News, trust and "truthiness"

People had different opinions on whether or not satirical news was more reliable. Some said that it was more reliable than the regular news reporting while others said that it wasn’t reliable at all. After reading my classmate’s blogs I still think that satirical news reporting is important in our public sphere and it seems like a lot of people agree with that.

                rcurkovic.wordpress.com says how the satirical news shows are better because they keep us entertained so that we pay attention. He said that culture jamming by using billboards isn’t very effective because they kind of lose our focus since they are too serious. I agree because no one is really going to pay attention to a boring conference or political meeting but they will pay attention if a reporter shows certain clips from it and makes it humorous. “Mainstream media is definitely an effective way of culture jamming and is most likely the best way to grasp our attention especially because of the lifestyles we live in today”.

                brownjada.wordpress.com says how satirical news is an important addition to the public sphere because it gets you thinking differently from the “norm”. “Satirical news reports discuss politics and mainstream issues, but instead of discussing what we would normally hear in mainstream news it delivers the truth by adding some comic relief”. She says that it is just as useful as the regular news reporting, it’s just a more entertaining way of getting the news across and even a bit more truthful. “Often times no one really knows the whole truth because we are given half truths and it’s hard to present the other half of the truth when you’re basically going against the majority. This is why culture jamming and satirical news reports are vital in bringing forth information that is very beneficial”.

                These two blogs pretty much said the same things that I did and I agreed with a lot of the blogs that I read, except for one of them.

                rdl3aj.wordpress.com says that satirical news is less reliable than traditional news because these shows embellish the news and twist the stories around a bit. “Of course the presentation of news this way is appealing and more entertaining to viewers, but is it worth it, when it’s not all that accurate?” I totally disagree with this person but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I wouldn’t say that satirical news is fake because who’s to say that the regular news is real?

                It seems like a lot of people think that satirical news is good for our public sphere and people seem a bit critical of the regular news. I think it’s good to have a bunch of media outlets because we shouldn’t be getting information from only one kind of source.