lastweektonight-withjohnoliver

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FAQ

Last Week Tonight has received its fair share of rather unconventional mail from its fans, from Jonny Flynn bobbleheads to a 1,000 dollar donation all in one dollar bills, and just critical Youtube comments (Fan Mail Vol. 2). Every now and then, there are some questions that are worthy of answering about the show’s existence, purpose, and contribution. Majority of media-aware audiences know of Last Week Tonight, however, many do not know its impact and influence on its viewers as well as the American society as a well. Some of these questions are known to have sparked controversy and debate among many analysts of the show, mostly surrounding the issue of Last Week Tonight’s power on its viewers and whether or not it pertains to the profession of journalism. Accordingly, this FAQ section will be addressing those questions/topics to further analyze the show’s impact and standing.

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What exactly is Last Week Tonight?

Last Week Tonight has many different forms of being addressed or seen by its audience. For many, it could be their main source of news, for others a form of entertainment, but for the majority, a little bit of both. However, in its most fundamental form, it is an American late-night talk show and political satire television program. It brings the news in ways the audience would understand it. As the show was launched in 2014 by HBO, it gained instant credibility and a dedicated audience (Patten, 2015).

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This was due to its current and only host, John Oliver. Oliver is a recognized comedian, often performing stand-up comedy or acting on popular TV shows, such as Community. Oliver has even worked immensely side-by-side his former boss Jon Stewart in The Daily Show as co-writer. Through his work, Oliver has received Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing in 2009, 2011, and 2012. One can imagine that HBO was not too reluctant at sponsoring the show with Oliver as its host (Patten, 2015).

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They are being covered...they're just not being listened to.

John Oliver

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What is the purpose of this show?

Last Week Tonight does have a main objective and initiative when addressing its viewers. It is designed to entertain, but also inform its target audience, which is arguably the left side of the political spectrum. Oliver, through the show, is keen on acknowledging, discussing and analyzing, every-day pressing matters that are often overlooked or by the media.

This can be seen through the show’s more devoted, longer and more researched segments, such as exploitative televangelists, child labor exploitation, transgender rights, and the widespread corruption of large corporations like FIFA. Therefore, the show has gained its earned reputation for focusing on stories that other outlets aren’t covering – though Oliver refutes that claim, and strongly says, “They are being covered…they’re just not being listened to.” It terms of Last Week Tonight, it gives those issues its deserved attention (Vox, 2016).

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How has the show become so popular so quickly? And why?

Answering that question with, “because it’s funny,” is somewhat of an understatement that does not capture how the show really establishes its success. The show has gained such recognition, a devoted audience, revenue, etc, because of its influence. Last Week Tonight works incredibly hard at influencing its audience, or more accurately, leaving its audience with the power to do more and know more than when they first started watching the show. The way Last Week Tonight does this is no secret. However, it would be best explained if it were addressed through its comedy and satire, choice of topic, social media, and journalistic nature.

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#1

Comedy and Satire

To start, Last Week Tonight uses comedy and satire to capture its audience’s attention. In current media that has been proven to be a tough job to do. Many journalist struggle to adhere to the topic at hand whilst also not boring the audience. Usually topics of pressing matter, but of stultify content get thrown aside for more exciting news. Last Week Tonight’s objective is to make those important topics entertaining as they are equally pressing, to ensure the audience’s attention and with that, their knowledge and understanding of the topic.

Dannagal Young, a professor who teaches psychology of political humour at the University of Delaware, states in her interview with the Guardian, Oliver is “interacting with a topic, not just commenting or issuing a board judgement” (Helmore, 2014). Oliver often uses his humor to give life to the topic, issue its understanding to the audience, and ensure its importance all through his comedy. Oliver also likes to perform massive stunts and ending segments that are extremely comedic with various props, actors, and visual effects that make a rather depressing topic uplifting and tackable. For example, Last Week Tonight’s segment of the “The End of the World” where they made a humorous video addressing Earth’s environmental threats and its causes, highlighting its issues in an uplifting manner that allows the audience to learn about the topic, but also call for action (Holmes, 2016).

