Entertaiment is defined as any consumer activity that understands itself objectively, communicates between text and audience, offers pleasure, requires an external stimulus to exist, and occurs in a passive form. Oliver and Barstsch (2010) argue that the term also encompasses anything that the brain can react deeply to – often on a level that the brain was evolved to comprehend – such as social backstabbing or murder, for example. These themes are frequently used in entertainment because they tend to hit on the points that the human mind was evolved to comprehend and react to.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2011 issue of T E News.