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.