O’Shaughnessy and Stadler state that culture jamming is a “mode of resistance to the norms and conventions of mass culture that exposes and opposes the media’s underlying power structures and ideological messages”(p. 213, Media and Society). So, the question is: is satirical news reporting, like that in The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, a mainstream form of culture jamming? I think the answer is yes. Although those shows are used for comedy, they are also used for education on the basis of exposing what goes on behind the scenes of politics and whatever else is talked about, in a matter of speaking. These shows “actively try to denaturalise the media images that we see every day by making us notice and question their underlying messages”(O’Shaughnessy and Stadler, p. 214, Media and Society). I myself am not a devoted viewer of these shows, as I have only watched a few episodes of The Colbert Report, however the few that I’ve seen have both educated me and made me laugh. They also made me question the validity of what was being reported by other sources. This brings me to the next question: are shows like The Colbert Report useful to the public sphere?

Judging by what I said earlier, you can guess what my answer might be. Again, my answer is yes. These shows educate me on current events, since they need to give background information just in case the audience doesn’t already know what is being discussed. They made me question the validity of the actual news, which, in these days, is partially automatic but not always viable. I believe that these shows are just as useful, if not more so than the regular news. They create understanding and show the other side of the news stories that they report. They omit the stories about meaningless things like, as Professor Bradley says, “water skiing squirrels” and catch people’s attention by creating something funny that is also informative.

Satirical news reporting, such as the programs stated above, create an understanding of current events (which the news is supposed to do), while also making me laugh. In my opinion, they are very useful to the public sphere by doing these things while also being a viable source of culture jamming. 

 

Again, I’m not sure why the font sizes changed between paragraphs. I apologize for any inconvenience caused by it.