How does comedy news make influence on politics? A significant characteristic of comedy news is political satire. In my research, I found that The Daily Show makes huge influence on main strain media — Jon Stewart is the most trusted man among his devoted following of 2 million nightly viewers in today’s fragmented media culture (Nisbet 2017). This kind of talk show is the production of democracy, widely spread into the public; as a result, even politicians and public figures take part in these TV shows — they need to adapt the new form of media news for gaining more attentions and public awarenesses. What’s more, comedy news attract apolitical audience, so that the political celebrities need to show up in comedy news to catch this group of audience. Audience’s point of view on politics would be reinforced once they saw they same opinions from the show; and they would consider themselves are involved in the political decisions and making potency on it. Furthermore, comedy news help the political figures increase favorability since the shows discover their nonpolitical aspects so that they look more human, as well as provide a platform for them to make connection to the public.
In the past, entertainment and politics are distinguished clearly, but nowadays they are interacting with each other, which generates more opportunities for the public to touch politics. It is generally a positive trend but there are some critical comments or uncertainties on this new form of media news production:
- “They are confusing our people. They are not playing better role in the society in any way. (Ilyas)”
- “There is a history with satire being used for social change. But satire does not require laughter, whereas most comedy shows do require laughter (in order to be deemed successful). Is the political comedy show playing the audience for the quick laugh or for a deeper understanding? (Menzies)”
Indeed, political satire is easy to make dispute. Maybe the purposes of some talk shows are only for making funny instead of actually discover the real problems, which regards to what we discussed in the last class — the accountability. However, some of the talk shows have the purpose of reflective political issues but presenting improperly, or not deep enough. What should be improved is the range of topics and the method of expressions.