Research Article Global Media Journal 2017 Vol.15 No.29:86 ISSN 1550-7521 Are Late Night TV Shows in the Polarizing Society? Examining the Ambivalence of New Version of Politcal Partsanship in the United States? Gregory Gondwe* University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA *Corresponding author: Gregory Gondwe, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA, Tel: 303-492-5007; E-mail: [email protected] Received date: Nov 07, 2017; Accepted date: Nov 27, 2017; Published date: Dec 04, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Gondwe G. This is an open-access artcle distributed under the terms of the Creatve Commons Atributon License, which permits unrestricted use, distributon, and reproducton in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citaton: Gondwe G. Are Late Night TV Shows in the Polarizing Society? Examining the Ambivalence of New Version of Politcal Partsanship in the United States? Global Media Journal 2017, 15:29. large diferent outlooks between the Democrats and the Republicans; red state voters and blue state voters; religious Abstract vs. secular, and involve a large segment of the public incorporatng most informed, interested, and actve citzens. This study examines the role of Late-Night Television Unfortunately, such a trend has equally taken precedence in shows (LNTV) play in the United States and their today’s media as refected in Late Night Television Shows. contributed towards the politcal polarizaton society. The study used qualitatve content analyses to generate It is, therefore, the objectve of this study to examine the theme emerging from 87 questonnaires that collected infuence of Late Night TV Shows in the polarizaton of the US from an online survey conducted with 23 LNTV show society. It further seeks to fnd out the ethical commitments of hosts in the United States. The fndings indicate that many the LNTVS and how much they base their programming on LNTVS hosts have a partsan afliaton that they politcs while ignoring pertnent issues afectng society. contagiously infuse into their audience. On the other Overall, the study seeks to reinforce the inital objectve of hand, the fndings indicate that LNTV hosts have less traditonal media such as late-night TV shows in service the freedom to create their own content, therefore, providing general public and not dividing people through politcal less ethnical consideraton for their audience. Most of all, afliatons. the fndings indicate that LNTV shows rank politcs as providing most newsworthy content than any criteria. The study used qualitatve content analyses to generate theme emerging from 87 questonnaires that collected from an online survey conducted with 23 LNTV show hosts in the Keywords: Late-night-television; Polarizaton; Media- United States. Findings indicate that LNTV shows in the United content; Partsanship States are frst a main news source of a young generaton, and are increasingly widening the gap of politcal partsanship. Introducton Ratonale of the study The 2016 United States presidental campaigns and Studies that have sought to understand and contextualize electons presented a more polarized society [1]. Current media polarizaton in the United States have studied the debates in media and communicaton research are peppered phenomenon in a broader perspectve. In similar studies, with the noton that social and politcal polarizatons are media is taken as a whole without characterizing it to either rapidly increasing [2-4]. Critcs atribute this rise to the 2008 traditonal or non-traditonal. Prior [4] study employed a Presidental campaigns. According to the 2014 Pew data, the similar approach, therefore encountering challenges in percentage divide of polarizaton has skyrocketed from 10% to quantfying the causal link between partsan messages and over 21% since 1994. In its survey of 10 thousand partcipants changing attudes. Therefore, the signifcance of this study lies natonwide, the study found out that while 92% of the in the examinaton of the phenomenon from a narrower Republicans were to the right of the median Democrat, 94% of perspectve of LNTV, hence giving us an opportunity to the Democrats were also to the lef of the median Republican. understand this polarizaton from a key, yet overlooked This implies that while there has been a decrease in the standpoint. The three overarching questons the study ideological overlap between the Democratc and the addressed were: Republican Partes, their ideological thinking has become more aligned to politcal partsanship. Abramowitz and Saunders [2] RQ. 1: To what extend do LNTV host safeguard balanced conclude in their detailed survey analysis that the increase in reportng that accommodates various opinions and feelings of ideological polarizaton in the United States are refected in other politcal partes? This article is available from: globalmediajournal.com 1 Global Media Journal 2017 ISSN 1550-7521 Vol.15 No.29:86 Ratonale: Research done on Late Night TV shows mostly However, the 1947 Hutchins Commission’s dissatsfacton presents a positve vibe about its role in accommodatng free with