Sayre, Shay and Cynthia King. Entertainment and Society. Audiences, Trends, and Impacts.
Bosshart, Louis
Sayre, Shay and Cynthia King. Entertainment & Society.
Audiences, Trends, and Impacts. Thousand Oaks, CA, London, New Delhi:
Sage, 2003. Pp. xxv, 421. ISBN 0-7619-2548-1 (pb.) $54.95.
Entertainment in the context of this volume means to be amused, to
experience fun, humor, pleasure, play, and enjoyment. And what is even
more important is the following statement: "In contemporary
industrialized societies, we have entered an era where everything is
entertainment and entertainment is everything" (p..xxi). The two
authors are able to give evidence to this diagnosis. They cover the
whole array of what can be entertaining: books, drama, music, films,
circuses, television, gaming, gambling, sports, advertising, tourism,
and edutainment. They even look towards postmodern entertainment and
futuretainment with a special focus on the Internet and interactivity.
Looking at the gulf wars one might be tempted to ad
"militainment" if this is not politically incorrect.
In Chapters 1 through 5 "entertainment" is defined and
analyzed in regard of the role it plays in modern societies. Chapters 6
through 9 have a focus on entertainment media (print, radio, film, and
television), whereas Chapters 10 through 13 deal with live performances
like drama, musicals, operas, concerts, video-games, gambling, spectator
sports, recreation, and travel. The grand finale (Chapters 14 through
16) includes "key trends that reflect the blendings, converging,
and redefining of various forms of entertainment" (p. xxv).
There are a few things less entertaining than trying to define
entertainment. The two authors do it successfully in the first chapter
"That's Entertainment!" and they do it with different
approaches: entertainment as a quality of relationships, entertainment
as play, entertainment as pleasure, entertainment from the point of view
of three social cognitive theories (framing theory, symbolic
interactionism, and the social construction of reality). And since
entertainment is able to satisfy human needs that can be exploited,
entertainment economy fills a chapter of its own. Drama, the conflict of
forces, is the key element of entertainment, or as the authors say it:
"Drama is Queen" (p. 68). The importance of sports as
entertainment is highlighted by the title of Chapter 12: "Sports
Mania" (p. 287).
One could call the interesting book Entertainment & Society an
encyclopedia of contemporary entertainment and research in the field of
entertainment. This is thought to be a compliment because the authors
are less ambitious. The text in their view is directed at undergraduate
courses. But sometimes the impression appears that, once in a while,
there is just too much information in the book, that it suffers from an
overload and redundant parts.
Some parts could become more taut, i.e., the research in the field
of media effects (now in two parts) or the concept of play (also in two
parts). On the other side there are good reasons to include Western
movies in the catalogue of genres. There is nothing more formulaic in
the world of entertainment than Western movies.
Curious readers would also like to get the sources of what they
read. "Research suggests" (i.e., pp. 301ff.) is not enough.
There is a need for more specific information. Access to the sources
would also become easier if all the books and articles that were read
and compiled would not disappear in the notes but were enlisted in a
decent bibliography. Nevertheless, the book is worth being read by
scholars who are interested in entertainment studies and as a textbook
it will be very useful.
--Louis Bosshart
Fribourg-Freiburg (Switzerland)