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#2

Choice of Topic/Pressing Issues

Like mentioned before, Last Week Tonight focuses on important issues that are often overlooked by the media. Oliver plays an important aspect of journalism, that will be discussed further on, by allowing journalism to be built on the public and the concern for the welfare of the public by his choice of topics. Oliver chooses to discuss issues like vaccines, the NRA, and encryption which are titles people scroll past. Unlike everyday journalists, Oliver does not deliver the on-going chronicle of everyday news, in fact, Last Week Tonight’s episodes only have about a three minute monologue about last week’s news, while the longer segments feature a pressing, overlooked topic. Such topics are still considered news through the aspect that it still manages to impact its audience everyday (Vox, 2016).

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For example, Last Week Tonight’s segment on Televangelists, who are Christian ministers that raise immense amounts of money from donations only to be spent on themselves, through exploiting people’s faith for their own monetary gain. Oliver would walk his audience through the process and understanding of who Televangelists are, how they’re exploiting faith, and how their government is making it extremely easy for them to do so through loopholes in vague tax policies (Scott et al., 2015). Through such, Oliver is raising a certain awareness to the public people of America and demonstrating a major aspect of journalism, which states that a liberal democracy lives on the standard that there is a spectrum of understanding. The highest and most valued function of journalism is to provide that arena to create and main a space for which society can debate the issues and understand its current events (Lecture, Sept. 14).

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#3

Social Media and Millennials

Last Week Tonight also ensures it targets the largest audience possible through social media. Segments cannot be heard and understood under only one platform, that’s why the show has expanded to several. Its most prominent is Twitter. After each segment, Oliver usually tweets a clip of the show on his twitter account and on the Last Week Tonight’s twitter page. However, accompanying each major issue, Oliver usually creates comedic hashtags about the issue to reference to the current trend of hashtagging. His audience take up the habit and tweet the hashtags until they eventually go viral, spreading the issue wide beyond the televised show (Solomon, 2017). Additionally, Last Week Tonight has gained great influence on social media with a Facebook page with over 2.5 million likes, a Twitter account with 2.3 million followers, and an Instagram account with more than 200 thousand followers. This was no mere accident. The show strives on targeting a politically and socially influential sect of people, and those are currently millennials who are dominating the social media platform.

Nonetheless, Last Week Tonight does not limit itself to social media accounts to appeal to the millennial attention, it also uses YouTube. The full show is usually uploaded on YouTube, by Last Week Tonight’s YouTube channel, a week or two after it’s televised. Such an act broadens the scope of the show, allowing it to spread to young internet users as well as those who cannot afford HBO’s subscription. This is a non-profitable act, meaning the show’s main focus is not gaining revenue, which is a necessity, but spreading the issues discussed as far as they can go for there to be an act of change.

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How reliable is John Oliver’s information? How does he deliver the news to his audience?

Oliver also has full creative freedom to say and do as he pleases. This includes free rein to criticize corporations and make claims about them provided with evidence, of course. This is a major aspect that most journalists are limited at doing due to sponsorship and legal regulations. HBO grants Oliver this freedom and the show being a form a satire also shields Oliver from some harm that could be done to him under legalities. It’s important to mention though, that this does not give Oliver the excuse to make claims without support. In fact, Oliver and his researchers ensure that everything that his aired and said is credible and as credible as it could possibly get. The show is said to “have at least a two-week cushion in case a story collapses due to a source failing through or a last-minute development coming to light” (Vox, 2016). The show because of this has come dangerously close to not having anything to put on air.

