News, Trust, and "Truthiness"

Having read my classmates' blog entries I have to admit I am pleasantly surprised. I am happy to see that the majority of my classmates whose blogs I read shared my belief that shows like The Daily Show are indeed an effective form of culture jamming. 

Having read some fellow bloggers' views, in combination with my own, I believe there will be plenty of room for satirical news shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, etc. to expand and receive more attention. It is quite possible that along with more viewers, these types of shows will become a more popular method used to inform oneself of the public and political goings on in the targeted groups. 

In her most recent blog entry Shaiann Richards wrote “In the end, I believe that satirical news is a form of culture jamming that is used to display different viewpoints of social and political issues.” (http://shaiannrichards.wordpress.com/). This is a good example of my point in my own blog entry; satirical news opens up different avenues of informing ourselves about current goings-on when the mainstream “normal” news doesn’t appease or appeal to us.

Another benefit of this form of culture jamming is that it helps take away the extra dramatic angles that newscasters and their stations impose on their stories in order to gain more attention. Another student wrote: “By adding humor to their show the topics on these shows lose significance. However the public is still made aware of these issues so these news broadcasts do not create misconceptions with their media portrayals.” (http://jattinc.wordpress.com/2013/11/). I agree with this statement and believe that that factor will play a major role in the snowballing popularity of satirical news shows.  

These shows are reaching out and getting the attention of different audiences than the mainstream news shows do, yet another reason this type of media will be quite viable in the future. I am not the only one that feels this way, either. Alana Lutz wrote “…these shows are using culture-jamming techniques to engage a different audience than the regular news outlets.” (http://itsalanalutz.wordpress.com/2013/11/21/is-the-fake-news-the-real-news/). She was not the first either who agreed that these shows are engaging to an entirely different crowd!

All in all this boils down to my opinion after having read many of my classmates’ blogs which still stands: these shows are now, and will continue to be, a very viable form of both culture jamming and informing oneself of the news without having to resort to the “normal” outlets.