"Impact and Implications of Infotainment" - Prof.M.S.Rao

“Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn't know the first thing about either” - Marshall McLuhan

Currently infotainment is catching across the world as the people are looking for information with entertainment. They want to eat the cake and have it too. They want the best of the both worlds such as information and entertainment.

The rapid changing technology has changed the world and made the globe like a small village. It has changed the rules of the game in the world of entertainment. Several reality shows have appeared that provide edutainment and infotainment. Edutainment is the blend of education and entertainment. However infotainment is the symbiosis between the information and entertainment. Benjamin Franklin was the brainchild of infotainment that championed the concept and spread across the message successfully.

Teachers and Trainers:

Teachers provide education where they blend education with bit of humor to connect with their students. However trainers entertain their participants with information and education thus enhancing their skills and abilities. Trainers also convert the existing knowledge of the participants into skills and abilities. Teachers focus much on sharing information, education with conceptual aspects and more of theory. However, trainers emphasize on information, entertainment and on practical application to strike the chord with their participants and also to ensure effective takeaways.

Teachers and trainers have to balance education, information and entertainment. One should not take precedence against another. If you focus too much on content and knowledge sharing without humor people might not connect with the speakers. At the same time if there is excessive humor devoid of content the participants might not appreciate the speakers. Therefore, it is essential to emphasize both on humor and content when you deliver both edutainment and infotainment.

Conclusion:

As long as human civilization exists people need infotainment because humans crave for both knowledge and entertainment. Therefore, infotainment is here to stay in the years to come. However, infotainment has to reinvent itself with the changing times and technologies.