Disinfotainment - JON CARROLL

[Kadie]

JON CARROLL
Jon Carroll

Tuesday, April 12, 2005





About a decade ago, the writer Howard Rheingold coined the word disinfotainment. I'm not sure what particular phenomenon he was describing, but the word has stuck with me all this time. I think it's the best word to encapsulate several political trends.

First, there's the Terri Schiavo case. It is obvious that the entire battle was fought at a very high level of abstraction. Terri Schiavo had been in a vegetative state for 14.5 years, and that was an issue only for the people who loved her. Suddenly, the case became a symbol for the Sacredness of Life or the Right to Privacy or whatever button it pushed for you. You didn't care about Terri Schiavo; you cared about the outcome of the case, because you were enthralled by the narrative.

Narrative is one of the key components of entertainment. The last time you cried at the movies, you cried because bad things (or even good things) happened to someone you were made to care about. It was the narrative that made you cry, because you understood the stakes. Sophie's choice is only terrible when you internalize it, when it becomes your choice. You root for the hero because, in a real way, you have gone through what he has gone through. Video games take that identification one step further; I think that's one reason for their popularity.

So the Terri Schiavo case was entertainment, only with real people. So it was information and entertainment. But it was also conducted at a highly abstract level, which tended to obscure the specific reality of the people. Thus, disinfotainment. I believe that Tom DeLay, in the midst of an ethical mess from which he may never emerge (fingers crossed), used the Schiavo case to distract from his own troubles. Oh, the magician flashed his red scarf just as he was palming the card. It's an old trick.

more...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/04/12/DDGS9BMGHE1.DTL

He talks about social security and arnie...