Old media? New media? Yeah, the two are interdependent, that’s the hybrid media system (Chadwick, 2017). Why is this important? Well, not always, but most of the time, old media simply disseminated information, whilst new media? New media created a network conversations allowing people to not only give feedback but also create content online (Gunn, 2017). The combination of both old media and new media forges new understandings of and approaches towards societal norms (Chadwick, 2017). However, this does not mean that these two medias will always be coexisting, sometimes they will come in direct conflict with each other.
A good example of which is the methods traditional news outlets have decided to take to cover political events. In one corner, old media – traditionally set up news channels such as CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, BBC. In the other corner, new media – comedic talk shows, the likes of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
In today’s political climate, comedians are our safe haven and guides to how we talk about politics. Not only do comedians make light of dire political circumstance, but they also do so in a clear, concise fashion; unlike their news media counterparts that take the news far too seriously when, in some cases, there is no need to.
The formula for dealing with news especially from that of the Trump Era, is this:
1- Taking a stance. In this case, a lot of what Trump has said, is utterly absurd.
So therefore the stance would be – it’s wrong
2- Pointing out that there is no evidence to substantiate the claim.
3- Reiterates how unbelievably ludicrous the claim is.
However, traditional new media would do this plus the following.
Constant panels and interviews, segment after segment, debating whether there is credibility to certain insane claims.
This very act of creating more debate from what should be a very straightforward answer is something that traditional news media has fallen into. By default, traditional journalists, aka old media, have a tendency to hear two-sides of the story, which lead them in a rabbit chase trying to find the truth, inspiring convoluted debates to no end. Pingree (2011) argues that the more confusing and passive the debate around a certain topic is, the harder it is for audiences to draw a clear conclusion. Additionally, Skurnik (2005) further supports this by identifying this syndrome as an “illusion of truth”.
Traditional journalists, may have tackled this correctly, but the consequence of hearing both sides of the story when one side is most certainly false, is cause for confusion. As they do this, they are putting as much weight and value on the incorrect side as they do for the factually correct position, thus motivates the spread of fake news.
McClennen (2014) therefore argues that political satire is coming more vital in this ever-changing and unexpected political landscape. Political satire, creates a platform to call out bullshit (McClennen, 2014). Instead of wasting time debating the obvious, these shorter segments on late night shows can move on to different, just as important, topics (Maza, 2017).
Of course, this collision of old and new media is not only that of conflict, but also that of improving each other. Journalists and anchormen have been moving, albeit slowly, in the direction of calling out bullshit on their own news segments, giving no leeway to paid Trump supporters. The more this nonsense continues, the more improvement that news channels, traditional and new political satire, achieve by effectively “debunking falsehoods” (Maza, 2017).
Sometimes the lies are so ridiculous, you just need to laugh at them (McClennen, 2014), however, in this case, traditional journalists need to up their game, in not putting up with any of the Trumpists false claims.
References
Chadwick, Andrew (2017). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power, 2nd edition.
Gunn Enli (2017) New media and politics, Annals of the International Communication Association, 41:3-4, 220-227, DOI: 10.1080/23808985.2017.1392251
Maza, Carlos (2017) “Comedians have figured out the trick to covering Trump: Why political satire is the antidote to Trumpism” Vox. https://www.vox.com/2017/4/3/15163170/strikethrough-comedians-satire-trump-misinformation
McClennen, Sophia (2014) Is Satire Saving Our Nation?: Mockery and American Politics. Palgrave MacMillan.
Pingree, Raymond (2011) “Passive news reports may lead reader to feel they can’t find the truth” Ohio State University.
Skurnik, Ian. Yoon, Carolyn. Park, Denise C., Schwarz, Norbert. 2005 “How warnings about false Claims become Recommendations”
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