What is the impact of the constant parody of news media have on perceptions of news media among these young viewers?

A study was executed to examine the relationship between modern satire program’s portrayal and the attitudes towards media credibility. This study had a focus on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report’s way of portraying news media and the effect that has on the audience, which is mostly made up of young viewers. (Littau & Stewart, 2015)

To begin with, these shows have always played the role of media critics in their segments (Littau & Stewart, 2015). For example, ‘The Daily Showcriticizes television news for its ‘‘construction of televisual spectacle at the expense of understanding’’ (Littau & Stewart, 2015). Moreover, ‘Television news has seen a shift from ‘‘hard’’ to ‘‘soft’’ news approaches, as ratings pressures have increased’ (Littau & Stewart, 2015). In which, soft news is ‘information embedded within programs whose chief goal is to entertain’ as opposed to hard news which aims to inform the audience (Littau & Stewart, 2015).  Since satire’s main goal is to enlighten its audience through entertainment (comedy), it could be classified as a ‘hybrid of hard and soft news’ (Littau & Stewart, 2015). Moreover, as satire news provide intense critique of news in an entertaining manner, they attract young viewers to practice this cynicism of news media and that could prove to be troublesome to the industry (Littau & Stewart, 2015). Also, ‘previous findings in an experimental setting noted a relationship between viewing The Daily Show and increased cynicism in the news media’ (Baumgartner & Morris, 2006) (Littau & Stewart, 2015). In addition, ‘news media do not tell us what to think, but instead what to think about, the metaphor for second-level agenda setting is that news media may also tell the audience how to think about certain issues, people, or events (McCombs, Llamas, Lopez-Escobar, & Rey, 1997), with cognitive attributes including the attachment of facts or details about the subjects of coverage and affective attributes reflecting positive and negative feelings about the subjects of coverage (Littau & Stewart, 2015). Whereas, satire turns ‘information into understanding’ (Littau & Stewart, 2015). According to these past findings, this study was able to come up with four hypotheses to test on university students through a survey.

First hypothesis predicted a negative relationship between perceptions of television news credibility and participants’ viewing of satire news. This hypothesis was supported. Viewership of the satire news programs had a mild but strongly significant negative relationship with attitudes of media credibility regarding television news programs in general (Littau & Stewart, 2015). Second Hypothesis predicted television news would be portrayed negatively more than other media. This hypothesis was supported. Chi-square analysis found significant differences in the crosstabs for news medium and portrayal (Littau & Stewart, 2015).

Third hypothesis predicted television news would be made the target of a joke more than other media. This hypothesis was also supported. Chi-square analysis found significant differences in the crosstabs for news medium and news media source use. Finally, fourth hypothesis predicted cable TV news would be portrayed negatively more often than non-cable TV news. This hypothesis was also supported. Chi-square analysis found significant differences in the crosstabs for cable TV and portrayal. Cable TV accounted for 78.5% of all negative portrayals compared to other channels. On the other hand, 72.4% of positive portrayals were of a source other than cable TV.  This may be explained by the fact that cable TV is on 24/7 and thus provides satire news shows with more material (Littau & Stewart, 2015).

In conclusion, considering the attractiveness of these satire news programs to young audiences, who are exposed to the constant ridicule of more traditional hard news television programs, television news programs face a challenge in building credibility even as they face declines in both viewership and perceptions of credibility (Littau & Stewart, 2015).Moreover, a benefit of these findings is that it is arguable The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are helping to educate audiences about what news is and about the proper role of the journalist in public discourse. Thus, it is not necessary to view a potential link between Daily Show/Colbert Report viewing and low television news credibility ratings as negative. It is possible that the shows are raising awareness about and desire for quality journalism, and in that sense, these results might contain both the diagnosis and the cure (Littau & Stewart, 2015)

Bibliography

Littau, J. & Stewart, D. R. C., 2015. ‘‘Truthiness’’ and Second-Level Agenda Setting: Satire News and Its Influence on Perceptions of Television News Credibility. Electronic News, 9(2), pp. 122-136.

