By TJ Ford
Arts Editor
With televised comedic journalism dominating modern day newscasting for today’s youth, young adults should be careful and get legitimate, unbiased information before turning to sensational comedic representations.
News-satires are classified as comedic takes on worldly events, with most having a host who plays the role of an exaggerated commentator. For instance, Stephen Colbert assumes the role of a staunchly-conservative Republican in his analyses of the world on the “Colbert Report.” Other late-night shows that make fun of daily happenings are “Saturday Night Live’s” “The Weekend Update” and Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” All majorly focus on tearing apart the latest political slip-up or current conflicts through hilarious interviews with misconstrued correspondents.
However, with the permeation of news-satires from being segments of late-night talk shows to now being networks’ staples for prime-time viewers, their role has changed from being acknowledged comedic programs to being mistaken as facets for unbiased information, which is frightening considering the youthful audiences of said programs.
According to the Pew Research Center, over 80 percent of people who watch “The Daily Show” fall into the category of young adults, and of that 80 percent, more than 43 percent stated that the show is their primary news source. Both “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” ranked higher than any other traditional news source, including CNN and MSNBC, regarding their amount of viewers age 18 to 29.
What is not underlined, however, is that shows like these are not viable media for unbiased information. They are inherently skewed for the humor of their ridiculous interpretation. It is slightly frightening that in a time when information is supposedly more accessible than any other era, today’s youth is increasingly heading toward interpretative sources first. In fact, even the Pew Research Center classified such “fake-news” programs as being legitimate sources. This shows the indicative of people’s confusion regarding the legitimacy of modern news sources, both satirical and otherwise.
For instance, Danna Young, a professor of psychology at the University of Delaware, conducted a study of those who watched political satires and enjoyed them the most. It showed that rather than watching for solely entertainment purposes, people were watching because they wanted a viewpoint. It was even observed that while watching the political satires, the viewers’ political orientations became more aligned with that of the satirical program.
Although these entertainment programs might encourage the youth to be more aware of current events because of the comedic delivery, it is not necessarily positive that they are exposed to completely biased material. This is sometimes an issue because it may shift audiences to a specific political orientaition.
When the population turns to “fake-news” first, it misses the key step of having the complete story before being exposed to a skewed interpretation. The primarily-youthful audience has yet to define its views because this age group is one that relies on analytical guidance.
It is incredibly important to note that shows like these are not replacements for reliable news outlets. Although incredibly witty and entertaining, satirical news is beginning to fill in for the solely-informative media that actually provides accurate news.
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