Many comedians have used current news as fodder for satire and entertainment but there is a new trend that is a blend of satire and some news opinion that sounds like news. A good example was the Daily show with Jon Stewart. Most viewers recognized the content as either satire or opinion but many others thought that it was a source of real news. But, the trend seems to be spreading to other popular late night shows as well.
If you watch either the Late Show with Steven Colbert or the Jimmy Kimmel show live or on YouTube it may sound like a recap of the day's news. But, it is comedy, and satire; not news! It is becoming much more difficult to get accurate and non-skewed information as demonstrated by the number of people who get their news from social media like Facebook and Twitter. The algorithms that they use are designed to place the most watched items at the top of feeds. Even Google has the same problem and the highest ranked stories may be inaccurate.
So how do we get good information? It depends on what we want. If we don't drill down to find accuracy we are left with members of congress not answering questions and talking in circles to talk shows that are highly partisan. The 24 hour news cycle has forced "journalists" to push news out before it is completely vetted. The sad reality is that we as a technologically advanced nation are struggling to find out what is really happening.
If you watch either the Late Show with Steven Colbert or the Jimmy Kimmel show live or on YouTube it may sound like a recap of the day's news. But, it is comedy, and satire; not news! It is becoming much more difficult to get accurate and non-skewed information as demonstrated by the number of people who get their news from social media like Facebook and Twitter. The algorithms that they use are designed to place the most watched items at the top of feeds. Even Google has the same problem and the highest ranked stories may be inaccurate.
So how do we get good information? It depends on what we want. If we don't drill down to find accuracy we are left with members of congress not answering questions and talking in circles to talk shows that are highly partisan. The 24 hour news cycle has forced "journalists" to push news out before it is completely vetted. The sad reality is that we as a technologically advanced nation are struggling to find out what is really happening.
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