In this era of technology there has become an increasing thirst for a constant flow of information and news. With the giant news corporations such as CNN, Fox, and MSNBC there are plenty of places you can go to find information. However, Stephen Colbert has paved the way for a new type of news through his patriotic filled program, The Colbert Report. Colbert portrays himself as an extremely conservative, right winged pundit, anxious to assert his opinion on every issue that crosses his desk. However, this is not the true Colbert, it is merely the façade that he hides behind to conceal his left leaning tendencies. In this paper, I will prove the effectiveness of Colbert’s Republican disguise and whether or not it has an affect on the younger audience that he caters to.
A bit of background knowledge is necessary in order to understand the type of show that The Colbert Report is. At a glance, the show appears to be like any other talk show: a well-groomed host, a very modern set, a big desk, and a studio audience to clap and laugh at the jokes. However, Colbert begins his show with a very patriotic introduction involving a bald eagle, Colbert planting the American flag into the ground, a plethora of patriotic and strong willed terms flashing behind him, and of course, a very rock-n-roll theme song. As the show begins his audience chants his name over and over, “Stephen, Stephen, Stephen,” and although Colbert acts as if he wants them to quiet down, it is apparent he loves every minute of it. He generally has two 5-8 minute segments that cover topics in the political world, foreign affairs, or sometimes pop culture. He offers his opinions and thoughts on the various situations often with thick sarcasm that can easily be interprete...
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...tering to them. Colbert sums up his way of presenting the news in a simple quote, “The 'truthiness' is, anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news...at you.”
Works Cited
1. Baumgartner, Jody C., and Jonathan S. Morris. "One “Nation,” Under Stephen? The Effects of The Colbert Report On American Youth." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (2008): 622-42. Web.
2. Hmielowski, Jay D., R. Lance Holbert, and Jayeon Lee. "Predicting the Consumption of Political TV Satire: Affinity for Political Humor, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report." Communication Monographs 78.1 (2011): 96-114. Web.
3. Young, Dannagal G., Laughter, Learning, or Enlightenment?: Viewing and Avoidance Motivations Behind the Daily Show and the Colbert Report (2012). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2131314 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2131314
“Women! What do they want?” John Oliver exclaims sarcastically as he begins his segment on the wage gap. John Oliver always begins his segments with sarcastic and witty comments in order to initially engage his audience which is largely young adults. His use of a news station background is what grabs the attention of news watchers. While he does discuss serious issues he does it with wit in order for his audience to come to the same conclusion as him. Knowing that the majority of his audience holds some college experience, “Last night tonight” expects the audience to be able to differentiate between the actual news and the host’s sarcasm. In his segment “Wage Gap”, host John Oliver uses statistics from the U.S Bureau of Labor, contradicting
“Fake” news programs, such as The Daily Show, Zinser reasonably argues, have the potential to dilute mass media and deceive viewers. The Daily Show has been straightforward about its lack of legitimacy as a hard hitting news program, but “the show’s content and guest list suggest otherwise” (Zinser 367). Zinser indicates that The Daily Show should hold itself to higher standards because “people might well think they’re being fully or sufficiently informed while watching” (367). In other words, Zinser believes that if viewers tune in with the expectation of becoming informed and The Daily Show’s content consists of significant topics, the creators ...
Fox News is constantly being bombarded with accusations of media bias, furthermore, a number of different instances of have occurred which question the validity of Fox News (Groeling). These instances occur throughout normal news broadcasts. Some of the more recent, and grossly biased broadcasts, were from the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. Historically the Fox News Channel is known to lean heavily to the right, or on the republican spectrum. President Barrack Obama’s political party is widely known to the public as being democratic. Statistically, to this day according to studies over 17 million households receive some form of the Fox News Channel (Auletta). The Fox News Channel is published through a number of different channels to its viewers. These channels include: Television, radio, newspaper, internet and more increasingly electro...
