The Role of Satire, Parody and Fake News Programs in Political Reporting

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The Role of Satire, Parody and Fake News Programs in Political Reporting
Abstract
The realm of journalism has been changing over the years, and traditional journalism has indeed been re-conceptualized especially regarding reporting political news. Satirical fake news has helped to restructure the reporting of political issues while entertaining the viewers CITATION Jas09 \l 1033 (Holt, 2009). The position held by satirical and fake news hosted by comedians has offered a new avenue of informing the masses on important matters whilst maintaining their primary objective of entertaining. Though the advent of fake news programs hosted by comedians is widely for entertainment, the programs have evolved to incorporate and address pertinent issues affecting the country CITATION ADa12 \l 1033 (Dagnes, 2012). The trend has cemented its presence in media houses and attracted many viewers who have catapulted the shows to rival mainstream media reporting on the key issues affecting the citizens. This paper will examine The Daily Show by Jon Stewart, Last Week Tonight by John Oliver and The Tonight Show by Jay Leno.
One of the main points of discussion is how hosts use parody and satire together to air his opinions to his audience about political correctness. This article would elucidate the efficacy of methods the presenter uses to pass the message to his viewers on politics. Secondly, the article would focus on whether the satirical and fake news programs offer any information not covered by the mainstream media. This is through comparison of the content provided by the satirical and fake news programs and mainstream media content. Thirdly, this paper would also ascertain if the satirical and fake news program have any impact on the political landscape of US.
Introduction
According to ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"246ee6b05k","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Baym, 2005)","plainCitation":"(Baym, 2005)"},"citationItems":[{"id":17,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/SL4LmXvQ/items/CHX25WBM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/SL4LmXvQ/items/CHX25WBM"],"itemData":{"id":17,"type":"article-journal","title":"The Daily Show: Discursive Integration and the Reinvention of Political Journalism","container-title":"Political Communication","page":"259-276","volume":"22","issue":"3","source":"CrossRef","DOI":"10.1080/10584600591006492","ISSN":"1058-4609, 1091-7675","shortTitle":"The Daily Show","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Baym","given":"Geoffrey"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2005",7]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Baym, 2005), the quality of news has declined in recent years. The news outlets, which were once authoritative sources of news, are now slowly replaced by other programming strategies ranging from “news lite” to local happy talk. The market is very competitive which has forced the real journalism to be sacrificed for the eye-catching content. The basic principles of journalism like independence, inquiry, and independence have been neglected leading to the decline in viewership. Research done by Pew Research Center in 2002 indicated that the audience of television dropped considerably between 1993 to 2002. The study noted that the sharpest decline was among 18-29-year-olds with only 40% reporting having watched a television news in the previous night. However, among the 30-49-year-olds, the number is slightly higher, and 52% said that they did watch television news on the previous night. The research clearly indicates that as the population is aging, mainstream broadcast news continues to face numerous challenges.
The young people are shifting to the late-night and comedy shows as an alternative to obtaining information. A report by Pew Research Center for People and the Press (2007) indicated that comedy and late-night shows had become the primary news sources especially for the younger generation aged 18-29 years. These findings indicate the importance the audience attaches to the programs and consider them not as mere entertainment but as a source of credible information. Young people turn to the satirical fake news to get the current political information. Although the satirical fake news has been criticized for promoting cynicism and apathy in the audience, the shows have expanded over the last decade and have now become influential in the political arena.
The methods used by the presenters to pass the message
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart blend both the characteristics of comedy and news show. The show ignores the conventions of comedy and news and maximizes on the positive aspects of each to attract viewers. Media critics and scholars are divided on whether the show is fake, or it is real journalism. On the one hand, the show has some aspects which constitute fake news and have no basis. On the contrary, the majority of the show has credible news which is far from what someone would see as fake. The host and the writers rarely come up with their stories. Often, they obtain clips of actual news from the major news networks and construct episodes from them. They then include satire on the clips to uncover the morality of the issues discussed.
Satire has allowed The Daily Show to expand and focus on issues that traditional mainstream media often avoids. Entertainment television has shied from commenting on the serious forms of politics while focusing only on a few aspects of politics ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"29q829afof","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Leclerc, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Leclerc, 2015)"},"citationItems":[{"id":20,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/SL4LmXvQ/items/V4FN8SQW"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/SL4LmXvQ/items/V4FN8SQW"],"itemData":{"id":20,"type":"thesis","title":"Satirical News and Political Subversiveness: A Critical Approach to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report","publisher":"The University of Western Ontario","source":"Google Scholar","URL":"http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2996/","shortTitle":"Satirical News and Political Subversiveness","author":[{"family":"Leclerc","given":"Roberto"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2016",11,23]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Leclerc, 2015). The use of satire has allowed Stewart to integrate politics with entertainment and exploit this new form of communication to help the audience understand political issues while at the same time keeping them entertained. The mainstream media separates entertainment from political issues. Stewart, however, allows the viewers to see political news differently by offering critical positions and perspectives which are not presented by the mainstream media.
The presenters of the satirical fake news do not subscribe to the same standard as the professional journalists hence they can circulate what has escaped the attention of the mainstream media. The Daily Show takes advantage of this to present everyday conversations in a manner appealing to the audience. The culture in the US currently craves for more entertainment and values anything that has an entertainment aspect.
Do satirical and fake news programs offer any information not covered by the mainstream media?
Satirical fake programs do a significantly better job of informing people than the majority of the real news outlets. Despite the fact that the programmers have less budget and sometimes less experience in journalism, they perform much better than the actual journalists. John Oliver recently analyzed the Miss American Scholarship Claim in a more detailed manner and allowed the audience to understand the issue better. During the fifteen minutes of the show, Oliver managed to report the matter in a more original way. He was detailed and unearthed the truth hence breaking down the complex problem in a manner that made most of the people know about ...