyed; This means that the implementation of an infotainment solution or events is preceded by an analysis and a sophisticated concept development of the messages to be conveyed.
Infotainment is used in particular in the area of live communication, for example at events, trade fairs, promotions at the POS or in shopping centers (mall), roadshow projects or for sponsor presentations. The messages and brands are presented in an interactive and entertaining way.
Implementation options are, for example:
- Promotion games such as puzzles, quizzes, memory, logo games etc. - These so-called promotion and event games involve the participants and have a motivating effect to deal with the topic. Trade fair games are the classic instrument for promoting contacts and presenting.
- A quiz show is the most intensive form of staging topics or messages, since with a quiz show exactly the information that needs to be conveyed can be communicated interactively and therefore sustainably. Using the example of the quiz shows on television, success can be seen from the audience figures; the same effect can also be observed in live communication projects.
- Multimedia show effects such as company-specific laser shows enable a wow effect.
- Artistic representations such as a pantomime presentation or a business theater in which the advertising messages can be presented.
See also
literature
- Moritz Klöppel: Infotainment. Between educational requirements and audience expectations. How entertaining can information be? Marburg: Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag, 2008. ISBN 978-3-8288-9731-1 .
- Andreas Schwarz: Politics and mass media in the field of tension between political communication and audience ratings. Considerations and challenges in media democracy . Hamburg: Kovač, 2008. ISBN 978-3-8300-3855-9 .
- Neil Postman : We're having a great time. Formation of judgment in the age of the entertainment industry , Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-10-062407-6 .
- Gerhard Vowe: Infotainment . In: Günter Bentele, Hans-Bernd Brosius , Otfried Jarren (Eds.): Lexicon Communication and Media Studies , VS, Verl. Für Sozialwiss. Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 978-3-531-13535-9 , p. 100.
