By Kacie Fowler
This is the final assignment from my communications class that tasked us with watching the BBC News interview with Trevor Noah from The Daily Show in terms of how they present news in the form of parody and how that differs from ‘fake news’. This paper answers specific questions we were given as well as incorporated the theories, concepts, and paradigms from all ten of our learning modules. I have not gotten my grade back yet, but let me know what you think on the paper and its topic in the comments below. The video that this references can be found in the ‘Reference’ section at the end.
Table of Contents
Fake News vs Epistemological Bias. 5
Rhetoric, Power, and Dominating Voices. 6
For our module ten assignment, we were tasked with reviewing a BBC News interview with Trevor Noah, the host of The Daily Show, analyze the effects of the production of fake news, and determine if we found The Daily Show to be fake news producers. By utilizing what we have learned in all ten modules, we can connect various communication theories and concepts to break apart different aspects of rhetorical responsibility and support our argument for which side we chose.
The BBC News interview with Trevor Noah discusses how The Daily Show, to some, rides the fine line between the idea of fake news and parody. This paper will examine how The Daily Show presents news in the way that they avoid the issue of creating fake news by providing accurate journalistic pieces in an entertaining way, and how we can connect post-truth criticism and other concepts of communication studies to analyze how they accomplish this.
Fake News vs Parody
In the modern world we live in, where everything is just a click away for most and just about anyone can create content online, it is important for media consumers to closely analyze their sources of news and discern truth from fiction. The production of fictional news, or ‘fake news’ is the theory that real news events are presented to the public in such a way that negate factual information and only present the ideas that are preferable to the specific ideological silo of the producer’s audience. That is, the media producer leaves out any information that may oppose the side of the argument or event that does not support the truth that they wish to convey. Many think that The Daily Show, hosted by Trevor Noah, an actor and political commentator, does just this. However, The Daily Show is made as a parody, that is to “[imitate] the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect” (Oxford, 2024). Where fake news is described as “information that is clearly and demonstrably fabricated and that has been packaged and distributed to appear as legitimate news” (OU Libraries, 2024). By looking at Giles’ communication accommodation theory, that is how a message producer alters their message to be better received by the audience, we could then argue that The Daily Show uses parody to deliver real world matters in their deliberative rhetoric with a theme of humor (Newsom & Montenegro, 2024). Directly opposing the allegations of creating fake news.
Objective News and Humor
There are two specific quotes from the BBC News interview that are notable in this argument. The first is when Noah said, “the best jokes are based in truth” and the second is in regard to how The Daily Show operates in a space that is “completely neutral, devoid of all opinion, and gives everybody an equal platform to share their views” (BBC News, 2016). Both of these quotes, not only relate, but support one another. We learned in the first module, that rhetoric, at its core, is a field of study within communication that is the root of investigation and many forms of critique (Newsom & Montenegro, 2024). We can use this definition to both see how The Daily Show uses parody to present media as well as how The Daily Show uses rhetoric themselves to create a parody-based news presenting show. I am a firm believer that the best presentation of news is one that is evidence-based, objective, and transparent. Thus, “the best jokes are based in truth”, especially in the context of presenting news in an entertaining way. They are not only getting the news stories out there to their audience, but by presenting it with the air of parody, it helps to draw in their audience by the way they deliver their dialectic. By negating pathos, from a very objective task, The Daily Show builds on logos and ethos, the only two artistic appeals that have a place in news media and journalism (Newsom & Montenegro, 2024).
Fake News vs Epistemological Bias
When comparing the effects of fake news and epistemological bias to one another, one must look at the media effects, the focus on the impact that media has on the audience and how the audience responds to the media (Newsom & Montenegro, 2024). Fake news is media that is highly targeted to a specific audience and produces messages that appeal to that audience’s specific ideological silo. While having a target market for media production exists in all news and journalistic platforms, it can become malicious in the use of fake news. Regardless of the platform that we get our news from, rather we are conscious of it or not, we have an epistemological bias in which we filter that information through. Our epistemological bias is that in which “how we know and understand the world around us and how it is reflected in our perception of reality” (Newsom & Montenegro, 2024). For most, we can easily identify the fallacy in an incorrectly represented or full-out imaginary story. However, when the fallacy is found in largely known journalistic platforms, some people’s ability to spot the lies falter. This can, in turn, alter our understanding and perception of reality, setting these untrustworthy stories into our minds as truth. For some news platforms, this is their goal. Journalism in the form of tabloids presents this theory nicely. They create false stories with eye-grabbing headlines and use altered photos to snare reader’s attention. Fake news accomplishes this by stating outlandish things to create a rise out of all types of audiences. This helps those in their target audience side with them, but also loops in those in opposing ideological silos who will go out of their way to argue against it. There is the classic saying by P.T. Barnum used throughout history to excuse this type of media production, and that is that “there is no such thing as bad publicity” (Noor, 2021). I would then argue to say that fake media producers use the knowledge of epistemological bias to create if anything, a reaction, that draws attention to the story they are producing. Some may say that they can just ignore these fake stories, or avoid the tabloids, but journalism and media is everywhere in today’s world, and fake news can have devastating effects.
