Please follow the link below to a NY Times article;
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/arts/television/17kaku.html
Please discuss by 4 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 11, whether and how "The Daily Show," as described in the New York Times article and as you have possibly experienced it on TV, confirms, modifies, or refutes Postman's thesis in Amusing Ourselves to Death.
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Postman explains in detail how media dictates our culture. With each new development, our language changes, as do we. The telegraph brought news from far away places to explain things to people that knew nothing about the places or people described. When photography came about, he says, images put forth pictures to identify unnamed people and unfamiliar places. Television expressed the immediacy of it all. These pictures and information are thrown together in such a way that it has become entertainment.
There is nothing better to exemplify Postman's point than The Daily Show. It is literally a "news show" made simply to entertain. The worst part about this, as the New York Times expresses, is the amount of people that are taking the stories covered at face value and considering them truths. Postman says that the television has become a part of us and our culture because we no longer marvel at the picture box and its engineering. A television is something involved in the lives of everyone these days and has become trusted and all consuming, much like the internet. Like these modes of communication, many Americans have come to trust and believe in the Daily Show and John Stewart as acceptable sources for news and information.
The New York Times article about the The Daily Show clearly reflects Postman's theses from his book. In Postman's book, he says that all sorts of news, press, media, sports, etc. are being presented as forms of entertainment. The content of this show is mostly politics and current world/domestic news. In The Daily Show, Jon Stewart and his team sifts through the current events they have to work with "harvested from 15 TiVos and even more newspapers, magazines and Web sites." After selecting their material, Stewart reviews his headline jokes for the show. Stewart says "'The Daily Show' mandate is to entertain, not inform." That would be fine if the public did get the news elsewhere and didn't rely on his show to be educated, but that isn't the case always. People watch The Daily Show and can't interact, but can only watch in short segments what Stewart thinks about current political issues. It is very one sided and allows the public to not have to think.
The article about the Daily Show could be used to back up many of Postman’s points. The article says the Daily Show is a “cultural and political force”, but it is also a TV show. This is congruent with Postman’s idea that people are looking to TV to form their thoughts and opinions on serious topics. The article said Jon Stewart was voted the number four most admired journalist. However, he is not a conventional journalist. He is a comedian and his show appears on Comedy Central. Postman says that the amount of TV society consumes is dumbing us down and making us unable to reason. If a comedian is on a list for most admirable journalists, then I think the proof is in the pudding. The Daily Show is an entertainment show and people are looking at it as a serious news show. Stewart himself says the show is “to entertain and not inform.” Stewart has creative control, so there is no way the show is “news.” The show basically masks frustration and upset and turns it into humor and entertainment. We are so removed from serious issues that affect our lives, and we do not understand them because we have been conditioned by our media to accept half-stories and seek amusement.
The New York Times article discussing Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show definitely illustrates Postman’s theses in his book. In Postman’s book he explains how information and news today are shown to the pubic in a form of entertainment. The public today does not have the attention span to sit and watch the news when it does not interest them. As a result, The Daily Show is “news” (some may think), expressed in the form of pure entertainment. Mr. Stewart, aka “the fake news anchor,” as said in the article, describes his job as “throwing spitballs from the back of the room and points out that “The Daily Show” mandate is to entertain, not inform.” That clearly states the exact point in which Postman conveys in his book. Most news today is not expressed in the way news should be. It is shown as entertainment for the public so they do not get bored while watching. The article also states that The Daily Show “has earned a devoted following that regards the broadcast as both the smartest, funniest show on television and a provocative and substantive source of news.” Because of this it allows the audience to not even have to think, but to believe that they are truly watching informative news, while also being able to laugh and enjoy it.
The new york times article actually states that John Stewart recognizes the fact that his show is there for the purpose of entertaining, not informing. He describes his show as "throwing spit balls from across the room". It is basically a joke of a news show. People look to him for information in a comical fashion, but are then taking it seriously. In the background they know that he is a comedian first, "newsman" second, and a far second, but they still trust him to deliver information to their brains. Postman describes our culture as being pretty dependent on technology and our growing demand for new forms of communication and i think this article clearly shows that. We are so desperate for entertainment, we look to the world news to make us laugh now.
The New York Times article definitely reflects Postman's theses. The Daily Show has become the most trusted news source in America. Presidential candidates stop by, because they know that this show is what people watch and trust. I think the most obvious way this reflects Postman's views is the fact that the show airs on Comedy Central. It is a comedy show, that talks about politics. It is pure entertainment.
The article states that The Daily Show is a "cultural and political force." It makes you stop and realize that The Daily Show is a funny TV show. Just like Postman believed, entertainment is becoming the most important thing in our world.
Meanwhile, it is easy for viewers to overlook the fact that this is not a real news show, even though it may appear to be one. The Daily Show covers a few events in a humorous way. Each segment is a short, few minutes, because the attention span of people has become so low.
The show allows people not to think, but to believe that they are thinking. They don't think that they are being given opinions, but just because it is presented in a funny, fun way doesn't mean it isn't like all television out there. Just because you watch does not mean you are participating. You are a viewer, which many people seem to not realize.