Both CNN and Fox News influence these immense populations with how each utilize pathos, ethos and logos in the topics discussed during the broadcasted show. For example, Fox News 's audience seems to be primarily conservative, while CNN’s audience seem to be more liberal (Engel). So each network’s stories “focus on the issues that” conservatives or liberals “want to watch and talk about” (James). These topics are used to develop a more conservative or liberal fan base in the respective news networks. As the dominant news network on cable television, Fox News impacts the greatest quantity of citizens, bringing in an audience of over two million for primetime (James). Therefore, Fox News influences the largest percentage of Americans listening to news networks by effectively using these manipulative literary techniques. However, CNN has a younger audience than Fox News (Carter), which contributes to CNN’s audience growing from 350,000 a night, in 2013 (Agee), to 629,000 viewers a night (James). CNN and Fox News compete with each other to influence the greatest amount of people and the public’s opinion of current events. Each network appeals to pathos, logos and ethos differently and similarly to coax the greatest amount of listeners each night.
The article, written by Bernard Goldberg, begins by talking about how television is most often used as a diversion from reality. It is then discussed that television can become more than a diversion, such as in times of war, terror, or tragedy. Goldberg focuses on examples such as the Oklahoma City bombings as well as 9/11. It is then proclaimed that on days such as these, we all turn to our televisions, whether it be Peter Jennings addressing the nation about the attack on our freedoms, or the story of Timothy Mcveigh blowing up a federal building. Goldberg then questions the process of connecting the dots in times such as these. A path is created through the statements of several television reports, resulting in the vastly believed connection that conservatism leads to anti-government rhetoric which causes Timothy Mcveigh to bomb the building. The argument is made that the media uses many categories to connect the dots that align with their agenda. Such examples include race, religion, sex, age, and politics. Lastly, Goldberg calls all television networks to report evenly so that the American citizens can connect the dots free from outside influence.
John Oliver evaluates statistics of people against and in support of the death penalty. However, his evaluations are approached with humor while, still remainning factual to his audience. Through the countless specified cut clips from other news sources, John Oliver presents interviewees and gives statements on them. He also uses number of statistics in regards on people against it and in support however, he provides sarcasm along with his statements. He also provides various references in which are presented in joke form as well as personal references. Also provides a wide usage of humor language to capture the audience’s attention. Through various cut clips of different media sources, Oliver discusses and evaluates each. He puts emphasis on them directly and constantly has humourous pictures to compare and reference to. For example, he presents a picture of a medival method of the death penalty to prove one of his points during his evaluation of the methods that have been used in past history. His humorous tone also plays a major role through his discussion on the death penalty debate. The satirical show, Last Week Tonight Show with John Oliver, has bearing similarities and differences to the coverage in regards to news outlets like CNN
Comedian Jon Stewart gives a speech on the Daily Show during the “Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear”. He wants the viewers of the Daily Show to realize the difference between the real and fake threats and to take a humorous perspective on most of America’s “problems”. Stewart also emphasizes to his audience not to take every person on the media by his word and not to overreact to everything they hear. He uses metaphors, comparisons, and hypothetical examples to get his point across.
While this might not seem overtly concerning in fact it could, given time, become very serious. Should the news one day be filled with stories from social media the professionalism and impartial views of news will be compromised. In a sense, the idea of news will be completely ruined, and instead there will only be the spreading of rumors, backed up by opinion rather than facts. Colbert makes it a point to try to convey this by using his alternate personality to expose the media for its shortcomings, including the break in coverage of an international issue. Perhaps this backwards way is best put by Colbert’s sardonic ending to his show, “To recap: a web editor I’ve never met, posts a tweet in my name, on an account I don’t control, outrages a hashtag-activist, and the news media gets 72 hours of content. The system
According to A Novel Approach to Politics “Questions about the very nature of reality seem to be common in fiction of all sorts.” Especially, The Boondocks, a fictional cartoon, uses satire to describe real events that happen in society. The episode I tuned into was “The Trial of R. Kelly”, which explained how R. Kelly won his trial and the views of the people about his case. In the episode, the people outside the court house showed different cognitive frameworks of how they view R. Kelly situation. In other words, the media made sense of the reality of R. Kelly situation in different ways because of the media wanted to select certain information. In this paper, I will explain how the media exemplified mediated reality and agreement reality in the “The Trial of R. Kelly” episode of The Boondocks.
