The Effects of Infotainment on Society

The effects of infotainment are harmful to our society. The majority of this generation is addicted to other people’s lives. The greater part of television shows these days are reality shows. There are more than 25 reality shows on the air this season. Nowadays the local news channels are following the new trend of “Reality makes Ratings”. Infotainment has taken over in everything that is aired, said, and seen. Infotainment is harmful to the old, and even more so the new generations to come. They will not care about the needed information that is told to them because they will be so wrapped up in the day-to-day “celebreality”. Celebrities are not only the people that are actors and actresses that move us with their movies and shows; they are the people in the reality shows whether they are old news celebrities or just regular people that want their fifteen minutes of fame.

There are many channels on television that air celebrity news, reality shows, and celebrity shows. The people on these shows fight, ridicule and gossip. After the local news on some channels there is even a show just for celebrity news. It is everything you need if you are interested in other peoples lives. They have Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra, E! News, MTV News, Insider, The Soup and many more. There is also a whole channel that has every slot on their line up filled with reality shows. There are shows that regular people can become famous like American Idol, Fear Factor, Laguna Beach , Real World, Road Rules, Survivor, and America 's Next Top Model. Even the local cable channels have a reality at least once in their weekly line up. VH1 started out as a music channel that shared the oldies with the new generations now their slogan is “celebreality”. On the air now are shows like: Celebrity Fit Club, Dancing with the Stars, Flavor of Love, Simple Life, The Surreal Life, The Anna Nicole Show, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, Chasing Farrah, Hogan Knows Best, House of Carters, Breaking Bonaduce, Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica, The Osbournes, 'Til Death Do Us Part: Carmen and Dave, and least but not even near the last Celebrity Paranormal. They have shows for “old news” celebrities that want their fifteen minutes of fame back or new people that want to become the next big star. These shows are harmful to us as viewers because their lives become ours. On America ’s Next Top Model, it teaches its young viewers how they are supposed to look. If you want to become famous you have to change everything that you are. You can no longer be your own person; it doesn’t fit into the role of 2006 and the generation that comes with it. The regular housewife will never get her life on television since that doesn’t make ratings.

The news is supposed to inform us about the issues going on in our neighborhood, city, state and anywhere else that is important to us as citizens. The news should tell us, what is going on with the terrorism threat and the war in Iraq , with taxes, and the government spending. What about the 2006 election for the propositions, they could explain what the sides of the