Sunday, February 17, 2008

Get off the Couch and Find Your Cause.

Do political satirists have the ability to get viewers off the couch and raise public awareness? Does comedy have the ability to enact social change? These were a couple of the questions posed last class that really started me thinking. To be honest, I am not certain that there is an answer.

First, I think that it is important to classify shows such as “The Daily Show” as comedy, entertainment or news. I believe that the classification of such shows changes depending on the type of person you question. Whereas Jon Stewart has been quoted as saying, “I am a comedian” in order to maintain the image of his show, different viewers watch the show for varying reasons, taking away from it a number of interpretations. Whereas many look to the show as a source of laughter in order to become distracted from their structured lives, others rely on it as a supplier of the day’s top news stories.

Although fake news shows use comedy and the idea of hypermediacy as additional tools to interest and relate to viewers, I do not think that such shows can cause greater public awareness than mainstream media. A primary social fear is the arm-chair activist – one who becomes engaged in the political process while watching television and then fails to take action or plan to make a difference once the show is over. In class, it was argued that fake television can create such behaviour because viewers will be too absorbed in the comedic aspect of the show. I would like to add to this argument suggesting that identical behaviour takes place when watching mainstream news.

Viewers of mainstream news like the idea of becoming more knowledgeable about global issues to further their intellect, but they detach themselves from connecting on a personal level to any of the publicized issues. This is a reoccurring pattern involving the viewing of all news. After viewing the news, little action occurs to improve the global economy. Therefore, can it be believed that the comedic and hypermediac aspects of fake news are only used as superficial methods of engagement, particularly, in the likes of young viewers?

1 comment:

I. Reilly said...

we've already seen how difficult it is to weigh how politically effective satire is as a tool for enacting social change. any thoughts as to how satire (or other rhetorical techniques/strategies) might activate audiences to become involved in the political process?

keep writing,
i.