ENTERTAINING POLITICS

Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement

Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement

Introduction

The book "Entertaining Politics: Satiric Television and Political Engagement," is written by Jeffery Jones who is an associate professor of communication at Old Dominion University. In this book, he discussed in detail about the state of political shows. He examines the entertainment influence on the political and mainstream media. The evolution of political entertainment is discussed in this book in reference to some of the political shows (Jones, 2009).

In this easy, the essence of the book is discussed and the three shows 'The Daily Show with Jon Stewart', 'The Colbert Report' and 'Real Time with Bill Maher' is examined in view of this book. How these shows are changing the way media reports the news and the political reality. These shows are more in the entertainment genre rather than the serious political shows.

Discussion

In the chapters, the author of the book discusses the basic concept of the new political shows. These shows use the play method to deal with the political issues and how they involve the audience in their shows. During this time when the people seek truth from the politicians, the humor in the political talk and the fake news has proved to be the more practical form of the alternative to reporting. The question is the authenticity of the role of news media as it is the major source of the political life. The author tells the readers that these shows have fabricate affects and as a result the young citizens are misinformed about the political situations. The author also demonstrate how these shows can be made effective by providing authentic political news and informing the youth about the current reliable news. Jones basically talks about two major concepts, how these political shows generate humorous and unreliable political news, and how can they become efficient source of generating reliable political news (Edgerton, 2008).

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart picks certain news, which is emphasized on national politics, and talks about them while ignoring all the other news. The show merges the facts and the entertainment factors together in a way that the authenticity of the news event becomes jumbled. The authentic news is not delivered to the audience instead the fantasy view of the news event is portrayed to the viewers which they believe is true. The program is more humor than substantial program. The show also uses a variety of news footage, usually in the style of a documentary which employs archival video to show contrast and opposition, even if the purpose is ironic rather than reportorial. Additionally, The Daily Show not only presumes, but also involves, prior and major knowledge of the news on the audience part, if they want to get the joke (Edgerton, 2008).

In 'The Colbert Report', the audiences are disillusioned and are removed from the authentic political events. The host himself portrays the image of mockery and from his gestures; it seems that he is ...