1. How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I recorded this video with my 12 megapixell rear camera of my Galaxy Note 8. Since this is a video of a door, I figured a rotating door would be appropriate. I stood right in front of the rotating door and recorded for three seconds. It was static video with no angling. There was no flashlight used. Also, this video was my second attempt as someone walked cut the view on the first attempt. Overall, the authoring process was immediate without any hurdles as compared to the production of a legacy video.

2. How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to
Instagram?

Upon publishing, I made use of Instagram’s features like the Ludwig filter, location feature, and captioning. However, the square format of Instagram limited the appearance of the video a bit, but I managed to work around it. Moreover, no more adjustments were done to the video. Also, I didn’t  mute the video’s audio as there was no background noise.

3. How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other
social media services?

Since I linked my Instagram account to my Facebook and Twitter accounts, the video was immediately distributed through these respective channels. Yet again, this emphasized the vast difference of distribution between online and legacy videography.

1. How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I captured the picture using the 12 megapixell rear camera of my Galaxy Note 8:

• The camera’s aperture was F2.4
• The focal length was 6.00mm
• The white balance was automatic
• The ISO was 160
• The exposure time for the photo to be taken 1/20s.

The picture’s resolution is 4032×3024. Yet, the picture turned out to be unintentionally blurry; I liked the way the door was out of focus, but the light’s reflection on it was strikingly clear! So, I didn’t make any more attempts. Moreover, no flashlight was used, completely reliant upon the sun’s light. I stood perpendicularly to the door, and didn’t angle my body in any way.  Finally, the image was completely spontaneous and its production process was done in seconds (including editing) as opposed to the lengthy production of legacy photography.

2. How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

Upon publishing, I used the Ludwig filter on instagram and haven’t made any further adjustments. Due to the square format, I had to zoom the image in a little bit with no major change to its appearance.This picture was my first and final attempt as I liked its ‘blurred’ aesthetic. Since it was uploaded on Instagram, I made use of its multiple affordances such as filters, location feature, and putting a caption on the image. Yet, the resolution of the image was somewhat decreased once posted. I’m guessing this is due to limited bandwidth on Instagram’s part.

3. How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other
social media services?

After making a new Instagram account for this exercise, I made sure to link to my Facebook and Twitter accounts. This is time-saving, and facilitated the distribution process by enabling the image to be published on multiple outlets at the same time.

Can Comedy/Satire News make change?

We live in a day and age of intense mediatization that provided us with the ease of making anything and everything public and possibly political. To further pursue this, one can’t make a public change before ensuring that said change must be – in a way or another – made public; that is communicating an issue in a manner that reaches as many people as possible and call for their action. Keeping this in mind, comedy news is more likely to cause change due to its broad audience and the ‘potential for viewers to watch videos from satirical news programs online expands their reach even further’ (Brewer & McKnight, 2017).

Furthermore, ‘a substantial proportion of audience members for satirical television news programs consume them primarily to be entertained rather than informed’ and that means that satire can not only reach publicly aware people, but also those who are nonchalant to public issues (Brewer & McKnight, 2017). For example, John Oliver made a segment on his show regarding climate change and studies were made to test his influence and there were some interesting findings. Firstly, a growing research showed that ‘exposure to satirical television news can influence audience members’ knowledge’ and ‘that exposure to a clip…. affirming the existence of climate change led viewers to report greater belief in global warming (Brewer & McKnight, 2017). Moreover, satirical programs such as Last Week Tonight may be particularly effective in promoting recognition of the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change among less attentive citizens’ (Brewer & McKnight, 2017). As per this, the impact of satire might be even more life-altering than anticipated! Furthermore, satirical television news programs can promote greater engagement with scientific issues such as climate change (Brewer & McKnight, 2017). Yet, the results yielded no evidence that partisanship moderated the impact of the segment on viewers, so this suggests that viewers did not engage in motivated reasoning in response to satirical consensus messaging (Brewer & McKnight, 2017).

