Breaking News?

Politics, Journalism, and Infotainment on Quebec Television

By Frédérick Bastien
Translated by Käthe Roth
Categories: Political Science, Canadian Political Science, Social Sciences, Popular Culture, Communication & Media Studies
Series: Communication, Strategy, and Politics
Publisher: Les Presses de l’Université Laval, UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774836821, 236 pages, January 2018
Paperback : 9780774836838, 236 pages, August 2018
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774836845, 236 pages, January 2018
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774836852, 236 pages, January 2018
Ebook (MobiPocket) : 9780774836869, 236 pages, January 2018
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Table of contents

Introduction: A Controversial Marriage

1 The Rise of Infotainment Television

2 Be (or Don’t Be) Our Guests

3 The Political Interviews: Beyond Sex and Saxophone

4 From the War Room to the Confessional

5 The Disproportionate Influence of Infotainment

6 The Rules of the Game

7 The Challenges of Infotainment

Appendix; Notes; References; Index

The first book about politics and infotainment in Canada, Breaking News? examines the challenges of these (often) controversial programs for democratic citizenship.

Description

In the thousand-channel universe, politicians must find innovative ways to reach citizens via television. Viewership for news and current affairs television programs has dropped dramatically. Meanwhile, the rise of programming that blends information with entertainment – infotainment – on French Canadian television has provided new opportunities for today’s politicians. Breaking News? traces the development of infotainment and exposes the impact of these kinds of programs on modern political communication. Though not without its controversies, infotainment ultimately makes a positive contribution to democratic life by piquing the audience’s interest in public affairs and motivating it to pay more attention to political news in general.