reportng facts truthfully began to purge away the speech and mitgatng hegemonic narratves. While this might commitments to accuracy and objectvity in their literal sense. have been true in the past, LNTV shows are becoming a new According to the Hutchins Commissions report, “it was no version for Politcal partsanship. longer necessary to report the facts truthfully, but the truths about the facts”. This meant that journalists or rather RQ.2: How would the LNTV hosts describe their freedom to reporters were given room to infuse in opinions and biases in create their own content for the show? their stories as long as they brought out the truth about the Ratonale: In a common parlance, editorial freedom is a stories. Notably, Television Stars such as Edward R. Murrow, terra incognita. Since the LNTV shows are now a few face for New York Times columnist, James B. Reston, and many others, journalism, the logic of self-censorship would apply to them as began to exercise this privilege as early as the 1950s. This gave well. power and authority to journalists as sources and custodians of truth and informaton; reinforced Edmund Burke and RQ3.2: How would you describe your commitment to Thomas Carlyle statements that the Media was the “Fourth safeguarding professional journalism ethics that renders trust Estate”. While this trend gave power to the media and all those and respect for your undefned audience? that reported the news, worries about objectvity and biased Ratonale: The fact that Late Night TV shows are known for reportng became a mirage. Journalists started serving their their adult rated content makes it imperatve to assess the interests and those of the organizaton. This misstep deliberate measures that LNTV hosts put forth to ascertain exonerated professional ethics in the media, therefore paving ethical standards in their broadcasts. With the proliferaton of way for journalism into a profession for grabs. the online access, LNTV shows’ audiences have become Around the 1950s, ‘infortainment’ became a virtue. undefned in all demographic characteristcs. Advertently, Late Night TV shows began to emerge with Steven Allen as among a few pioneers. Nonetheless, David Leterman Media and Politcal Partsanship in the and Conan O’Brien revolutonized LNTV into what we know them today. The main objectve was to convey informaton or United States news to the public in a more digested and entertaining way. Despite the growing challenges of societal and Politcal Essentally, it involved discussing emerging issues within polarizaton, the US media has always been on a rollercoaster society in a way that concurrently entertains and educates. In of objectve reportng. The earliest Mass Media developed other words, they were designed to ‘infortain’ [8]. While some under the revolutonary theme with an intenton to champion LNTVS have emerged and disappeared, the recent trend shows the cause for independence from England. Bailyn and Hench a plethora of them competng for the same platorm. [5] assert that, during that tme, only one of the seven papers Although the main objectve is not only to discuss and in Boston were neutral. Four of them were ‘loyalist’, while the analyze politcs, the current situaton proves otherwise. remaining two were ‘patriotc’. Such a trend was perpetuated Politcs, and especially in the era of Trump has become a even afer independence in 1776. Newspaper contents were defning feature for these shows [1]. Other politcians and characterized by ‘neighborhood gossip rags and occasional those with politcal agenda have also taken advantage of the police bloters that exposed local criminals and their actvites conventonal wisdom of traditonal media to air their views [6]. through such platorms [9]. As their spotlight increases with Politcal partsanship in the media was especially politcal events, the shows tend to cling to politcs alone; pronounced afer Martn Van Buren concretzed the disregarding other events that society is facing. Since politcs Democratc party with an imperatve of being elected survives under competng views, The Late-Night TV shows are President. His campaigns changed media formats into inclined to stcking with a single perspectve, so as to win and propaganda fedged organs, with editors being under the maintain their audience [10]. In this way, those opinions that payrolls of politcal partes. Such an afront to media credibility are not represented tend to shun away from the show and the bred a journalism that sought to serve the general public with publics that do not support their view; thus, contributng to a facts, and not politcal partsan propaganda and thus, the birth schism in opinion between society. of the ‘Penny Press’. For Carter [7], it was the American Civil War of 1861 that brought a revoluton to the media. During Literature Review and Theoretcal the tme, people become less interested in sensatonal stories, but facts about the war. This brought sanity in the feld of Framework journalism; demanding accuracy and concise unbiased Although there is a plethora of studies about media informaton sent from the batle felds through telegraphs.