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.