Frank not only focuses on current affairs, but also existing stories long after they have disappeared from mainstream news media.
Publisher Michael Bates believed that the downfall of the magazine was the rise in popularity of the satirical form of journalism in the twenty-first century.
The transmission view of communication highlights the importance of information being sent out over large distances in order to convey knowledge and ideas to a mass audience.
[3] An example of this would be daily newspapers because they are packaged and send out bits of information, their sole purpose being to transmit the news to a mass audience.
Therefore, comedic journalists are able to integrate different cultural viewpoints in their reporting of the news, which creates an element of community amongst their audience.
Comedic journalism has attracted a large following, and one cause is the increasing cynicism found in and inspired by traditional news sources.
This includes reporting on the information journalists and media elite genuinely think the public should know, however, this also includes alternative attention-drawing tactics such as “attack journalism,” portraying politics as “endlessly adversarial,” and contributing to a “feeding frenzy,” or excessive press coverage of an embarrassing or scandalous subject.
This in turn has enabled comedic journalism to not just survive in the competitive world of news coverage, but to thrive in drawing significant audiences.
Stewart is using comedy as a form of communication which provides the audience with a sense of emotion that they do not get with traditional news media.
He argues that if news sources only reflect the interests of few (usually the elites in society), people will not involve themselves in public life.
Stewart speaks to the men about the Bill that was being passed to add health related funds for people involved in 9/11.
Although Stewart reported this news in a humorous manner, this form of journalism had such an impact that the Republicans felt “embarrassed” by what was shown on his show and passed the law.
During these segments, Colbert discusses current news events and does not hold back from sharing his opinion on the stories.
[10] The cheers of the audience as he reports these segments illuminates the feelings of a community because the viewer knows there is a group of people who are laughing at Colbert along with themselves.
Although the title of the series is comedic, Colbert pushes the limit of journalism and gives his viewers a closer look at one of the most prevalent current affairs in the United States.
Mercer frequently travels around Canada and uses techniques of investigative journalism to report on a wide range of topics.
For example, Mercer travelled with the different political parties during their election campaigns in order to gain a personal account of the event.
After his show aired, students from the University of Guelph created a “vote mob”, advocating for issues they believed affected their age group, such as harsh drug laws and lowering tuition fees.
Ed Fouhy, a retired producer and network executive, claims that comedic journalism cannot be viewed as a serious source of information.
Robert Thompson, director of a popular culture program at Syracuse University, adds that journalists should be more concerned with providing correct information than appealing to a younger audience and trying to be more “hip”.
One article in the American Journalism Review suggests that mainstream media can actually learn from the journalistic form of Jon Stewart.
[14] However, at the start of the war in Iraq, Brown felt as though the traditional form of journalism in the mainstream media was not providing a fair account of the event.
[14] Stewart, on the other hand, was successful in covering the stories with various viewpoints in mind and therefore, steered closer to the truth than the mainstream journalists.