Common Aspects in the Articles The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents Civic Participation and Not Necessarily Not the News - Term Paper Example

College: Lecturer: News Show The political activeness of the adolescent and the entire American population has, for a considerable time, been a subject to news on various forms of media. In The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents’ Civic Participation, Hoffman and Thomson have vividly analyzed how the trend of political activeness among the younger generation has been twisted by media in the recent past. Aaron McKain, in Not Necessarily Not the News, has also been able to distinguish between the parody news and the conventional counterpart. These two articles have shared various ideas concerning the parody of The Daily Show to a great extent. However, the two also display some disparities in their findings on the youth and political participation. By using other relevant sources, this essay shall critically analyze the common aspects in the articles as well as the differences. Finally, an episode of The Daily Show shall be appropriately incorporated to enhance the discussion. An overview of both the Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents’ Civic Participation and Not Necessarily Not the News reveals the two share some common grounds. On clear agreement between the two is that the late night comedy news has gradually increased political participation, including the voter turn-out among the youth. For example, with the relentless effort of Stewart, the host of The Daily Show, about 75% of the young adults volunteered for civic participation in the year 2001 (Hoffman, 3). However, the Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents’ Civic Participation does not only focus on Stewart’s show; it attributes the increase to other similar late shows and comedies that portray the political situations in the nation. McKain seems to go the same direction as Hoffman and Thomson. He states that in 2004, there was a significant increase in the number of politically active young Americans. The increase was estimated at 23% (McKain, 1). A similar instance was noticed in 2000 when over 39% of the young people aged between 18 and 29 claimed that they had received the news of campaign from the late night comic shows such as The Daily Show. To this juncture, it is apparent that the two articles have used the youth as their subject of discussion. The common finding that the youth’s participation in politics has been influenced by the late night news and the media at large is very much plausible. In the world today, the new media technology such as television, internet, social media and smart phones have affected the way people think about perennial philosophical issues such as personal identity, politics, interpersonal relations and education. Internet and smart phones have immensely changed the way modern man thinks about political issues and other news. With their smart phones and the easy accessed to the internet, the young adults have the autonomous right to browse and get any information they want within seconds. Formerly, one had to go to a library and sit for hours searching for information from the voluminous books. This was like bondage to this generation. With the various phone Apps and the television shows such as The Daily Show, information is now at their finger tips. However, it is not just the young people; everyone has adapted to this new method of attaining freedom of information. The social media such as Facebook, Skype and Twitter have also enhanced the freedom of association and expression. Seminars have been conducted over the internet and people have always associated through these social media. In Facebook, individual from all walks of life have the opportunity to interact with one another and share ideas. Skype has further enhanced this association by enabling the video chart. It is through such interactions that the youth get to hear about political campaigns hence the increase in number of participants. Other than the youth, another common subject in the two articles is The Daily Show. Both the Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents’ Civic Participation and Not Necessarily Not the News extensively discussed and analyzed Jon Stewart and his late night show. In his discussion, McKain has used The Daily Show to create a clear distinction between ‘immediacy’ and ‘hypermedia’ (McKain, 3). According to him, immediacy news critically looks through an event, with the aim of finding out the heart of the matter. Conversely, hypermedia only looks at an item of the news. The objective here is just to attract attention. For this very reason, he termed hypermedia as the only function of The Daily Show. Hoffman, on the other hand, has used The Daily Show for statistical purposes. He has shown how such shows have had an impact in civic participation including the voter turn-out in the US. The findings are agreeable. From the year 1840 to 1896, the percentage voter turnout was at its highest points of up to 84%. Despite the ups and downs, the voter turnout was generally higher than the rest of the periods in the graph. The period between 1824 and 1840 shows a steady rise towards the summit. This stable increase in the voter turnout can be attributed to the population increase. USA is one of the nations in the world with the highest