Entertainment is a leisure activity consisting of an event and an audience that views the event and participates. This participation can be subtle, as in Theatres: Film, Opera or stageshows, or Orchestral symphony concerts wherein the applause due the performance or performing artists would be bad manners. In contrast, the sports entertainment industry feeds off audience participation— who can imagine the strange event attending a pro-wrestling bout, basketball or baseball game without cheering or booing the participants would experentially being happy.

The industry that provides entertainment is called the entertainment industry, and one distinction between what is meant by the term is the voluntary participation of the party being entertained, which may be passive (Opera) or active (Frantic shoot-em-up computer games) and the whole gamut of industry supported diversions in between (Baseball, Concerts, Football, Books, Television, film , striptease, and events like Karaoke).

Recreation, play, reading, and art appreciation may in some instances be confused with entertainment, but the difference is elementary—entertainments take two or more— even if one of the participants is a programmer for the obsolescent Amiga computer system who now happens to be deceased. Without the 'performance' of the artist and the participation of the viewer the event would and could not occur.

More on [ Entertainment ]

BBC News | Entertainment | UK Edition

Emmerdale actor Hornby dies at 63
Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:58:04 -0000
Actor Clive Hornby, who played Jack Sugden in ITV1 soap Emmerdale, has died at the age of 63.
BBC journalist Wheeler dies at 85
Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:30:05 -0000
Sir Charles Wheeler, the BBC's longest-serving foreign correspondent, dies from lung cancer aged 85.
'No truth' in Friends film rumour
Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:19:27 -0000
There are no plans for a big-screen version of hit US sitcom Friends, film studio Warner Bros tells the BBC.

Subscribe to Arts_and_Entertainment RSS feed