The Infotainment Watching Patterns among Housewives

Abstract

Television, as one of the mass media, has a considerable influence on the behavior of society since it is widely consumed by the public. One of the television programs is infotainment, which now mostly presents the celebrity lifestyle, or the rumor that has not been axiomatic. This study aims to identify and explain the pattern of watching infotainment among housewives. The subject of this study is three housewives in RT 04 Housing Mekarsari Sumedang city, who are divided into groups of audiences that have a low awareness (Illiterate), medium awareness (pragmatist), and high awareness (intellectual). The method used is the ethnography of communication that describes the communication situation, the communication events, the acts of communication and the meaning of communication as a public communication activities. The results show that there are differences in each communication event that occurs in the housewives when watching infotainment. On the intellectual type, the meaning of watching infotainment is to fill their spare time. On the type of audience pragmatic, the meaning is to seek the latest information and to make a mean of recreation. On the illiterate type, the watching activity occurs during the lunch break and afternoon, where they tend to watch the show alone and only to meet their needs or interests. This differences of watching patterns have led to differences in public attitudes towards the infotainment programs they watch.