Book part:

Approaches to Instant Knowledge and The New Media Technologies

The fashionable terms ‘Infotainment’ or ‘Edutainment’ seem to imply an experiential, entertaining way of knowledge acquisition. They are associated with free information and unpaid knowledge on the one hand, on the other, they refer to a quite informal information and knowledge environment. The production and organization of knowledge is affected by technological developments, i.e. digitalisation, commercialisation and convergence of media. All of a sudden, a particular knowledge type of the information age – ‘instant knowledge’ – can be identified. This new knowledge type can roughly be described as ‘first–sight–knowledge,’ which is universally comprehended, easily and instantly understood and entertaining. In the following article this new ‘instant’ knowledge type will be defined in its relation to other types of knowledge.