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Who’s Afraid of Infotainment? 113

somewhat more human interest and sensationalism, but hardly so in political
reporting. Television programme makers cannot very well be blamed for using
their medium and visualizing the news, as long as relevant topics are not
omitted because of lack of pictures. Also the fact that, in trying to gain empathy
with the viewer, the ‘person in the street’ has gained prominence in interviews is
hardly proof of an entertainment focus, certainly when officials and power
wielders still dominate the news.
The study of infotainment in different television genres in the Dutch election
campaign of 1994 also presented an ambiguous picture. More than three-
quarters of politicians’ television appearances were on the traditional platforms
of political communication: news and current affairs programmes and party
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political broadcasts. On the other hand, looking at the content, style and format
of different programmes of genres ranging from information to entertainment, it
turned out also that the informational programmes to a more or less degree
contained elements of entertainment. On the whole, however, there seems to
remain enough television to choose relevant information from and to gain
knowledge in order to participate in the democratic process.
More problematic, or from another perspective reassuring, is, however, that a
number of recent research projects have dampened the belief in the cognitive
ability of television. In an extensive overview of American surveys, Robinson
and Davis (1990) conclude that, compared to reading daily newspapers,
watching television news is a poor aid to getting informed. Television is seen and
treated as a pleasure machine and that attitude alone already poses difficulties
for understanding. In comparing Dutch commercial and public television news,
Kleinnijenhuis et al. (1991) sketched a more complex picture whereby acquiring
knowledge is dependent on previous knowledge, motivation and information
on offer. They concluded that television news is less suitable for acquiring
complex knowledge necessary to make a rational choice. Moreover, as John
Zaller (1997) claims, because election outcomes have more impact on individuals
than individuals can have on election outcomes, the rational voter will be more
interested in information about how the election is likely to come out than in
information that will help her or him to cast a wise vote. Whether one likes it or
not and whether or not one disagrees with the rational choice approach, these
findings put political communication in a different light.

Infotainment as hideout

If a campaign strategy is aimed at infotainment in order to avoid the professional
scrutiny of political journalists, we might have a problem. And it is worse if it is
meant to mislead, or at least to hide something from the public, not to tell the
whole story and thus to project an image which, if unveiled, might have made
people decide otherwise. One of the pivotal functions of journalists in a
participatory democracy – holding officials to account for how they have
excercised power – cannot be fulfilled. An example of this can be found in
Clinton’s successful bypass strategy in 1992, which was expressly meant to avoid