In answer to Neveu's critique, one needs to consider the effects of television on politics in terms of a twofold ambivalence: its mises en sc?ne, and what it reveals on the discomfort of researchers dreaming of a non-existent rational citizen. The aim of my analyses is not to formulate a plea for infotainment but to point out that we need to be attentive to the possibilities opened by the genre and to seek innovative methodologies for understanding their reception and effects. Despite their limits, these programmes are one of the rare spaces where ordinary citizens can express themselves. From the point of view of its limits, infotainment must also be seen as illustrating the paradox of democratic journalism: its freedom and its absence of control are both its strength and its weakness.