In conclusion, with respect to this study’s findings, comedy news can affect the perception of its viewers of public issues. As such, ‘such programs offer a potentially promising alternative route to traditional news media for communicating’ about multiple matters (Brewer & McKnight, 2017). Also, they have the ability to reach uninterested audiences and provide them with important information in an entertaining way. Overall, this post barely covers all the ways satire news are changing our understanding of the world around us, but it’s a start!

Bibliography

Brewer, P. R. & McKnight, J., 2017. “A Statistically Representative Climate Change Debate”:Satirical Television News, Scientific Consensus, and Public Perceptions of Global Warming” . Atlantic Journal of Communication, vol.25(no.3), pp. pp.166 – 180.

Who is the practitioner (what is their name and their Instagram handlebar?) and when were they practicing?

Ariana Grande, an American pop artists, who uses instagram to publish her own videos.

With the photo/video you are examining when was it produced ?

This video was produced and published on 20/08/2018.

How was the video authored and published?

The video was initially authored and published on Snapchat. We can’t tell if she re-edited the video on Instagram, but she did use Instagram as a means of publication. Like we covered in class, Instagram is mostly used at the end point of a media life cycle (sharing). Moreover, she published this video of her singing one of her recent songs as a means of promotion to her new album.

How was the video distributed?

The video is distributed through Instagram as well. It  is worthy note that an artist like Ariana Grande would have many fans with accounts to re-share her content and distribute it. This could take place on Instagram or other social media platforms.

Who is the practitioner (what is their name?) and when were they practicing?

Wafaa Bourhani, a syrian photographer, who started practicing photography in 2015.

What is the title of the photo or video you have chosen to analyse (can you provide a link?)

There isn’t a specific “title”, but she captioned her photo with “Let the sea will set you free”.

How was the photo or video authored?

Wafaa Bourhani used her Nikon d3200, and chose to use other accessible apps instead of Instagram for editing.

How was the photo or video published?

She published the photo on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media sites.

How was the photo or video distributed?

The photo was distributed via the photographer’s social media sites.

Hi there,

The following reflection post will address the week 5 session. We carried out our rehearsals at studio A, a bigger studio than studio C and with more facilities. At first, we had a host, but no director, Autocue prompter, and Graphics manager. Later, the host had to leave the university and the director showed up! Luckily enough, another crew member filled in for the host because the show must go on! Funnily enough, this rehearsal turned out better than the previous despite the inconveniences. Another aspect that I figured out during this rehearsal, a successful crew must be able to adapt quickly for any sudden changes. In this case, some of the existing crew members filled in for the missing members, while simultaneously doing their own tasks because everyone was set on doing the rehearsal as perfectly as possible. Moreover, there were good communications within the crew member, which contributed to the success of the rehearsal. Personally, I gained a diverse range of skills from the rehearsals. For starters, I practiced directing, which taught me the need to be kept alert and in touch with the rest of the crew. Then, I was taught how to use the vision switcher, and believe me when I say it wasn’t easy! In this specific rehearsal, I handled uploading the script and making few adjustments to it, so that it becomes easy to read on the autocue prompt, and for a first timer I think I did a pretty good job!

Prior to the rehearsal, we had an insightful discussion of the week’s reading. The reading dictates the way in which broadcast media is being held accountable by The Daily Show. Initially, I noted this notion in almost every episode of The Daily Show and other similar shows but didn’t think about it as much as I did after the reading. Personally, I always found broadcast journalism obliged to inform the public of the ongoing news in an honest manner, and if it failed to do so, then it should be held responsible. What I didn’t register, however, was the specific way in which Jon Stewart and his colleagues shed light into journalism’s shortcomings. The article explained that the daily show held journalism accountable via, obviously, mocking them. They often do that by pretending to be journalists, so as to set the idea that journalists are pretenders. Also, Jon Stewart used his comedic humor to make broadcast outlets seem accountable to his audience. Furthermore, he kept on reminding his audience of the actual standards that journalism should reach. In addition, he explained the manner in which traditional news outlets manufacture and edit news, and as a consequence preach media literacy to his audience. Aside from humor, he held broadcast media accountable in four major ways. Firstly, he points out the falsehoods that they relay. Secondly, he marks any inconsistency in their field, so that they seem unreliable. Thirdly, he notes any incident in which they make a non-worthy piece of information ‘news’. Finally, he ends it all with some major critique of their low standard techniques.

