The 'infotainment' of man...

I came upon this interesting piece of news article in a popular newspaper few days ago. Now, we all know the newspaper, for what it is. Undoubtedly it's a good newspaper and a highly respected publication house, but strangely for me, I hadn’t been able to appreciate what purpose some of the articles in the newspaper purportedly served, until about 3 years ago. Oftentimes I have wondered if such articles could perhaps even contribute to the awakening of latent carnal desires in man and, could some or most of these articles even be an outlet to these apparently latent desires? For example, the newspaper carried a news article some days ago, sourced from an international magazine, saying that a popular Hollywood actor had seemingly slept with some 12700 women. Now, for the mathematically inclined, where did this figure come from? Again quoting the magazine, the article said, assuming an active sex life of 35 years & multiplying with 365 days per year, it comes to 12775. So, this actor is supposed to have bedded that many ladies (most likely, he's supposed to have bedded much more considering other forms of his endeavors), & also carried stories of the experiences of some of these women. Now, for common people like me (to which category most of us belong), how does it matter how many women the actor bedded or who they were or what their experiences were like? With terrorists hitting targets with point blank precision at free will as if it were a video game, prices of daily needs reaching the apogee (with no end in sight), skyrocketing cost of leading a simple life, & my being unable to lead a relatively peaceful life despite my non-interference in the internal matters of anyone, would I care about the actor's conquests in the bed? It is in this light that one of my interactions with this newspaper's executives throws some light.

About 3 years ago, I happened to meet this person when he had come to my office to meet a colleague. I was introduced to this man by my colleague, & upon coming to know where he works, I asked him with lot of curiosity about the kind of articles carried by the newspaper and the value it carries for the readers. To say the least, I was flabbergasted by his response & the rationale behind the articles was ‘revealed’ to me. He said, “We are in the business of providing information while keeping our readers entertained simultaneously. So, we serve our readers by providing what we call INFOTAINMENT. People like gossip. And, articles or snippets such as these (referring to articles that appeared 3 years ago centered around celebrities and their lifestyle or exploits or indulgences) fuel gossip and keep our readers 'ENGAGED' to our newspaper. The more our readers indulge in gossip, the more of our readers’ mind we engage with our newspaper. This will eventually improve our sales".

After this interaction, I spent quite some time on the 'strategy' of this newspaper. Some of the ideas that occurred to me...Generally speaking, people read newspapers for the purpose it is meant for, that is, to know the news in the form of latest happenings around them in particular & the larger world in general. Now, for the common man who leads a seemingly mundane life, what with a family to support & a career to manage, struggling to please an impossible to please boss at office and a wife at home, pulling and pushing to make it to the next rung in the social ladder, trying to live up to the expectations of everyone around him that excludes his own self; poor fellow, torn between extremes everywhere, he struggles to find balance somewhere, albeit for a very brief moment. Such articles perhaps cater to this balance or an illusion of balance that the common man struggles to find, or believes it exists. At least, that seems to be the perception. In those few minutes he spends reading such articles, he is carried away into a different world altogether, into a world of style, wealth, beauty, and power. After all, aren’t these what man craves for materially? And in the ensuing gossip sessions, he again gets carried away into the ‘balanced life’ that seems to elude him in his everyday life just like a thirsty man gets eluded by mirage on a hot sunny afternoon. During these few moments of ‘balanced life’, he forgets the drudgery of everyday life, & over a period of time gets ‘engaged’ to the newspaper and the ‘infotainment’ that it carries. So, everyday he begins to seek such news articles and during the gossip sessions he perhaps ends up talking about the infotainment that he’s getting from the newspaper. In doing so, unconsciously he ends up marketing the newspaper. To supplement all this, the publishers also keep coming up with some or the other eye-catching supplements with tons of colorful photos, offers, expert reviews, flashy models, style statements…what not.

Thus, with time, our common man becomes ‘infotained’ & it’s a long and relatively arduous journey before he awakens to his state of affairs. And then begins the journey to become ‘de-infotained’. Once 'de-infotainment' is complete (assuming it is completed in a reasonably small time), he begins to seek only that which is of value to him to carry on with his day-to-day life, & discards the illusory world of ‘infotainment’…