John Lloyd of the Financial Times reviews three new books on politics and journalism. In particular, he analyzes the capacity of Jon Stewart-style satirical journalism to keep the public well-informed. (Highlights below.)
My sense is that Lloyd probably overvalues the traditional information-transmission function of mainstream journalism. Facts matter, of course, and I would love a world in which politicians and everyday citizens debated issues patiently and rigorously on the basis of evidence and reasoned arguments. But people lead busy lives, and I’m not entirely sure it’s their job to understand the arcana of the policy process. If I had to choose, I’d prefer that the public understood politicians’ motives and capabilities any day of the week.
And that’s one of the things that’s so special about Stewart’s approach – his willingness to look into politicians’ motives and ambitions in a way that many mainstream outlets aren’t. Through a steadily maturing mix of satire and frank talk, he’s able to help his viewers understand public figures’ aims and agendas. He’s not always fair-minded, of course, nor is his analysis always particularly sophisticated, but he’s necessary.
Lloyd: ”Satire is now engrained in the political media’s repertoire, and Jeffrey Jones’s Entertaining Politics is a fascinating account of its rise in the US. A large and distinguished school of political science holds that “serious political analysis” is now being cut from the news media in favour of entertainment and the rendering of politics and politicians into figures of ridicule or mere diversion. Jones is critical of this view, and enters a contest with such heavyweight figures as Robert Putnam of Harvard and Michael Schudson of Columbia, whose model of the “informed citizen” draws a thick and disapproving line between serious information and entertainment programming. They see the latter as responsible for a weakening of the American civic mind. Jones argues that this does not “accurately represent the ways in which people attend to politics – in passing, cursorily, mixed in with other activities, from various media and across numerous subjects”.
Jones celebrates the end of “top-down political communication as traditionally established by elite gatekeepers (journalists, politicians, experts)”. He is a starry-eyed fan both of Jon Stewart of the Daily Show and of Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report, where the comedian adopts the persona of a “well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot”.
For Jones, these and other satirists and comics, such as Michael Moore and Al Franken (now a senator), have done two things, both positive. First, by broadening the frame of reference used for politics from “serious” journalism to entertainment, they have enlarged the audience and refreshed its content. Second, they have, through wit and confrontation, given politicians and others a harder time than conventional journalism has done.
A year ago, Stewart did a savage, eight-minute monologue about the financial channel CNBC and its main presenter Rick Santelli, who had blamed poor homeowners for their irresponsibility, having advised them for many months to borrow. His quip, “if I had only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today, provided I started out with $100m dollars”, has become a classic summation of the effect of boosterist financial journalism.
TV satire shows are now a large part of political coverage in many states: the UK, France, Italy and even, surprisingly, Kenya, whereThe XYZ Show, a puppet show, lampooning local politicians, began late last year. They’re often wonderfully funny and cathartic, but Jones overreaches himself in his anxiety to have them replace what he sees as devalued “straight” news media. The effort of establishing and maintaining freely inquiring journalism is under huge strain because its financial model is failing. But in every one of its main modes – investigative, analytical and routine reporting – its value has not diminished and is not replaced by either comedy or civic journalism. I concede Jones’s point that Stewart, Colbert and some others bring in a new audience to public affairs; but if they are the limit of their exposure, then their understanding will not go far.”
The Limits of Comedy Journalism
by Matt B. on March 1, 2010
John Lloyd of the Financial Times reviews three new books on politics and journalism. In particular, he analyzes the capacity of Jon Stewart-style satirical journalism to keep the public well-informed. (Highlights below.)
My sense is that Lloyd probably overvalues the traditional information-transmission function of mainstream journalism. Facts matter, of course, and I would love a world in which politicians and everyday citizens debated issues patiently and rigorously on the basis of evidence and reasoned arguments. But people lead busy lives, and I’m not entirely sure it’s their job to understand the arcana of the policy process. If I had to choose, I’d prefer that the public understood politicians’ motives and capabilities any day of the week.
And that’s one of the things that’s so special about Stewart’s approach – his willingness to look into politicians’ motives and ambitions in a way that many mainstream outlets aren’t. Through a steadily maturing mix of satire and frank talk, he’s able to help his viewers understand public figures’ aims and agendas. He’s not always fair-minded, of course, nor is his analysis always particularly sophisticated, but he’s necessary.
Lloyd: ”Satire is now engrained in the political media’s repertoire, and Jeffrey Jones’s Entertaining Politics is a fascinating account of its rise in the US. A large and distinguished school of political science holds that “serious political analysis” is now being cut from the news media in favour of entertainment and the rendering of politics and politicians into figures of ridicule or mere diversion. Jones is critical of this view, and enters a contest with such heavyweight figures as Robert Putnam of Harvard and Michael Schudson of Columbia, whose model of the “informed citizen” draws a thick and disapproving line between serious information and entertainment programming. They see the latter as responsible for a weakening of the American civic mind. Jones argues that this does not “accurately represent the ways in which people attend to politics – in passing, cursorily, mixed in with other activities, from various media and across numerous subjects”.
Jones celebrates the end of “top-down political communication as traditionally established by elite gatekeepers (journalists, politicians, experts)”. He is a starry-eyed fan both of Jon Stewart of the Daily Show and of Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report, where the comedian adopts the persona of a “well-intentioned, poorly informed, high-status idiot”.
For Jones, these and other satirists and comics, such as Michael Moore and Al Franken (now a senator), have done two things, both positive. First, by broadening the frame of reference used for politics from “serious” journalism to entertainment, they have enlarged the audience and refreshed its content. Second, they have, through wit and confrontation, given politicians and others a harder time than conventional journalism has done.
A year ago, Stewart did a savage, eight-minute monologue about the financial channel CNBC and its main presenter Rick Santelli, who had blamed poor homeowners for their irresponsibility, having advised them for many months to borrow. His quip, “if I had only followed CNBC’s advice, I’d have a million dollars today, provided I started out with $100m dollars”, has become a classic summation of the effect of boosterist financial journalism.
TV satire shows are now a large part of political coverage in many states: the UK, France, Italy and even, surprisingly, Kenya, whereThe XYZ Show, a puppet show, lampooning local politicians, began late last year. They’re often wonderfully funny and cathartic, but Jones overreaches himself in his anxiety to have them replace what he sees as devalued “straight” news media. The effort of establishing and maintaining freely inquiring journalism is under huge strain because its financial model is failing. But in every one of its main modes – investigative, analytical and routine reporting – its value has not diminished and is not replaced by either comedy or civic journalism. I concede Jones’s point that Stewart, Colbert and some others bring in a new audience to public affairs; but if they are the limit of their exposure, then their understanding will not go far.”