Late-Night Thoughts on Financial Woetry

The full moon is out tonight and I can't fall asleep, it's almost like a horror movie. Luckily around midnight I managed to catch the half-hour episode of John Stewart's Daily Show. Expecting more political humor and goofery, I was surprised to find the entire episode dedicated to Stewart's interview with CNBC Mad Money Correspondent Jim Cramer, a depart from his regular routine for the show. In the interview, he discussed and criticized Cramer's reporting and CNBC's financial reporting - in particular, the lack of journalistic integrity in CNBC's reporting prior to and now during the economic downturn. In a way, Stewart made a discourse analysis by questioning Cramer and the role his show plays in portraying factual financial news. So, in this entry, when I wake up tomorrow morning (I'm tired now), I'll yap about the differences between the Daily Show and Mad Money and their niches. For now, goodnight!


1.How is news presented differently on these different platforms?

While Stewart's satirical news piece The Daily Show acts as a critic of recent financial behaviour and the mass media's role in the economic crisis, Cramer's Mad Money does little to lead the viewer outside of the woes of wall street. An example of Stewart's critique to the matter is the interview with Jim Cramer, where their discourse leads the viewer to think about or critique the issue at hand. The discourse in Mad Money, on the other hand, often focuses solely on money and criticizing the political spectrum for its lack of assistance. In the interview, Stewart proved this point by showing the audience a clip from Mad Money where Wall Street workers were booing and slandering President Obama for his "absence" during the Wall Street meltdown, despite his funding of over a trillion dollars in taxpayer's bailout money.


2. Where and how can you identify some of the following: citizen journalism; public sphere; issues of globalization; humanist photojournalism; war image; filters; discourse; interesting or problematic race/gender representation?

Citizen journalism is taking effect by displaying the effects of the financial crisis on the citizens and not the wall street brokers or capitol investors. Filters certainly come into play with the CNBC's reporting in comparison to the comedic Daily Show, where news can be presented with satire and criticism. Discourse is a vital factor in determining the audience's reaction to both presentations of news, and differs between the two. Gender representation wasn't displayed in either outlets as a factor, but it was noticable in the clip Stewart aired that the room on Wall Street was full of male investors, with only a handful of females in the room at work.


3.What did you learn from reading / listening to news from a venue you don’t usually go to? What do YOU have to say about news?

From viewing Mad Money and Jim Cramer's presentation of financial news from a critical point of view, I learned that, in some outlets, filters play a heavy role in determining what a reporter can publicly criticize. I don't pay much attention to financial news myself, mainly because I never found it newsworthy; to me, it was strictly a report on the financial movements of Wall Street, not a critique or analysis of financial news internationally. Perhaps now that the economy is in a so-called "crisis", we can expect our news outlets to better express their right to investigate and report financial news ethically and responsibly.