William Cannon

Comm.1500 Research Paper

A Means For a More Informed Discourse

Since the advent of fake news programs critics and viewers have argued over the
role it plays in the news media landscape and what role it should play. Programs such as
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have been regarded as a means for fueling a
more informed discourse by utilizing entertainment and comedy to generate interest in
topics and forms of media that might otherwise be overlooked due to their dull nature.
Questions continuing to be raised by critics often regard concerns over the impact this
entertainment-fueled news is having on an informed society as well as the news media
landscape as a whole. Supporters argue that it allows for uninhibited commentary and
criticisms of political news and various other topics. One thing is for certain, there are far
more benefits to viewing openly fake news programs such as The Daily Show rather than
fake news masquerading as legitimate news outlets such as that of Fox News.
Fake news programs such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report approach
all manner of news in a satirical or else humorous way. Some critics, such as Ramon
Lopez from The Federalist, argue that this satirical or humorous approach to often serious
news stories creates an issue for an informed and engaged public. The inverse of this
statement is the argument that fake news, regardless of its satirical or goofy approach to
stories, is making news more interesting and palatable to young voters. Given the young
demographic of 18-29 years old that makes up the bulk of The Daily Show viewership
and the overwhelming success of the show it is safe to say that there is certainly interest
in political issues being generated among young voters at least in part due to fake news
shows. The other argument against fake news is the tendency to utilize sarcastic
commentary on political issues, the fear being that this encourages cynicism among this

William Cannon

Comm.1500 Research Paper

youthful demographic which, is then theorized as being a means for youth to discredit
political engagement due to a sense of futility when trying to impact the political system.
This theory does not seem to be the case, however, because youth voter turn out increased
in 2006 by nine percent from 2000 (Lopez, Marcelo, and Kirby.) Even if fake news
shows havent been the driving force of this increase the facts reflect a definite lack of
young voter discouragement. Furthermore, the use of comedy to present either serious
subjects or even regularly dull topics has proven to be quite effective. In terms of
entertainment value the ratings (#1 among adults 18-49 with 1,408,00 quarterly average
for the daily show in 2013) show that this comedic approach to news stories sells
(thefutoncritic.com.)
Critics are often concerned with the quality of news stories this young
demographic is receiving because as Jon Stewart has mentioned himself, The Daily Show
is meant to be commentary on the news and meant for entertainment value only.
Regardless, many young people are critical of the news perhaps in part due to Stewart,
this means that they often avoid main stream news media and will often rely on social
media, alternative news websites, or fake news for their news information. The concern
among critics is that this is leaving vital news information out of the news discussion and
may even be encouraging mainstream media to follow suit in order to maintain their
audience and attract the critical youth demographic. These concerns while rational and
not unfounded are, however greatly misplaced. According to a study conducted at
Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2011, viewers who tuned into Fox News regularly
scored the lowest in terms of an informed audience. Comparatively, People who only
listened to NPR or watched Sunday morning talk shows or "The Daily Show" did the
best in the study. (Huffingtonpost.com.) Perhaps critics believe that it is already a

William Cannon

Comm.1500 Research Paper

well known fact that Fox News breeds disinformation and are trying to ensure quality
of information amongst truly relevant sources, regardless their fears appear to be
misplaced as The Daily Show proves to at least attract if not form a more educated
discourse. A more pressing issue is the discrepancy over Stewarts journalistic
integrity and responsibility. As a self-proclaimed entertainer on a comedy channel
whos first and foremost goal is entertainment, not education, there is concern that
Stewart can get away with presenting opinions or even news stories portrayed in a
way that reinforces their preexisting values as factual news stories. This is often an
issue with comedy, satire, and the news. Case in point would be the innumerable
confused comments on an article from famed news satire website The Onion when
one goes viral. Many people become outraged over an exaggerated satirical story
often mocking the ridiculous public figures and news stories out there. With that in
mind critics of fake news believe that as a presenter of news stories, Stewart has a
responsibly to his journalistic integrity. They argue that he is responsible for
informing a large audience and, as such, should be following traditional journalism
guidelines. However, the format of his show revolves around clips taken from other
reputable news sources or clips of journalists failing to adhere to their journalistic
integrity. This is all done so Stewart can comment on current news stories and
journalistic mishaps. He has the ability to be critical of others for failing to maintain
journalistic integrity without having to worry about doing so himself. This type of
programming could be beneficial to the news landscape as it provides a means for
free commentary and criticisms of news articles and journalists without facing
similar repercussions. This, in turn, allows Stewart to continue to be critical because
his rating do not suffer the same ramifications for journalistic failure as news
programs held to a higher standard do.

