Politics and Media

    The current state of politics and its relationship with media is kind of weird. I’m not sure if it is the Trump presidency or if it has always been like this and I was just too young to notice or care, but it seems to me like more people are involved in politics since the 2016 election. More people are talking about them, big political issues and debates have become more mainstream, and people almost always have an opinion about everything. There are also more people who quickly jump to extremes, as well. It just seems like public focus has shifted more towards Washington D.C. than normal.

    Perhaps the oddest thing about all of this is the White House’s relationship with late night talk shows or comedy shows, Saturday Night Live or The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. These two shows in particular have gotten a lot more popular over the last two years. They have done very well making fun of President Trump and his administration. As much as they oppose him and make fun of him, at the end of the day, is presidency has been a good thing for them, at least in terms of business. It seems that every day something so crazy happens surrounding President Trump or his administration that they never run out of material. Their main focuses have shifted towards the White House. This has become so drastic that some people events these programs as their main source of news, myself included.

    Many of these late night comedy shows are left-leaning, politically. They have found their audience who is not pleased with the current administration. The shows attempt to ease their audience’s pain by making them laugh. More and more people flock to these shows because they feel better when watching them. While they’re watching, they hear the news, which eliminates their need to watch regular news programs.

    So, in a way, these shows have their increasing successes because of the very thing that they oppose. I thought that it was kind of weird, but now it makes perfect sense to me. Conflict keeps things interesting. Of everything stayed perfect all the time, there would be no competition and everything would be boring.