According to the Pew Research Center, eight-in-ten Americans get their news from digital media sites.
What does this mean for news? Well, for a start, news cycles get shorter, and the priority is capturing the viewers attention in the shortest amount of time possible.
So now news stations want short, sharable new stories that capture the viewer's attention. Enter stage left, the street reacts.
In theory, the street reaction is an effective way to get a sense of the perspective of people, it isn’t scripted, it is honest thoughts from regular citizens. However, in the era of uncles on Facebook sharing clips and teenagers on Instagram sharing stories, the street reaction has become less an effective tool for demonstrating public opinion, and more an effective tool for public persuasion.
Often out of context, the street reacts racking up millions of views on social media platforms frequently paint the interview subject as an idiot. A specter for the other side to laugh out, and then pat themselves on the back for their own superiority and intelligence.
Let’s take two popular examples for different extremes. Jesse Watter’s Watter’s World on Fox News and Jordan Klepper’s Fingering the Pulse on Comedy Central.
The extremely controversial “Chinatown edition” of Watter’s World, gives us a good starting point.
Watter frequently makes use of borderline propaganda-ish techniques such as: interspersing outdated popular culture clips with responses from his subjects, clipping people out of context, and even going so far as to play cricket noises after asking a non-English speaking citizen a question. If you don’t believe me, go watch the video yourself.
Beyond the relative absurdity of these interviews, they do serve a larger purpose in our news ecosystem. They don’t report on anything or shed light on any issues, but they do convince people that they are right in their own beliefs, and that everyone else is just plain stupid.
They also play on right-leaning talking points, such as how immigrants do not understand enough to properly contribute to society.
Jesse Watter, Fox News, interviews non-English speaking women
In this sense, street reactions are a vital tool of embarrassing people on the other side
of the political spectrum. This tactic is not just used by the right, but it's at least less overtly racist.
In Jordan Klepper’s Fingering the Pulse, Klepper travels across the country to interview Trump supporters. While the outdated pop culture references and racism are missing from this clip, they still outline the ridiculousness of the other side. And while it can be cathartic to release some political frustration in the easy medium of comedy once and a while, Klepper’s video’s do nothing to ease the political polarization affecting our nation.
Jordan Klepper, Comedy Central, interviews Trump supporter
In two distinct ways, Klepper and Watter both “punch down” in a comedic sense. Watter
targets those who are often marginalized in society, specifically women, LGBTQ community members, and racial minorities. Klepper attacks a different group. His subject’s are often rural citizens, who are marginalized in their own right, and often taken advantage of and forgotten in governmental policies.
If we expect compromise from our leaders in government, we first have to start compromising in our everyday lives. Which will take work. And be a lot less fun. But it has to be done if we want to get anywhere.
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