population growth. As the population grew, more citizens registered as voters and came out to cast their votes during the elections. As the population increased, these people enjoyed a high social capital whereby they participated in many social activities that brought them together. This means that they had established unity and patriotism among themselves and thus would vote in demonstrating these. Between 1828 and 1900, the political parties were very competitive than they are today. The strong and active political parties at this period gained fame from the existing population. The recruitment of the party members would be done at the grass root levels and the members made sure that their party was not disappointed by coming out in large numbers for the elections (Dalton, 20). From the year 1896 to 1920, there was a drastic drop in the percentage of the voter turnout. This decrease could have been for a number of reasons (Berke, 19). One, the social capital might have gone down amongst the citizens of the United States. The group’s participation and patriotism presumably went down. Two, the famous political parties became too strong and started to get involved in some the election irregularities such buying of voters. Such practices tarnished the image of the political parties hence they were losing their popularity in the process. The members of such political parties would refrain from actively participating in any political activities. However, from the year 1920 the voter turnout slightly increased. This is the year when women were warranted the right to vote; the effect is seen in the slight rise of the turnout percentage. For the years that followed up to 2008, the percentage has remained at this low level of the rise. With the annual increase in the US population, one would easily think that the voter turnout would increase along side. But one fact must not be forgotten: the turnout is a comparative representation of the voters expressed as a percentage; usually the Voter Age Population, VAP. The inclusion of the women in the voting lists would not just increase the turnout as there were other factors that discouraged the turnout. One of such factors is Racism. The non-white races in the USA are mainly the Caucasians and the African-Americans. There was political discrimination of these groups and were denied the right to vote. Strict laws such as the Jim Craw Laws were put in place. However, such restrictions were abolished in 1964. The other factor was the tedious process of the voter registration. The whole process had not been automated. This made it very difficult for some eligible voters to register. As shown by the trend in the graph, the turnout is seen to be steadily rising following the simplification of registration and voting processes. Another factor for this low voter turnout is the socio-economic status of the citizens. In the Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents’ Civic Participation, Hoffman and Thomson have displayed some plausible arguments with the support of figures. They have numbers to prove their claims. They not only posses the statistical figures but also demonstrate how these number were arrived at. This step taken by the writers makes the article believable. However, some technicalities may arise if the reader does not understand the complex manipulation of numbers in statistics. The interpretation of the findings may, therefore, not be understood by the lay societies in America. Hoffman and Thomson, it can be said, had targeted the very learned audience with their piece of research. A good example of The Daily Show episode that mimics the political situation in the US is ‘In Defense of Liberal Education’. This episode was aired on April 14th, 2015. Here, Fareed Zakaria, a co-host of the show, launches his book with the mentioned title. There is also a discussion about the Congress opposing the government’s move to make a treaty in Iran. It is also humorous to hear how Hillary Clinton moved swiftly to overshadow the Rubio’s bid for the post of US president. In the episode, Jon Stewart has availed the emerging political issues in the US. However, he does it in a comic way so as to attract the attention of many to the political arena. This is what McKain called hypermedia (McKain, 3). Even though the ‘fake news’ does not look deeply into the matter, it succeeds in winning the attention of many to politics. In return, the people involuntarily pay back by increasing their participation in political matters. By using other relevant sources, this essay has critically analyzed the common aspects in the articles as well as the differences. It has been established that the two have discussed a common television show and the young adults’ participation in politics. Finally, an episode of The Daily Show has been appropriately incorporated to enhance the discussion. Works Cited Berke, Richard. “Voter Turnout was Low since 1924”. New York Times. 1988. Print Dalton, Russell. “Quantity and Quality of Party System”. California. 2008. Print Hoffman, Lindsay H, Thomson, Tiffany L. The Effect of Television Viewing on Adolescents Civic Participation: Political Efficacy as a Mediating Mechanism. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 53.1(2009): 3-21. McKain, Aaron. Not Necessarily Not the News: Gatekeeping, Remediation, and The Daily Show. Journal of American Culture, 28.4(2005): 415-430. Read More