What is entertainment?

Concept of entertainment: Entertainment is a kind of nature for people to pursue happiness and relieve the pressure of survival. Culture, technology and modern society are pushing us in the same direction-entertainment. So how do you define entertainment? The difficulty in answering this question lies in many misunderstandings about entertainment, which are mainly reflected in two points. First, entertainment is considered as a commodity provided by the media. According to this view, some media content is entertainment while others are not. TV plays, movies, sitcoms and sports are entertainment, but news, documentaries and educational films are not. This view stems from the simple understanding of behavioral science: entertainment programs make people entertain, and non-entertainment programs can't make people entertain. Modern psychology believes that the media audience also plays a certain role, and the audience can decide which programs and contents they will have fun in purposefully and in a planned way. The second misunderstanding is to set entertainment and information against each other. According to this view, the greater the information content of the program, the worse the entertainment. In other words, the more fun the audience gets, the less knowledge they learn. Obviously, this view is also untenable. Watching the Olympic Games is a kind of entertainment, but the audience can also learn about other countries' customs, competition knowledge and people's physiological and psychological limits (Vorderer, 200 1). Therefore, entertainment can be regarded as an activity to please the recipients by expressing emotions, joys and sorrows, or the skills of oneself and others, which is enlightening (Bryant &; Miron, 2002). Obviously, this definition is broad, which includes tragicomedy, various competitions and games, music and dance performances and appreciation. Entertainment is a project, performance or activity designed to bring fun to the audience. Although there are some examples, it seems that there is only one "audience" playing computer games. The entertainment that the audience participates in can be passive, such as watching opera, or active, such as playing computer games. The industry that provides entertainment is called entertainment industry. Leisure, games, reading and appreciation of visual arts are generally not considered as entertainment. Because the general definition of entertainment is the need for a performance provider visible to the audience. It seems difficult to find common ground in many forms and projects used by mass entertainment, but for users who participate in and use entertainment forms and projects, the common ground brought by different entertainment is that they are temporarily divorced from reality.

[Edit this paragraph] The function of entertainment

Social function of mass entertainment

It is hard to imagine what kind of society modern society would become without the mass entertainment provided by mass media. In the United States, the role of the cultural industry in the economy can be compared with that of the military industry, accounting for about 13% of the total US exports. According to statistics, from 1996 to 200 1 year, the growth rate of American media and entertainment industry was as high as 6.5%, while the average growth rate of American economy in the same period was 3.6%. In 2002, American entertainment industry exported US$ 88 billion, making it the largest export industry (Bizminer, 2005). The huge business opportunities of the entertainment industry can show that entertainment is not only an opportunity to enjoy, relax and escape the pressure of work. Sociological research shows that entertainment and survival labor are negatively correlated. In other words, the better the working conditions, the higher the remuneration and the shorter the working hours in a society, the higher the demand for entertainment, and entertainment is closely related to economic prosperity rather than economic poverty. In the United States, the emphasis on entertainment is regarded as the embodiment of pursuing a "better life". Mendelssohn's research shows that a value that transcends all classes in modern America is the yearning for a "better life"-a carefree life that is not trapped by demand and labor. This life is characterized by having enough money and time. We can regard mass entertainment as an integral part of a better life, rather than a safe haven for labor or other difficulties. Because in trouble, people often seek spiritual support (such as religion) instead of entertainment. The famous sociologist Gans also holds the same view. His research on poor communities in Boston shows that most people don't think that the purpose of using mass entertainment is to escape, but to pursue the yearning for life. There is no denying that mass entertainment has the same function of "seclusion" as alcohol, tobacco, violence and sex. Nevertheless, the imitation theory put forward by sociologist Van Buren also believes that the goal of the economically poor is often more than material wealth. They all look forward to the leisure life of the leisure class, and take their colorful life as the imitation object. The mass media put the entertainment that once belonged to the royal nobility on the mass stage, and the entertainment was transplanted to the social category from now on. People no longer need to hire court musicians and worry about not being able to afford opera tickets. Television broadcasts all sports competitions and musicals, and modern technology enables people of different economic classes to enjoy the same entertainment. The main contribution of this social order is to bring the lifestyles of all walks of life closer. The shortening of this distance makes the society with economy as the dividing line gradually transition to the society with status as the dividing line. Another social function of mass entertainment is that group sharing is more frequent and close, which is reflected in watching, discussing and commenting on the experience and fate of TV drama protagonists, the success or failure of ball games, the performance of singers and so on. Mass entertainment undoubtedly provides a lubricant for the creation and maintenance of social relations. In most cases, because mass entertainment has nothing to do with the real life of the audience, the topic of entertainment makes the communication between people easy.

Psychological function of mass entertainment

Watching popular entertainment programs not only has an impact on society, but also on people's psychology and emotions. It is believed that one of the mechanisms by which entertainment programs produce entertainment effects is through fantasy or imagination. Polichak and Gerrig's research on the audience's reaction to watching movies shows that there are a series of imaginative activities for the audience to watch and experience entertainment. The type and quantity of this imaginative response depend on different factors, including the characteristics of fictional stories, the imagination of the audience, their beliefs and past experiences, and their motivation to watch a certain type of entertainment selectively. The psychological function of media entertainment programs is also reflected in the generation of audience identity. Entertainment programs allow viewers to share other people's lives, so they can stimulate the audience, educate the audience, and stimulate their imagination and thinking. More importantly, they can activate the audience's sense of identity and make them emotionally and cognitively involved in stories that they know are fiction. The concept of identity provides the key to understand how the audience engages in fictional stories: the identity of the role provides the audience with a perspective to appreciate the stories in the program, which affects the audience's understanding of the role and is conducive to cultivating the close relationship between the audience and the role. The psychological impact of media entertainment programs on the audience is also reflected in the audience's investment in the program. In the use and satisfaction theory, input is a kind of audience behavior. Before watching the program, investment is the reason why you want to use the media; In the process of watching, input can be understood as the connection between the audience and the program content, and the response of the media content to the individual psychology; After watching the program, the sense of participation can be understood as the audience's long-term recognition of the program or the role of the program and the quasi-social relationship with the program characters.