Fake News

After watching Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, it became obvious that they expected the audience to be familiar with the current events already. Furthermore, if you had not heard about the event before seeing the show, then you would not truly appreciate the humor of the show. In my opinion, Stewart was more dramatic than Colbert, and he seemed to be more dynamic in his presentation. His facial expressions, the intonation in his voice and the theatricality of his movements made the show more interesting. When comparing "fake news" with a typical news broadcast there are a number of differences. For example, when watching the local news broadcast it seems as though the anchors are robots reading off a teleprompter and sitting in a stiff upright position. Stewart and Colbert sit in a similar way during their shows but it is more of a spoof as they are incorporating a bit of improv in their presentations. This is not to say that they have not planned their shows. For example, Colbert's show used the text box in the corner of the screen to add one liners to enhance the jokes. Stewart and Colbert do have very clever shows, and they are talking about real issues, but they have been exaggerated. Should a person be unfamiliar with current events and hear about something on the show for the first time, they may take it too literally. Hopefully this is not the case and people really start to understand current events and follow the truth about the news.