How comedic TV programs have turned into credible news sources
As a student in the University of Idaho”s School of Journalism and Mass Media for three years now, I”ve learned about a lot of strategies to increase my credibility as a news source. More importantly, I”ve learned why it is important to maintain journalistic credibility in the first place.
Having credibility means that your audience trusts that the information they”re receiving from you is fully accurate and important for them to know. Individual journalists and entire news organizations work for years to establish their credibility to the public.
Erin Bamer
But lately it seems like a whole other institution is surpassing traditional news and has gathered more trust in the general public for the information they provide. The fake news industry has built up a huge following that keeps growing larger by the day, and I”m not ashamed to say that I”m an avid fan myself.
It all started with the man, the myth, the legend Jon Stewart. Before that, there was SNL”s Weekend Update, but that was just a five-minute segment of primarily improvised slapstick. “The Daily Show” was, and is, undeniably different.
Jon Stewart gave his audience the biggest news of the day each week – he just did it in a comedic fashion. From covering presidential elections to calling out corruption in big business, Stewart added humor to news that maybe wasn”t always so humorous.
As a student journalist, I try to keep up with the news as much as I can through more traditional news sources, but at the end of the day I still found myself watching Stewart take apart stories and criticize those who deserved to be criticized. I listened because he almost always had valid points to make.
His fan-base was so large and loyal because he told us about issues that were important for us to know about. Because of him, now there are several names in the entertainment industry following in his footsteps like John Oliver, Larry Wilmore, Stewart”s successor Trevor Noah and multiple others.
The funny thing is that none of these people would call themselves journalists – and they aren”t. They”re comedians by nature. But because they are comedians they aren”t afraid to talk about and dissect issues many journalists are too scared to.
And there is the problem, because journalists are the ones who should be fearless in their coverage.
Well-known media outlets have always been a popular target on “The Daily Show” and other comedic programs, but they”re targets for a reason. A lot of the reporting they do is both flawed in how they go about covering it, and sometimes even in the accuracy of the facts they give as well.
The reasons for these flaws all boils down to fear. The networks are scared of hurting their relationships with important sources, but mainly their scared of losing the audience they”ve built. But by shaping how they deliver their news to fit what they think their audience will enjoy, they”re actually hurting their reputation even more. And these comedy fake news shows will not hesitate to call them out.
News viewers seek out the best places to hear the truth, and while they will continue to repeat that they are comedians and not journalists, Stewart, Oliver and the rest of them all make sure their facts are accurate and they report it like it is. People respect that.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or onTwitter @ErinBamer