All forms of madness in society are justified in the people who create them or those who enjoy watching it.
A word to describe news that is also a form of entertainment is “infotainment”. This term combines information and entertainment, and is often used for news reports that prioritize the entertainment value of the news, alongside with its factual aspect.
Some may call it “yellow journalism” that is a style of news reporting that emphasizes sensationalism and even exaggeration or rumour over facts to attract readers, or nowadays “netizens”.
The updated term is “newstainment”. It refers to blending news reporting with entertainment so as to make the news more appealing to a wider audience.
Some journalists ridicule such divergent approach, apart from increasing viewership, will at the same time damage the quality, and dilute the accuracy of news by putting fun over the duty of professionally informing the public.
Generally, news reporting should strive for objectivity and avoid unnecessary value judgments. The infotainment, yellow journalism or newstainment however form their conclusions, usually juicy and colourful, before the readers are allowed to draw their own viewpoints.
In 2025, newspapers broke a big story. A scandal emerged involving a 38-year-old man from Nanjing, China who allegedly posed as a woman. He called himself “Sister Hong” (紅姐) and has engaged in sexual acts diligently with more than one thousand men for the past 3 years. The media made it a piece of world news and labelled it as “The Nanjing Sister Hong Incident”(南京紅姐事件).
The sexual encounters were recorded by Sister Hong who then sold them online for fee-based circulation. Sister Hong did not charge the men any money for the “hanky panky’, but they had to bring her some rice, oil or fruits. Sister Hong was finally arrested and Police investigation is ongoing. The widespread media coverage and public moral debates have generated huge internet memes and derivative contents including music and cartoons internationally. Many condemn Sister Hong and those men involved for their eccentric and immoral conduct.
Making use of the outrage, media outlets exaggerated the story and promoted the videos of Sister Hong’s sexual deals to increase viewership or readership, using sensationalized reporting, eye-catching headlines and emotionally charged language. Drama is over factual accuracy. Photographs of those men were exposed and made public. Do have a heads-up when anyone gets into casual sex!
The scandal has glued the public interest to this day, as if all are the Police investigating a cardinal sin.
The internet had made it easier for people to access information for free. Media companies are facing financial challenges, and are forced to look for more viewers on the social media platforms. This is why they have to make news attractive.
“Infotainment”, “yellow journalism” or “newstainment” will be the inevitable trend. When boredom strikes, viewers are hungry for news which can produce excitement, instead of those about happy societies and sweet families!
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