NIAJ A3 P.2

NIAJ A3 P.3

NIAJ A3 P.4

Hi there!

The following reflective post will be in regard to the class project final take on week 6. Fortunately, most of the crew was present this time. So, having everyone at their designated place and task was crucial to maintain a smooth filming of the project. It was insightful to note the manner in which all the tasks of the crew came together to finally create the final take. The final project wouldn’t be what it is without the work carried in the control room and the behind the scenes crew (lighting, camera, and floor manager). This session succeeded in proving the need of strong communication within the members to carry out a professional, smooth process. Like always, we should always expect the unexpected in a studio as no matter how much you plan for a project, when it is actually set in motion…something’s ought to happen out of nowhere. This time there was an issue with the audio (that I still don’t get), and it took some time from the actual filming. On the other hand, an on-screen issue was mostly related to misreading words from the prompt. That issue could only be solved with practice, and re-reading of the script, which is why we did multiple takes. Overall, I had a good time working on a studio. In particular, I enjoyed the task of a DA, and I look forward to pursuing a career that integrates a lot of studio work.

Aside from all the studio talk, I managed to put a little bit of research on Middle Eastern satire. Through my research, I came across Bassem Yossef.  He is the host of El Bernameg (literally means ‘the show’), an Arabic satirical news program. He has been compared to Jon Stewart in multiple occasions, which makes sense as The Daily Show inspired Yossef to initiate his own show even though he already had a career of his own as a certified surgeon and physician. He has invited and been invited by the hosts of The Daily Show as well as The Colbert Report, and that in itself is a testimony to his influence. El Bernameg had lots of similarities to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in its satirical elements and objectives, butit is worthy to note the intensity of the consequence suffered by the prior as compared to the later. For example, Yossef had his show cancelled by media channels on multiple occasions, he had been prosecuted on multiple incidents by government personnel, and finally arrested by authorities. This makes one think of what would the present circumstances be like if people like Bassem Yossef were given the freedom to impact their nation? Perhaps, we wouldn’t be in the mess that we currently live in.

 “We were trying to make people think first and laugh later.” – Bassem Yossef

Proposal and Script

With completing a proposal and a script for this assignment, I was able to learn new things, as well as improve the skills I already knew before. The biggest disadvantage, I would say, is that our group is relatively small, so there’s this ongoing fear of not being as competent as the other groups. However, I’m fairly confident of the idea we are going to present as, fortunately, it is relevant to recent news.As a consequence, we had expanded the idea in relation to said news. This made me realize that an update will always occur to a news story, and that is why one can never stop browsing for more information. Another accomplishment would be the way in which we delegated the work within ourselves, and each is free to contribute to the other’s task if they came up with a better idea. This was super useful as the script needed to be witty and funny…and boy that isn’t easy to do by yourself! This explains why Stephen Colbert has 12 other writers. I’ve never tackled script writing before, but this assignment taught me that it isn’t as challenging given you’re prepared with sufficient material. Moreover, we had instant communication within the group that aided in time management. This was beneficial in making the decision-making process quicker, and in arranging meetings for face-to-face discussion and research. Furthermore, I discovered that I’m good at communicating my ideas and weighing in the ideas of others making it easier to reach a mutual solution. That is an important asset to have as it is imperative to take control of situations in a diplomatic manner wherever career I decide to go into. Finally, I got to challenge myself and examine my approach to different situations throughout this assignment as I’m exposed to things that are uncomfortably unknown to me (e.g. script writing, forming a proposal, etc.), but I realize now that there is no better way of learning something than just doing it.