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.