News, Trust, and “Truthiness”

                Personally, I don’t believe that satirical news reporting is as reliable as main stream news in the sense of providing the most important details of current events. However, I do believe that they are still very valuable in making news more appealing to more people and inciting discussion within the public sphere, sometimes even more so than in genuine news sources.

                After reading a variety of different blogs posts, I noticed that most of them aligned with my point of view, in terms of how satirical news should not be an exclusive source of current events, but it can provide a broader appeal as well as some perspective and insight. Sarah Trotman said, “[satirical news] may be focused more on humor than important facts about the world” but that means it can “appeal to a younger generation”. I believe this is an important attribute because it can make normal news, which can be dull and depressing, engaging and can also invite a younger demographic into the public sphere.

                Ultimately, satirical news isn’t that reliable as a singular news source. That doesn’t mean that everything it says is false. Isaac C. says “It’s still news” and I have to agree with him on that. Typically for these types of shows, the facts of a popular news story serve as the set up to a joke. The audience needs to be informed of the news to some degree or people may not understand the joke or find the joke funny. In a sense, satirical news shows can function as a source of news, but this should be complimented with an actual news source.

                Like I said in my previous post, satirical news can be quite valuable in the public sphere. Not only does it welcome a younger demographic otherwise uninterested in the news into the public sphere, it can also, as Cameron Phillips puts it, “[present] a new side to the information being given to the masses, which can only lead to discussion and a desire for understanding”.

                When comparing satirical news with broadcast news, I find that they are two different entities which serve different purposes. You probably wouldn’t sit down and watch the evening news if you wanted a good laugh, and you wouldn’t refer to a satirical news show for the hard facts on world events. I don’t think either one is any better or worse than the other. They are both derived from truth and are both beneficial to society for different reasons. News gives you the facts, and satirical news gives the perspective to explore and question those facts.  At the end of the day, they should be complimentary to one another.