Fake News or Real News?

On the topic of satirical news shows, I personally find them to be a mainstream form of cultural jamming but in varying degrees.  Of all the satirical news shows, the ones I will look at primarily are The Rick Mercer Report, and The Daily Show with John Stewart.  

As far as some of these satirical shows go, I find there to be a spectrum as to how serious these get and as a result, this shows how much they really contribute to the public sphere.  The Rick Mercer Report is  by far, in my opinion one of the more serious satirical news shows, as it seems to deal the most with informing people to actual happenings in the world and interesting facts.  The humour put in is very minor with the intent to just help the news sink in better.  The goals of the Rick Mercer Report tend to fall in sync with the following quote "The objectives of culture jamming often include consciousness raising (raising awareness of social and political issues) as well as using the media to criticize the media and dominant culture." (Media & Society, O'Shaughnessy, Stadler.  P.g. 214).  The way Rick delivers his content is more to inform.  On the spectrum, The Rick Mercer Report is on the far right, closest to actual news shows.

In regards to The Daily Show with John Stewart, I would place it more on the middle of the spectrum.  I can't say that I've seen a whole lot of the show, but from what I have seen John tends to rant on public issues and make fun of them.  More than once I've seen him make fun of Fox news.  In terms of how much he contributes to the public spectrum, he still manages to inform people of issues in society and with other serious media outlets.  His show very much falls in line with the definition of social activism, "Activities involving individuals or lobby groups that attempt to change the way in which the media works, or that use the media to make a social or political statement." (P.g. 214) John Stewart's show is very much about making a social comment.

In conclusion, I feel it really depends on the show itself as to how much these cultural jammers contribute to the public sphere, but I can definitely say that these shows definitely fall under the definition of cultural jammers.

Allen