For this post, I interviewed my mother (who lives in Florida) and my aunt (who lives in Kansas).
I started with my mother first and asked which TV news channels she preferred. She told me that she used to watch Bill O'Reilly a lot, until he became too mainstream and "started to become an asshole." Then I asked what she prefers to watch now. My mother informed me that she mostly watches the local news for Cape Coral, Florida, but from time-to-time she will catch segments on CNN if they are discussing something interesting.
My Aunt was my next target. Her preference was The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. She liked these programs because she enjoyed comedy with her news reports and said ", I am mostly interested in their views because they are my views too." She said she originally watched MSNBC, but felt that regular news is too depressing.
Both my aunt and mother said that growing up everyone sat down and watched the news. The family would sit in the living room after dinner and keep up with world events.
I think it says something to these networks like Fox News and MSNBC that even older generations tend to move away from networks that lean too far in one political direction. Although, The Daily Show and Colbert Report are not free their moderate liberal views, I feel like the comedic effect explains their views better. You know, in a satirical sort of way. This also speaks volumes among TV versus print media. It's hard to relay comedy through a newspaper, so these periodicals have to stay strictly business. I can tell you first-hand that when I lived with my mother she only read local stories, the funnies section, and the obituaries (for some weird reason).
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