Media Shmedia
The 2016 presidential election has been broadcast across all media thanks to the technological advances of the new digital age. News is no longer limited to print and television; social media outlets, like Twitter and Facebook, and global networks, like Buzzfeed and YouTube, are increasingly relevant. Traditional news is quickly losing touch with viewers—especially young viewers—due to these developing and accessible sources. People are turning to a different kind of broadcasting this election: political comedians. Critics of traditional news sources, such as CNN and Fox News, have claimed that comedians like John Oliver and Trevor Noah now provide more reliable information to viewers. These claims raise the question: will political comedians surpass traditional news sources?
Surveys from recent years, including one from the University of Delaware, suggest that viewers might be better informed when watching political comedians as opposed to traditional cable news. Television news tends to cover specific stories or headlines in a shorter amount of time than comedians do, resulting in traditional news skimming topics and not fully informing viewers on what actually happened. Often, TV news tends to stray from the issue actually being discussed to instead focus on comments or sideline occurrences, such as what Hillary Clinton was wearing when an event happened. Political satirists tend to load significantly more information into their segments and include reliable sources and information when explaining what happened. John Oliver, for example, supports his information with trustworthy quotes and data that he displays and cites in all his segments. Although comedians also tend to deviate from the topic being discussed with humorous comments, these digressions might actually benefit both the comedians and their viewers. These jokes may help viewers maintain their interest and better understand the topic being discussed. This humor is likely to attract younger viewers who tend to prefer quicker and faster ways to get their news.
Some argue that political comedians are not as reliable as other news sources; this is due to the fact that they are, obviously, comedians and often blatantly advocate for their side of the political spectrum. However, this shouldn’t undermine the well-explained and accessible information they provide on their shows. It’s their job to be humorous, and often being obvious about their political standing comes with being witty. Yet this doesn’t detract from the fact that oftentimes well-known political comedians are able to dispense more information in twenty minutes than most news channels can in an hour.
Popular television news sources such as Fox News and CNN have been subject to backlash during the 2016 presidential elections, mostly attributed to accusations that they are untrustworthy and somewhat corrupt. Both sources have been caught giving incorrect information surrounding the debates and other presidential events. Earlier this year, CNN was quick to assume that Hillary Clinton won the Democratic debate, despite the fact that a majority of online voters agreed that Bernie Sanders was the clear winner. Meanwhile, PolitiFact found that Fox News’ percentage of statements that were ranked as “false” or “mostly false” went up to a whopping 60 percent in 2015. Perhaps this is their method of competing with social media, which has had a significantly higher influential role in this election. But it is likely these falsehoods and potentially unethical tendencies that are turning viewers away from these networks.
This presidential election has highlighted the role of the media in broadcasting the truth, whether it be with a side of humor or a side of dishonesty, and the reputation of supposedly reliable news sources is at stake due to new and seemingly more honest sources. Political comedians have taken this election and its viewers by storm, even earning John Oliver an Emmy award this year. Popular news channels, however, have been opaque in their motivations and provided a significant amount of incorrect information. Even though it seems somewhat impossible to find an absolutely trustworthy news source nowadays, it’s not hard to realize where the most information can be found, and thus viewers are turning to comedic broadcasters for their quick, engaging, and dependable news.