William Cannon

Comm.1500 Research Paper

Perhaps one of the biggest changes to the news landscape would be the
integration of social media with news media. This was brought on by many different
variables, however one big influence was certainly fake news. Fake news programs often
rely on the Internet for material, whether its news stories from websites or online content
they are able to utilize for entertainment and commentary purposes. One of the things
shows such as The Daily Show have capitalized on is the fervent social media usage by
youth in the U.S. The Daily Show has fully integrated with numerous forms of social
media including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. This cross platform integration allows
the show to stay connected and relevant to its audience even when not on air. They will
often recap the previous evenings show with a highlight clip, which then is posted to
YouTube and shared across their various other social networks. In several instances this
has led to clips from the show going viral online and reaching vast amounts of young
people on the Internet. This is mainly possible due to the shows comedic nature. Most
news programs would never have a clip of their show go viral unless there was a comedic
mistake involved. Stewart has an advantage here as his entire show is formatted to the
native dialect of the Internet, humor. Another tactic utilized by The Daily Show is a short
and sweet method. This approach allows the show to quickly cover a wide variety of
topics while keeping the viewers interest. This is also beneficial to the comedic aspect as
it allows for if not requires a fast paced series of hilarious jokes on the menagerie of
topics. The final key aspect to fake news such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report
is the lengthy interview, which can address very different topics than their comedy or
even news counterparts. Discussions could range from preparations for an acting role to
an in depth look at the systematic flaws of government systems around the world. While

William Cannon

Comm.1500 Research Paper

these interviews were sometimes held with celebrities or actors they were sometimes held
with very important political, science, and cultural figures. Guests to fake news programs
even included President Obama. With the end of the two original fake news programs
occurring this year there is a new concern over the effect of their absence. That concern
lies in the lack of coverage new books and up-and-coming authors will now face in their
absence. Numerous interviews on both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were
with new authors promoting their first published work. There is a great deal of concern
regarding the new void to be left by the discontinuation of The Daily Show. While many
programs once had regular coverage of author and books the media became cluttered and
interests shifted. This left Stewart and Colbert as the last frontier for authors to introduce
their work to a vast, young audience. The other benefit to authors brought by these
particular fake news programs is the interview itself. This aspect allows authors to make
an impression and generate interest in their work, even if the work might otherwise be
considered too arcane.
Fake news really took off in 1999 when Jon Stewart started The Daily Show.
Upon focusing their work on politics and other matters of public interest they stepped
into and perhaps invented a new news media arena. The Daily Shows media and political
criticisms as well as giving comedy and entertainment value to news stories changed all
news media approach to covering and presenting the news. Fake news programs helped
spur young citizens into political and civic activity by bringing immensely important
news stories to them in a way that captured their attention and made it easy to share with
their peers. While forming entirely novel concepts of online media integration and
utilization fake news programs still encouraged old forms of media such as books and

William Cannon

Comm.1500 Research Paper

even became a respected source of recommendation on many information outlets. The

immense impact fake news has had on all media, society, and the news landscape is
certainly still rippling and will continue to do so. With the end of the first shows there is
much uncertainty regarding the future of our news, entertainment, and media landscape
as a whole. Certainly there will be others trying to monopolize on this news trend, all we
can do is hope that they do so in the commendable way of promoting interest and
informed discourse among viewers as Stewart and Colbert have done.

William Cannon

Comm.1500 Research Paper

Works Cited

Guarino, Mark. "Absence of 'Daily Show,' 'Colbert Report' Might Impact Books Chicago Tribune." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, 26 Feb. 2015. Web.
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Kakutani, Michiko. "Television - Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America? NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News &
Multimedia. The New York Times, 15 Aug. 2008. Web. 8 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/arts/television/17kaku.html?em&_r=0>.
Lopez, Mark H., Karlo B. Marcelo, and Emily H. Kirby. "Youht Voter Turnout Increase
in 2006." CIRCLE. Circle, June 2007. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.civicyouth.org/research/products/PopUps/FactSheets/FS07_2006Mi
dtermCPS.pdf>.
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Popkin, Matthew E. "The Role and Impact of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Taking
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Among Adults 18-49 and All Key Young Demos |
TheFutonCritic.com."TheFutonCritic.com - The Web's Best Television Resource.

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Comm.1500 Research Paper

The Futon Critic, 4 Apr. 2013. Web. 9 Mar. 2015.

<http://www.thefutoncritic.com/ratings/2013/04/04/the-daily-show-and-thecolbert-report-finish-1q-2013-as-number-1-and-number-2-among-adults-18-49and-all-key-young-demos-795303/20130404comedycentral01/>.
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Time." Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 8 Oct. 2010. Web. 8 Mar. 2015.
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"SURVEY: Daily Show/Colbert Viewers Most Knowledgable, Fox News Viewers Rank
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