Strategically Communicating

After spending hours on the internet researching Political Satire as a topic for our final white paper of the year, and poring through multiple scholarly journals and news pieces about the role of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in the field of journalism, it’s only appropriate that the algorithm of the internet dropped a new piece, about none other than Jon Stewart, into my Facebook news feed. Even more fitting was the theme of the piece— fake news.

In the article, Stewart contends that the media has become an “information laundering system” in which news from unverified sources is making its way into the mainstream. He goes on to point out that media outlets are utilizing second-hand reporting, and in some cases, using blogs from unknown credibility in order to source an article. Within the final published piece, the author may ultimately opt to not cite the source due to its questionable credibility. Because the mainstream media subsequently covers the story, it thus becomes true in the eyes of the viewer. As the ever-reliable media critic, Stewart also criticizes the media for obsessively updating viewers on micro or incremental news updates, pointing out that the move to update undermines its editorial authority.

In an effort to do my part to counteract the information laundering cycle, the article was published on Quartz (qz.com), and the author appears to have a legitimate byline and depth of experience.