As a journalism student we had this discussion in class and actually covered this. Since the creation of the newsreel (news shown before a movie in the cinema) there has been a debate of whether the news should seek to entertain or inform. Newsreels had to entertain and they also had to be about things that would stay relevant and also not be so boring that they would stop the person watching from wanting to watch the movie. However, a lot has changed since the invention of the newsreel and news we see on TV today tends to strike a balance between entertaining and informative, this thread is going to be kept primarily about new on TV!
Do you think news shown on TV today should be more entertaining or informative?
I think by making it more entertaining a bigger audience can be reached, which could be a good thing. However, I do think the first goal of news media should always be to update people on current matters with informative and factual content. When you make it more entertaining I guess it would be harder to give all the facts and show the matter in a nuanced way So I think I’m leaning more towards the informative side…
I feel like it depends on the type of news. World news, specifically political news, should definitely be on the informative side since the information is meant to be taken seriously but I feel like entertainment news could probably venture onto the entertaining side since the news they share isn’t typically that serious.
So I think I’m leaning more towards the informative side…