De grens tussen satire en journalistiek

Today’s society is the midst of a crisis in journalism. Research has shown that an increasing number of people distrust the mainstream news media. The amount of trust citizens have in their government has decreased as well. Interestingly enough, a satirist seems to be gaining the trust of the public through a comedy show. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a political comedy show that uses satire to critique the mainstream news media as well as politicians. To many people, it seems as though Jon Stewart is performing the role of a journalist better than actual journalists. This brings up the question of what the actual role of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show is. Is it merely to entertain or could it be more? Could it be maybe even be journalism? The purpose of this study is to answer that question and to attempt to define the role of The Daily Show. With this goal in mind, qualitative research on the production, content and reception of The Daily Show was executed. The three most important journalistic values: truth, watchdog and independence – were used to analyze the extent to which The Daily Show could be considered a news program. Results show that all three journalistic values are present in the production, content and reception aspect of The Daily Show. The watchdog value is most frequently and most abundantly visible of the three values. Based on these results, it’s safe to say that The Daily Show is more than an entertainment program. The debate on whether The Daily Show is journalism is more complicated. It doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional news program, but it could certainty be viewed as a form of alternative journalism. On the whole, in a time of crisis in journalism, where mainstream news media are failing in their democratic responsibility of informing the public and a satirists in taking on their role and seems to be doing a better job at it, we should take satire and The Daily Show serious as a means of informing citizens.