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| Entertainment a serious affair | | |
Dr Mamta Ojha,
It is very unfortunate that entertainment itself is becoming 'routine' today. Though the main objective of entertainment is, to help a person escape from his daily routine chores and monotony of life, it is observed that the sponsored entertainment of today is mechanical, lacks diversity, freshness, and is monotonous and stereotyped. In general, people look to the media of films, radio, and television, for their entertainment needs, for which they even spend their valuable time and money. But somewhere, the much needed innovation, conceptualization, experimentation, creativity and novelty is lacking.
On the New Year eve, lot many youngsters now prefer staying at home and celebrating the eve, in their own individualistic manner, rather than going out in city and making themselves available for 'sponsored, routine, much advertised 'entertainment packages'. It is noted, that the 'sponsored entertainment packages' provided by the market, most of the time, does not reflect the people choice or, interest but is rather forced on them. The receivers of the entertainment need a 'democratic' rather than a 'dictatorial' approach in entertainment.
Instantly made entertainment
Most of the times, the people are hammered with the same kind of 'instantly made entertainment' and this repeated hammering makes the human or audience mind blunt resulting in the release of his worries temporarily due to hammering. Such type of entertainment does not reach the roots of audience mind or get absorbed in his body and system, but has a momentary effect. The FM channels are good examples of it, since they continuously play or hammer the same songs everyday.
It is seen that, in this trendy, fashion conscious world with, no claim for guarantee, use and throw and disposable times or era, even the entertainment is prepared, in the production unit of the media in wholesale and bulk, by adding certain general characteristics and parameters and then sold to the consumers, in the name of fashion and trend, without much concern about individual taste.
Marketeers of entertainment
To the marketeers of entertainment, selling is not difficult, especially when the persuasive communication of advertising, public relations, publicity and propaganda are at their disposal. Moreover the marketing mix consisting of packaging, promotion etc aids selling.
The persuasive forms of communication create the mood, generate need, desire and interest about entertainment products, but they too need to be used in a balanced manner, so that they do not give rise to unnecessary expectations towards the entertainment product, which further leads to frustration on part of audience and loss of credibility on part of entertainers.
Be it radio, television or films, in the race for competition, there is a race to be like each other, rather than to build the much needed identity of own .It is seen, that the monotonous, stereotyped content, is creating 'clones of audience' who themselves are forgetting their individual tastes, preferences and rely more on forced and sponsored entertainment which lies in plate for them for easy consumption.
Many a time, even the audience prefers to be pampered and seeks for mindless entertainment where he can stay passive, and receptive, as he thinks that such entertainment alone can soothen him after a day of hard work and strain.The audio visual medium of films and television provide such passive entertainment, where the audience fall to the captivation of these medium and appears to be visually drugged, when all his senses are pampered by the medium.
Diet for the mind
Entertainment which can stimulate and activate the senses, emotions, brains and souls of the audience is needed today. Unfortunately, even the audience fails to understand himself since he is unaware of his own desires, psychology, emotions, likes, dislikes and, in turn, becomes an easy prey to the sponsored commercialized entertainment
In order to understand what entertains us,we need to know the things which give us happiness and pleasure.It is necessary to understand,evaluate our desires and fulfill them if they are positive and legitimate, as fulfillment of positive desires increases positivity, adds to freshness, enhances productivity and increases our potential.
Audience today is unable to differentiate between the healthy and the junk entertainment which is provided to him.'Entertainment' is actually 'the food of the mind '. Today, In the fast moving, competitive scene, a balanced nutritious diet for the stomach as well as the mind is very much necessary.Our 'entertainment menu' needs to be strictly nutritious, as it is directly related to our mental equilibrium,health and fitness.
Entertainment is very much related to mood and psychology of the audience which is constantly fluctuating and unpredictable. Entertainment is also an individualized term, and hence the work of the entertainer is not easy. Though, we talk of modernization, and adaptivity, the Indian audience yet are very conservative, conventional, restricted, making it difficult for entertainers to risk innovation, conceeptualization and creativity. The entertainers thus work in accordance with the prevailing conventional taste and walk on an already made easy path.It is high time that both the entertainment seekers and providers take the matter of entertainment seriously and broaden innovation on the entertainers part and receptivity on the audience part.
-Writer teaches Journalism
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