Rhetoric, Power, and Dominating Voices
As one who stays out of political debates and issues as much as possible, media production and fake news is everywhere with today’s technology, making it impossible to escape. This assignment is an example of that. While it is important to have a foundational knowledge and awareness of the media effects that fake news can have, including dominating voices, it is also important to note the power that these media outlets hold in regard to opposition. Fake news producers feed off of any form of returned response and interaction from its audiences, positive or negative. The reason for this in the context of how fake news producerspresent their stories is well explained by McCombs’ and Shaw’s theory of agenda setting, where “the media sets the priorities for the public by which determines the political agenda”, adding light to certain news stories that are in their favor, and persuades their audience to only focus, or believe, the stories they present and gain attention for political figures (Newsom & Montenegro, 2024). This cause and effect of gatekeeping information from the public not only poses an ethical dilemma by spreading misinformation or misrepresented information, but also perpetuates dominate voices. Dominating voices “reflect dominant ideologies in a field that try to remove controversial or oppositional voices to diminish their impact” (Newsom & Montenegro, 2024). This can be especially problematic with political representation.
Conclusion
It is the rhetorical responsibility of media producers and journalists to report on news in an evidence-based, transparent, and objective manor. The effect of fake news on real world matters not only creates confusion but can overshadow the voices and lives that are negatively impacted by the spread of false information. The Daily Show is on the other side of that coin, in that they report on stories with accuracy in a humorous light. McLuthan stated, “the medium is the message” and while some may take the style of parody that The Daily Show utilizes to deliver their message as a way to make fun of or misrepresent people in the news, namely Donald Trump in this example, The Daily Show firmly stands on the idea of that “the best jokes are based in truth” (BBC News, 2016). By doing this, they are a news source that directly fights against the fake news accusations and its producers.
BBC News. (2016, December 14). Trevor Noah on fake news and Donald Trump (HARDtalk)- BBC News [Video]. YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a-8GPvIX6bY&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Folympic.instructure.com%2F&source_ve_path=MzY5MjUsMTY0OTksMjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo
OU Libraries. (May 16, 2024). Fake News and Information Literacy. University of Oregon. [Web Page]. https://researchguides.uoregon.edu/fakenews/issues/defining
Oxford University Press. (2024). Parody. In Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100307555#:~:text=Quick%20Reference,deliberate%20exaggeration%20for%20comic%20effect.
Newsom, V., & Montenegro, M. (2024). 1.1 Rhetoric. [Web Page]. https://olympic.instructure.com/courses/2475745/pages/1-dot-1-the-history-of-rhetoric?module_item_id=83071346
Newsom, V., & Montenegro, M. (2024). 2.1 The Communication Field(s). [Web Page]. https://olympic.instructure.com/courses/2475745/pages/2-dot-1-the-communications-field-s?module_item_id=83071359
Newsom, V., & Montenegro, M. (2024). 2.3 Behavior Theories and Models. [Web Page]. https://olympic.instructure.com/courses/2475745/pages/2-dot-3-behavioral-theories-and-models?module_item_id=83071361
Newsom, V., & Montenegro, M. (2024). 3.2 Rhetorical Responsibility. [Web Page]. https://olympic.instructure.com/courses/2475745/pages/3-dot-2-rhetorical-responsibility?module_item_id=83071374
Newsom, V., & Montenegro, M. (2024). 8.2 Two Approaches: Mass Communication and Media Studies. [Web Page]. https://olympic.instructure.com/courses/2475745/pages/8-dot-2-two-approaches-mass-communication-and-media-studies?module_item_id=83071444
Newsom, V., & Montenegro, M. (2024). 10.2 Post-Truth Communication Studies. [Web Page]. https://olympic.instructure.com/courses/2475745/pages/10-dot-2-post-truth-communication-studies?module_item_id=83071470
Noor, Dharna. (Apr 10, 2021). P.T. Barnum once said, “there is no such thing as bad publicity”. Mike Rowe. [Web Page]. https://mikerowe.com/2021/04/p-t-barnum-once-said-theres-no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity/
Write. Read. Repeat. 
Leave a comment