The election looms close with a clear message prevailing after last week’s Republican National Convention: “This is the most important election of our lives.” Bold and presumptuous, the phrase was woven throughout several speeches and several nights of the convention. Sure, it’s said during every election, but it still continued to invigorate an already energized convention and campaign. From this message sounds a stronger call than ever to both young and old. Rush to the polls! Vote!
How exactly are young people responding to this call? Typically the age group least likely to attend the polls, hopefully we are becoming more involved. At the very least, we are all becoming better informed on the political issues and platforms of each campaign, right? According to a poll from the Pew Research Center, this is anything but the case. The latest research found that people ages 18 to 29 are turning away from ABC’s, NBC’s and CBS’s nightly broadcasts to sources such as the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live for current campaign news.
The results showed that while 39 percent of people in this age group received their news from nightly broadcasts during the 2000 election, approximately the same percentage that voted, now only 23 percent use this source. One in five young Americans now use comedy shows as their primary way of learning campaign news, a number that has doubled since the 2000 election and is on the rise.
To be sure, politicians are easy targets at which to crack jokes. The bickering and petty squabbles of an election always warrant low blows and cheap shots on late-night shows. Bush’s ever-present verbal slip-ups and Kerry’s motorcycle entrances are both asking to land spots on the Daily Show. Without such comedic attention, many young people may have less of a grasp than they already do on the current political environment.
The problem is that viewers are only exposed to that which can be sensationalized, twisted, and biased in a short one-minute clip. While many newsworthy stories can be sensationalized to some extent, late night comedy shows clip, distort, and intentionally report half of a story for humor’s sake. The Daily Show covered John Kerry’s ‘flip-flopped voting record’ with a shot of him on a snow-boarding run and an announcer stating that he can’t choose one side of the mountain. The coverage of the Republican National Convention is summarized with several clips of speakers at their most heated moments and a few shots of Senator Miller with a backdrop saying “Zell on Earth.”
Late night shows offer comic relief from what often becomes the drone of the same story day after day. They’re witty. They rip apart both parties. They make viewers laugh at their own party’s mistakes. While viewers typically don’t see comedy shows as a credible news source, when it’s their only source, they are left to decide their vote on either their own biases or those enforced through these shows.
Walking through Manhattan last week, I saw a billboard of Jon Stewart and the cast of his Daily Show posed in debonair suits staring at the camera with serious, business-like expressions. The ad stated, “The Daily Show. The Most Trusted Name in Fake News.” I laughed and took a picture. Indeed, the appeal of late night TV’s news coverage is its attempt to give as inaccurate and incomplete of an account as possible. On this level, it is an entertaining and even important part of the election for young Americans. However, relying on it due to a lack of interest or effort to stay updated on the campaign will leave a large percentage of our generation uninformed, oblivious to the actual platforms of the candidates.
Experiencing an election of this significance and excitement at the University of Wisconsin is an opportunity and a privilege most of us will experience only once. Limiting our understanding with inadequate coverage of the race will limit what we can experience on our politically charged campus. As college students and young voters we should work to better inform ourselves, thoroughly understand our opinions, and stop an apathetic trend.
Jamie Shookman ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and English.