The Influences of News Media

Everyday those of us who are interested in current events and

world news search the Internet and other texts in order to get their
daily kick of information. News today exists in many different types of
formats and navigating these formats can be difficult. Writers refer to
these different formats as genres and the reoccurring characteristics
throughout a particular genre are called the genre conventions. The
specific format, diction, and rhetoric used in a genre are examples of
genre conventions. For example, Dirk emphasizes in his essay the
importance of genre by stating, Because you know how these genres
function as social actions, you can quite accurately predict how they
function rhetorically. The knowledge of genre and genre conventions
is thus vital to out understanding of news and written media.
Specifically, newspapers and political comedy shows follow the
strict rules and conventions of their genres in order to best achieve the
goal of viewership and persuasion. A current hot topic in global news is
the Refugee Crisis currently happening in Syria. They are currently
hundreds of thousands of displaced refugees walking away from their
homes in Syria to avoid subjugation from local governments. Through
the analysis of how newspapers and political comedy show talk about
this crisis, a reader can uncover the genre conventions of each. In fact,
political news comedy is often light hearted in tone and aims at
entertaining a viewer as well as informing them. On the contrary

newspapers use elevated diction, an analytical approach, and are

written at a highly academic level.
Political comedy news sources are one of the most popular news
media outlets in the world today and understanding their conventions
is important to understanding the concepts of the show. A convention
of the political comedy genre is that they are constrained to telling the
news in a shorter more generalized fashion and must avoid describing
too much detail in order to not bore their audience. On Last Week
Tonight with John Oliver, Oliver describes the entire crisis with the
short statement, hundreds of thousands of migrants are heading into
Europe. Comments that are short and to the point like this are a
staple of the show. Simple summaries of events allow the show to be
shorter in time and thus have less of a chance of boring their audience.
Another characteristic of this genre is lack of seriousness even on the
most serious issues. For instance, on The Late show with Stephen
Colbert, Colbert describes an immigration bill as, ...or A.S.A.F.E.A.,
because no one with the name Asafea is getting into the country.
When talking about the refugee crisis, this type of humor adds
entertainment value to the video and is a staple of comedic news.
Including jokes and making fun of current events brings in a wider
audience who wants a more casual form of the news. As a form of
news, political satire shows are characterized by their lack of

seriousness and the shortened, more generalized version of news that

is presented.
Contrary to the news we receive from television networks,
newspapers report on the news using different conventions than those
used by comedy news shows. The Newspaper genre is constrained to
written language in order to persuade as well as provide an accurate,
reliable source of the news. Papers such as the New York Times and
Chicago Tribune speak of the refugee crisis in a much more serious
tone than the political news shows. The articles in this paper are
geared towards an older and more educated audience and will use
elevated language when discussing a topic. The New York times uses
such language as The acrimonious meeting offered a harbinger of the
difficulties ahead as the U.S. and Russia remain suspicious of each
other's intents in Syria in order to explain the issues with as much
accuracy and details as possible. While other news sources usually
generalize the refugee crisis and give viewers a big picture scene,
newspapers take great lengths to provide an in depth description and
often report on the same story multiple times. This level of detail
allows for newspapers to be the most accredited source for current
event news. Newspapers are a hotbed for political news and thus the
biases and views of writers become much more apparent than other
news sources. A man interviewd by New York times demonstrates
public awarenesss of bias when he says, One reader from California

who asked not to be named believes Times reporters and editors are trying
to sway public opinion toward their own beliefs.
Also, the Washington Post is known as liberal newspaper that panders
to political left viewing readers where as the Wall Street Journal has
gained a reputation for being a conservative paper. The unbalanced
nature of these news sources allows not only for the papers to gain a
more consistent following but also acts as a genre convention because
before reading an article the reader can assume the biases and
political predisposition of the writer behind the article. All sources of
news have their own biases and even the readers bias plays into how
they read a particular article. The emphasis on the political views of
both the reader and writer places a key constraint on how the writer
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must present his argument in order to appeal to the correct audience.

