Every display of news we see in our society is different. We see news displayed through daily morning shows, daily 6’o clock news, magazines and even outlets like twitter or blog posts. Different types of consumers are bound to receive one of these types of news. The problem with this is that some news feeds are much more mainstream and political than others. Satirical news shows such as the Rick Mercer report may seem like culture jamming because the goal is not only to spread the news, but also to entertain the audience while doing so. While the point is being driven across to us as either wrong or right through humor and sarcasm the listener is being swayed to pick a side. As an example the rick mercer report often shows a strong bias towards a particular topic deemed important in that specific episode.
The type of news presentation shown in satirical news reporting is very effective because it makes the listener more interested in a particular topic. It is a very powerful way of portraying news to an intended audience because “the objectives of culture jamming often include consciousness raising as well as using the media to criticize the media and dominant culture” (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler, 2012, p. 214) and will therefore attract people’s attention about important news happening in Canada and around the world. Culture jamming is an important part of satirical news because it is what intrigues listeners to keep watching and agree with the news they are being informed about.
Something that is very interesting to me about the sector of culture jamming media is their freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is the right to express opinions publicly without interference from the government or other sectors (O’Shaughnessy, Stadler, 2012, p. 223), meaning that even if what is displayed on culture jamming news is controversial towards the government and what they might be saying it can still be said and heard by the public which I think is important. I personally feel that reporters who are involved in this type of media have a lot more say in what they display on the news. For example Rick Mercer, he creates his own show every week on a new topic. The topic is not always controversial but when it is he is able to display his own personal opinion about the subject where as regular news casters on a show such as CTV 6’ o’clock news cannot do this because they must remain neutral no matter what their thought is on the particular subject. This shows us that culture jamming is not mainstream in the way the news is presented to the public. I also think that this is the reason news like this is so important for todays society. People like to hear other people’s opinions in important subjects being discussed in the news; culture jamming allows this to be done in a truthful way.
I think that this type of report is very beneficial to the public sphere because it adds some comedy and entertainment to the way that news is portrayed to people. Although it can sometimes cause disruption in the news and media world, I think it is very beneficial for community members and news watchers around Ontario and even Canada to have an idea of what may be actually going on as opposed to being fed the candy coated version brought to us by the government. We deserve a little truth.
O’Shaughnessy, M., Stadler J. (2012). Media and Society Fifth Edition. Victoria, Australia: Oxford.
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