This weeks reading (painting and Hodgers, mocking the news) was interesting as it was all about the word ‘accountability’ which is McQuail’s words “refers to the process by which media are called to account for meeting their obligations.” The reading praises Jon Stewart as he is able to apparently hold the broadcast media accountable in different ways. The reading suggests that what is better, and what Stewart does do, is mock the genre of the television news, than the actual news itself. The reading also writes that “Stewart holds broadcast media accountable by pointing out inconsistencies and critiquing the very nature of broadcast news.” After researching, Painting and Hodger’s decided that Stewarts show is split up into 3 sections. The first section is Stewart will mimic the anchor with a news story with some video footage, secondly there will usually be an interview conducted on location and thirdly, a traditional talk show style interview with a politician etc takes place.

The class itself was very productive, I and another student Jason were in charge of taking photos and videos for the weekly update video. After we discussed the reading and looked at a couple of Colbert videos, we moved into the studio. It was interesting to learn all about how the audio works in the studio space and all the different microphones that can be used. I left the class feeling good as my group, (group A) have come up with some good research and a clear punch line for our end of semester comedy news segment about ‘tough on crime’, which is the issue with prisons and where that money is currently being spent and what it should be spent on, to ensure people who leave prison, are not just back on the streets again.

Here is the video that I made for this weeks weekly update:

Weekly Update week 4- from Maddie Hewson on Vimeo.

This week I unfortunately was not able to attend the workshop due to personal reasons. However I do know that Group A, (the group I am in) did get together and discussed roles in the group, therefore hopefully next week I will definitely be able to know what role I am undertaking the group assignment comedy news project. I did however read this week reading, ‘the State of Satire’, which I found very interesting as it gave me a new perspective on what I thought satire was or meant. The key points that stood out to me was the National anenberg election survey found Daily show viewers no more about the real world news than non watchers, therefore people who watch comedy news to actually learn important news. A lot in this reading was about needing to make a clear distinction between humor and the political, as Mikhail Bakhtin writes of laughter as “unique in allowing social analysis, rejection and criticism.” Yet comedy has audiences question social controls, as the audience begins to resist and interrogate these social controls. The reading writes about how satire is able to take human emotions such as anger, shame or disgust and can transform those human emotions into a “useful and artistic expression.” G.K Chesterton’s opinion of satire is it “draws out the absurdity and isolates it.” However sometimes satire does not always have to be funny, as the reading states satire does require a level of sophistication as satire “provides a valuable means through which citizens can analyze and interrogate power.” These are the main aspects of this weeks reading that I found most interesting.

The reading for this week by Sophia McClennen was quite interesting as I learnt and discovered more about what is involved in comedy news and what it takes to make comedy news successful. I really took on board what Sophia wrote about the ability to have an audience or to let the audience critically reflect the “professional opinions” of the sources of a news story by using satire, parody and pedagogy. In between last weeks class and this weeks class we had to have completed Project Brief 1. Therefore I wrote an analysis about the story of Taxi drivers who are falling asleep at the wheel, whilst they are driving. Of course this news story is very serious and there are many dangerous elements to it. However after reading the reading for this week, I did think how easy it could be to make a parody surrounding the sources in this Taxi news story, such as the head of the Taxi Service Commission who states that Taxi drivers falling asleep whilst working is very dangerous but there is nothing they can do about it…Therefore I thought this is the type of news story that could turn into a comedy news story to get the audience critically reflecting and arguing with the points these professional sources make.

During the elective workshop week 2, I got placed into group A who are a lovely bunch of people who I am excited to work with this semester. We were the first group to have a go at running a little practice news skit in studio A, I put my hand up to be the floor manager, which was actually a lot more fun and simple than I thought it was going to be. I needed to listen at all times to the director in the panel room through my headset, and if need be press a button to talk back to the director. I basically sent messages from the director to the ‘performers’ on stage or on set. We then as a group discussed the topic being ‘tough on crime’ and the types of ways to go about researching the issue. We currently have a google doc that we as a group are gradually pasting links to sites in and other information from our research.

The first ‘The News is a Joke’ class was a success, as straight away I felt as though this class already had lived up to my expectations. I was happy I got placed into this elective as it was my first preference, the reason being is because I have always been interested in the news and how the ways in which certain media is received to audiences and if that is in a passive or active way. However as well as being interested in the news, for entertainment and a good laugh I do love watching comedy news such as Saturday Night Live and certain comedy news skits on The Tonight show or The Late Late Show. Yet this elective does draw influences from The Late show with Stephen Colbert and John Oliver who I have not seen much of. During the introduction of the elective in class, it was very interesting as Leo Berkley the tutor played for us examples of John Oliver and Stephen Colbert’s comedy news skits. I was then immediately very excited about this class as I do love acting and performing in front of people but I also can’t wait to know how to use all of the cameras and studio equipment.

In the second half of the class, we had a look at the two studios (studio A and B) in building 5, as well as the control panel room. The first word that came to my mind when I was the studios was ‘professional’, which is really inspiring and gets me motivated to work hard in the studios and complete the end results for the semester. In terms of physically working with the equipment, I had a go at using camera 3, therefore I directed the camera, the zoom of the camera, and I learnt how the headphones work in terms of talking to the director in the control panel room whilst filming.