Infotainment

Infotainment is the umbrella term that covers the fusion of entertainment and journalism within different media genres. Concretely, infotainment can be understood as two related developments: (a) news becoming more entertaining, and (b) entertainment taking on political topics. This entry describes the reasons behind the increasing prominence and popularity of infotainment. Infotainment is not a genre in itself, but a construct that encompasses various underlying genres that represent entertaining formats of political information. Five of these infotainment genres are described in more detail: soft news, opinionated news, political satire, entertainment talk shows, and political fiction. By investigating infotainment, scholars help to tear down the artificial hierarchy in political information sources that still exists and acknowledge the role that infotainment plays in today's democracy. Concrete recommendations are offered for future research.