John Oliver: A New Take On The News

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Sound, whether it be in the form of music, a podcast or radio, is a powerful media. Without the distractions of visuals video has, or the ambiguity of solid text or photography, sound can perfectly summarize the intention, emotion, aesthetic and voice of any story. For my Journalism class, a humanities course, we each selected an influential voice that has made an impact on our own lives, the people around us and others around the world and create a podcast about them. The voice I chose was John Oliver, a British writer, comedian, and host of the HBO show Last Week Tonight. For each episode of his show, he focuses on a single topic to dive deep into. Rather than only picking the most obvious headline to talk about he picks more underlying issues that are arguably more important to learn about than the surface level play by play of a series of current events. His show and how he covers stories has had an impact on a multitude of levels, from how people get their news to what qualifies as important news. By presenting his personality and humor in every episode he has engaged the notoriously pessimistic, depressed and anxious millennial generation which prior to Last Week Tonight had been decidedly anti-news. Oliver's humor, honesty, and realistic human responses to what he is talking about have made an impact on me and for the first time ever I look forward to the news.








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