After spending the past few hours watching YouTube videos of The Colbert Report and reading an extremely lengthy article on the show, I am starting to generate some more specific ideas about my tentative research topic.
I came across the word “infotainment” in one piece. This word intrigued me as I was watching clips of the show. Colbert’s interviews were with politicians, and although it wasn’t a hard-hitting news program, I was getting a look at these figures in a way that I don’t on traditional news programs. It was different than a talk show atmosphere though. To me, I felt like I was getting important information through this entertaining style—through that “infotainment.” But is that news? If it is, how will this affect online journalism, and journalism as a whole? Unlike traditional media, these funny guys don’t have the same rules as media professionals. But is the absence of rules creating a valuable forum to critique society in an alternative way? Going over clips of the show, Colbert criticized the media also. Is this infotainment a sort of watchdog of the so-called watchdog journalists? I’m asking because I think this could have effects on the role of traditional journalists.
Those are just some thoughts that are running around my head right now. I still don’t have a definite topic direction, but I am hoping it will come to me after some more reading.
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