Is the fake news the real news?

I think fake news can be the real news. I wouldn’t say that what we see when we’re watching fake news shows is necessarily fake news. I think it’s just a different way of reporting and who’s to say that the real news isn’t fake in some ways? Fake news shows like The Daily Show and The Rick Mercer Report are a useful addition to the public sphere because these shows are still reporting current news stories; they are just reporting it differently than how a regular news show like Global News would. They make jokes out of the news stories but we still get a sense of what the story is about and what is going on. It’s basically a reporter giving their own opinion on current events. I think it’s good because they can be honest whereas regular news anchors can’t be. By using humour, people might take more of an interest to the goings on in our world and actually pay attention.

                Culture jamming is “a form of media activism that subverts and reworks the intended meaning of existing media texts, or parodies major corporations, public figures, and their media images”. These shows are a mainstream form of culture jamming because all the shows do is make fun of what is going on in the media and the world and the whole show is a parody of each event.

                After watching an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I realized it is a form of culture jamming. On the episode, he talked about Barack Obama and Obamacare, saying how Obama promised that the website for it would be up and running by November, but it still doesn’t work. Jon Stewart put up various clips of Obama saying how he isn’t perfect, so Jon made fun of the president by saying that his presidential slogan should have been “Pobody’s Nerfect” instead of “Yes We Can”. Jon Stewart then talked about Rob Ford, making fun of him for his crack use and his comment about “eating enough at home”. This show is a perfect example of culture jamming because it parodies public figures. Even though he is making a joke out of the stories, I was still able to get a sense of what the story is about and am now informed.

These shows are also good because they put a different spin on the news stories and we perceive them differently. We don’t just accept what we hear, we now have an opinion about them and we are able to form our own opinions. “Often they actively try to denaturalise the media images that we see every day by making us notice and question their underlying messages”.

                O'Shaughnessy, Michael, and Jane Megan. Stadler. Media and Society. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print. Pg. 213 and pg. 214.