Postman's book illustrates how America has shifted from a print-based society to a less intelligent entertainment-based society. Jon Stewart seems to have had a leg up on that transformation. While people our itching to be entertained every moment of their lives, they seem to still have a desire to be informed about the news. This continues to fuel the success of 'The Daily Show' and is "clearly impacting American dialogue, according to a study. "Real" news programs are unsuccessfully trying compete by "larding their 24-hour schedules with bloviation fests," turning off many viewers who simply want to be entertained. It seems only a matter of time before "real" news stations disappear and the setup of 'The Daily Show' is duplicated and becomes the main source of news for everyone.
The NY Times article completely furthers Postman's theses that television's sole purpose as a medium is to entertain and should not be taken seriously. In the article, it stated that in a poll, Jon Stewart was ranked number four among the most trusted newscasters in America. This may sound alarming to some because after all, Jon Stewart is a comedian and he makes it very clear that he himself distinguishes the show as entertainment, not hard journalistic news coverage. The Daily show definitely addresses important world and political issues, however it does in the eyes of Stewart. If people are trusting Stewart as their only news source then they are not thinking for themselves or developing their own opinions. Postman would agree that The Daily Show is debilitating people's intellectual ability, yet I think he would say the same for any other news show on television. It is more severe in the case of the Daily Show though because even as a clearly labeled entertainment program, Americans are not making the distinction and taking it as straight news.
The substance of the New York Times article “Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?” is a great example of Postman’s theses. Postman discusses how the media shapes our culture and there are certain people who are able to choose what the media covers. Shows like the “Daily Show” are meant to be watched as an entertainment show with references to real issues and events. However, people will watch it because it is entertaining and they take it at face value because it looks like a real television news show. This is worrisome to me because if people are only listening to what Jon Stewart has to say they are only listening to his opinion about the topics he has chosen to discuss. This gives us a warped culture because people in general have become lazy and too reliant on television. People no longer look to seek the truth and become knowledgeable about both sides before they form their own opinion. Now people will watch an entertaining news show so that their attention is kept and then they just take that opinion as their own. They are only given one side of the story and accept it as true because they do not know there is another side.
The entire article illustrates Postman's theme. The evolution of the Daily Show, from the humble Indecision coverage, to the new convention coverage is tremendous. I realize that the Daily Show is a satire of itself and the industry, but it does such a good job that people would rather trust that than viable news sources. Even the Colbert Report has ridiculously high ratings and is considered a great political analyst. Postman's fear is that entertainment and truth will become inseparable and he was right. The most trusted news show is a show making fun of news. Which is ruining the integrity of all other news shows out there, but I don't believe there are any other "News" shows out there anymore. If there was a more distinct divide between Fox, CNN, MSNBC news and the Daily Show, people might be able to put those news shows in there proper places.
But the line between all of them is so blurred the only real difference between them all is that the Daily Show is actually funny.
In many ways you could fault Jon Stewart for being "news entertainment" rather than just "news," but also, in many ways, he needs to be. That is what most describes the largest problem facing our relationship with the media according to Postman.
"Juxtapositions of video clips and sound bites are one of the show’s favorite strategies," says the article. This is a prime example of the power of television as media and at the crux of Postman's argument. It can use different sources of media, video and audio, and be morphed as pleased in order to form an opinion. That is significantly different from print.
This article illustrates that Postman’s future predictions of news was correct. A show as “The Daily Show” which is mainly to entertain is now one of the most popular and trusted news shows on TV Broadcast. This shows that in today’s society, like Postman said, the news is more about entertaining and less about informing. The reason why such other real news broadcasts on the other channels are not doing as well is because of the crap they put on. Lately, all the news channels is about jewelry, a child at home, or other things that wouldn’t be considered hard news, like about the economy, the environment, the health bill, foreign issues, etc. “The Daily Show” jokes about real issues that don’t seem to be discussed enough on the other networks. People watch comedic news over real news is because people gravitate towards entertain instead of looking at something serious and something that could make someone more intelligent or more enlightened.
This entire scenario is Postman’s vision come true, a world so centered around television and entertainment that people believe a failed actor and comedian is as reputable as prime time news anchors from major networks in America. I find the fact that a poll placed Jon Stewart on the same level as Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams to be a huge slap in the face to reputable journalists everywhere.
The unavoidable fact of the matter is that Stewart is pretty damn good. Maybe not as good as Brokaw or Williams, but he certainly can put together a news story. I’ve been watching The Daily Show ever since I discovered it back in 2000 at the age of 10. It’s been my favorite show on Comedy Central for years, and is one of the reasons why I am where I am today. I have to say that if it weren’t for Stewart I would have been a much less informed 10-year-old. Television news is boring, sure I watch it now, but when I was a kid I couldn’t sit through an hour of that. The Daily Show mixed comedy with facts and poked fun at the redundancies of other news shows and the government. In following along with this I learned about current events, the world, politics, the war, literature of the day (much more than I would have learned from Cartoons).
I find it interesting that Stewart admits that, “’The Daily Show’ mandate is to entertain, not inform,” an ironic statement considering that other news programs that claim the opposite are placed lower than his on the totem pole of reputability. This is a great illustration of the warping of American society and how we have become to be defined by our media and not the other way around. We, as Americans, choose to be entertained.
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