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.
The news exists in many different types of formats and navigating these formats can
be difficult. Writers refer to these different formats as genres and the qualities that
are repeated 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. 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. With regards to the Refugee
crisis in Europe, a viewer can see that Political Comedy shows have a more
lighthearted tone and are overall less serious than newspapers, which are known
for covering topics in greater detail and analyzing current events at a higher
academic level.

Political comedy news sources are one of the most popular news media

outlets in the world today. 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 of detail for 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 to the show. 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 the comedy news scene. Including
jokes and making fun of the current event news that is being reported brings in a
bigger 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 received from the show.

The other type of news source is the traditional newspaper. 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. For instance 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 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 given the circumstance for writing. 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 niche that each fills. 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. 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.

Another convention of the genre is the lack of detail compared other news

sources. The writers of these show do this because the audiences are consisted of
more casual political listeners who arent extremely interested in the acute details of

politics. These audiences do not want to dwell into the more boring detail of events
and social movements but want more of outline of the basic situation. Knowing the
casual nature of the audience, news shows than choose to cover broader topics and
use less technical jargon.

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 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.

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.