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Oliver researches for a main segment himself along with his research team. “What I need to go find, then, is primary information, then I got into a much more deeper dive through of all the world media sources…I basically do the cycle: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times. Everything. Everything. I cannot over stress to you” (Zuckerman, 2014). Oliver’s primary focus is also watching the news and seeing a story being told badly. This often includes topics that are not being addressed to their full extent or being told in a manner that shadows its implications or complicates it for the viewers. When that is spotted, Oliver works on finding more information on the topic and various ways he can interrupt in an understandable and effective manner for his viewers. His in depth analysis, although is leftist and for leftist viewers, often incorporates rational arguments, statements for support, and evidence to his claims. Additionally, he provides the source of his claim on screen whenever making one.

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How credible is his work?

Oliver also goes as far as making international headlines for accurate deliverance of the news. Oliver sought out an exiled criminal, Edward Snowden, by traveling to his asylum in Russia for an in-depth conversation about the amount of power the United States government has at its disposal (Government Surveillance: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), 2015). Oliver did this for credible news for the benefit of his audience, something Hollywood has not done for a multi-million dollar movie. Despite his leftist stance, Oliver has a major advantage of being a foreigner working for an American company. He, then, has a major advantage to speak free from certain bias and backlash for and against the American government. Therefore, its safe to say Oliver does some of the most fundamental parts of journalism which is delivering the news and interpreting it.

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How is Last Week Tonight any different from other political satire television programs?

Last Week Tonight has some very obvious differences than most shows under the same category. His display of satire and humor is one major difference, but not the most influential one. When comparing Jon Stewart for example in The Daily Show one can notice many distinguishing factors that make Last Week Tonight unique. According to Dannagal Young, through her interview with the Guardian, “Stewart…had tapped into something people were yearning for – a voice of reason, talking truth to power – but without being asked to do something, people felt they’d been hung out to dry” (Helmore, 2014). Young also claims that “people on the left have grown frustrated with satirists such as Stephen Colbert and Jon Steward who are adept at identifying problems but rarely cross into agitation” (Helmore, 2014). Therefore, the main distinguisher here is Oliver knows how to enable his audience to call to action.

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Last Week Tonight is not merely about interrupting and analysing the news, but it also teaches its audience how to do something about it, which is an extremely influential quality that permits the show’s success. Instead of feeling hung out to dry, viewers are presented with the issue, ways of understanding it, and also the means for a solution. In simpler terms, Last Week Tonight grants its viewers with a sense of power. Oliver possess the ability to make the average citizen feel more aware and knowledgeable about issues that were overly complicated by other media outlets or topics that have not caught their attention before. With that, he offers them a means to address those issues and give them credit for doing so (Helmore, 2014). For example, Last Week Tonight did a major segment on net neutrality “a principle that says Internet service providers should treat all traffic on their networks equally” (Edwards, 2014). He heavily mention how Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was guilty for not maintaining net neutrality. As a result, Last Week Tonight created and invested in a website designed to teach citizen how to comment and express their concerns on this topic. This caused a massive influx of commenters and complaints to the point where a governmental website crashed and the FCC addressed the issue and are currently rectifying the situation (Roberts, 2017).

Lastly, Last Week Tonight is also features guests that are relevant to the segment at hand rather than promoting certain celebrities. They provide further insight, evidence, and knowledge on the issue that furthers the audience’s understanding. The previously mentioned interview with Edward Snowden on government surveillance is one example, but Last Week Tonight also featured Bill Nye on global warming as well as Stephen Hawking.

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In conclusion, the show Last Week Tonight with it’s host John Oliver displays massive advantages to the journalism platform that are often limited to journalists. It presents news for the public and for the benefit of the public with the freedom of criticism and assessment. It provides interpretation and an in-depth understanding of the news being presented, a clever format of attracting a massive audience on all spectrums through social media and television, as well as a credible scale of authenticity and accuracy of the news. Through that, it holds a large influence on its viewers and also its non-viewers through the attention gains and the message it delivers.

- Guest analyst: Hana Sabah