We thought it would be a good idea to use these seven Media outlets not only because it gets us 5,526,806 views but also gets us a lot more. Like on CBS: 60 Minutes it airs on Sunday nights 7 P.M. that’s when people are at home relaxing before going to work on Monday morning. They also have the most impressions that are on this list which helps us a lot in just one interview. The second one is the NBC: Today Show. The today show is on weekday mornings at 7 a.m. this will get the people getting ready for work that lesson to the news before they go to work. Out of the top three morning news stations they have a higher younger abundance. With these past elections, more and more young adults are voting so I believe this will help him the most. For the third one we chose CBS: Sunday Morning News I thought this was the same as with the 60 minutes It’s a Sunday morning this will get the early risers that won’t be availed when 60 Minutes’ plays because they will be sleeping or having dinner. The fourth one we chose Fox: O’Reilly Factor. We chose this because republicans watch Fox news the most and this will get to them the quickest. Then we thought that we need some that isn’t just on television so we decided to go for three of them on print for the people that don’t watch tv as much. Our first choice was Wall Street Paper. This is the second highest circulated paper this means it will be the best bang for a buck I believe. Then we went with USA Today which is the highest circulated paper. It’s also good that there are eleven present republicans that are reached with this paper. The last print we decided to go with Des Moines Register we decided this would be a good idea for the sole reason that it has the third highest Impressions there are people that we have to reach that don’t read the USA Today as well as the Wall
We’ve all seen the Internet and TV go wild when America’s candidate Donald Trump spoke.
Peyser, Marc. “The Truthiness Teller; Stephen Colbert Loves This Country Like he Loves Himself. Comedy Central’s Hot News Anchor is a Goofy Caricature of Our Blustery Culture. But he’s Starting to Make Sense.” Newsweek 13 February 2006: 50
“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses” (Thinkexist, 2010). The mass media, including news, movies, magazines, music, or other entertainment source has become a part of daily life for many people. As the quote mentions mass media and its power are capable of influencing people’s mind and behavior. Contents in the media introduced to young people make it difficult for them to distinguish between what is real and what is not, as a result stimulating confusion and blind imitation. The mass media plays an important role in the increase of violence, sexual activity, and risky behaviors among teenagers.
In trying to attract new audiences, news media have begun to transition from reporting to becoming a form of entertainment. With the meteoric rise of social media’s role as a news source, the fight for an increase of diversity in the media, and the ever-growing desire of immediate content, the future of responsible journalism is more important than ever. Ask yourself, why do I think the way I do? Where do my political views originate? How do I prove them? Most likely, it is due to the biased portrayal of issues in the media and the politicization that accompanies what we consume. Now, compare your views to your preferred news reporting entity. More than likely, they are the same.
While a report’s main focus is to sum up the days events, relating in general to politics in the United States, opinions are discussed. And although this should not be what audiences focus on, it is. The influence of Journalists to the TV audience is inevitable. Although they present up-to-date news, their input and analytical perspective is what people tend to capture and convey to the public. In a sense, they create a world of news and controversy through their words. Moreover, Chris Matthews does just this in his nightly program of fiery debates and overviews of the day’s political spectrum. Through inside sources, factual debating, gaining trust from the audience and revealing specific opinion, he influences audiences nationwide, and in a way, takes over the minds of the audiences and the media, while still being a journalist and, at the end of the day, just “doing his job”.