The more serious tone, elevated language and political predisposition
of newspapers are key conventions of the genre.
What motivates the Creation of Genre Conventions?
The genre conventions that exist throughout media exist in order
to best persuade an audience or so that an audience can more easily
digest material of similar nature. At the start of every writing process
the author must first question who the audience is, why they are
writing and what devices will most effectively explain the writers
argument. To analyze a genre and discover why a convention is most
effective within a genre, you must first know the exigence of a genre or
how Carroll explains, You can begin to understand a pieces exigence
by asking, What is this rhetoric responding to?. With regards to the
Syrian Refugee Crisis, the overall exigence for news sources such as
newspapers and political satire shows is to inform the public but within
each of these genres there is an even more acute exigence of each. In
a basic form, these news sources must make important decisions on
how to get across the information in the best way possible to best
pander to a needy audience. The writers of these genres must identify
their audience and write in a way that best meets the criteria of what
the audience wants. For example, it is known that TV audiences wish to
be comparatively, more entertained while newspaper readers wish to
take part in a more analytical discussion. Political comedy news shows

make drastically different choices when preparing how to provide the

news than do the writers of political articles in newspapers. Different
genres such as these must base writing decisions on the conventions
of their respective genres and in doing so are bound to make different
creative and argumentative choices.
Political Comedy shows differ from regular TV news sources and
newspapers because they pander to an audience that wants to hear
the news in a different way than traditional news sources. Political
satires exist for the more casual viewer and the writers of this genre
are well aware of this phenomenon. A political comedy show chooses
to make fun of news and political figures as a way to spoon feed news
to the public. Most people find themselves bored and uninterested
merely just watching the news, thus by adding a comedic aspect to the
news, shows such as Last Week Tonight with John Oliver can bring in
an entirely new audience of viewers who primarily want information on
current events but also enjoy the more lighthearted and entertaining
aspect of comedy. By combining both humor and serious current
events these shows can pander to a wider range of audiences, which is
the ultimate goal for a profit based TV network.
The choice of rhetorical devices in newspaper is also motivated
by the preferences of the audience. Newspaper readers generally are
more passionate and analytical of politics than other audiences, thus
newspaper writers pander towards this audience with the higher use of

inflated language and more in depth detail. The readers who are
looking for more complexity in their news can find it in newspapers
articles. Another way newspapers keep an audience is through
maintaining a consistent bias. When a newspaper generally remains
shifted towards a certain political side or moral stance the reader than
knows what to expect out of a particular news source. An individual
who has a liberal bias knows that the Washington Post will publish
articles that coincide with the individuals own views. The liberal
individual will than always differ to that particular newspaper to
receive their news and this helps to maintain a steady population of
viewers for the newspaper outlet. The simple fact that newspapers are
a text rather than video helps to grab a certain demographic of people
who prefer to sit down and read rather than watching and listening to
their news. The American Press Institute reported that 61% of people
read newspapers each week. Newspapers than continue to publish
written articles simply because there is still a subgroup of people who
wish to read the news rather than watch it.
The analysis of genres is key to becoming a proficient writer and
understanding how genres fit together. Within the scope of current
events and news reporting, newspapers as well as political satire
television shows exist to fill a niche in our society. Each individual
person is interested in a varying amount of current events and these
news sources serve to fit the political appetite of the people. The

writers of these different genres must use varying techniques of writing

to best present an argument to a distinct audience that only wants a
certain level of news, whether that be simple outlines or in depth
sociological analysis. Political news shows serve to entertain and
inform a wider audience and therefore suffer in terms of detail and
seriousness while a newspaper panders to smaller audience but is a
much more reliable and analytical source of news reporting.

Works Cited
Alderman, Liz. "Aid and Attention Dwindling, Migrant Crisis Intensifies
in Greece." The New York Times. The New York Times, 13 Aug. 2016.
Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
Colbert, Stephen. "No Country For Anyone Not Already Here." YouTube.
YouTube, 20 Nov. 2015. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.
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Dirk, Kerry Navigating Genres

Oliver, John. "Migrants and Refugees: Last Week Tonight with John
Oliver (HBO)." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Sept. 2015. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.