In fact, there may be no consumer appeal at all. Consumers claim to read newspapers to acquire information, but the experience is something quite different. Stock prices on the one hand explicitly support transactional activities, but comics are pure diversion. But even counting hobby interests, information acquisition is a priority to only a minority of users, a fact evidenced by the miserable performance of online information systems despite a decade of personal computer diffusion. In fact, guilt may be the only real motivator behind consumer s acquisition of pure information, for it ties closely to the anticipation-driven nature of consumer desires.
Consumers acquire many information products and services in hopes of bettering themselves.
Encyclopedias were information-oriented guilt purchases by families, statements about the value placed on the education of their children. The same guilt was also an important motivator in the early purchase of home computers as information tools. The use of guilt and obsession have been convincing triggers for seeking information. Infotainment is the desire behind most casual magazine and newspaper reading. Infotainment is entertainment you can use, and a likely new media wild card.