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Saturday Night Live Analysis

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(Introduction)Lorne Michael and Dick Ebersol created Saturday Night Live , currently aired on NBC, with the intent of entertaining their audience through live skits performed by comedians. However, over the years, they have also been tackling the social and political issues which has also had role in influencing people’s views on the world today. In this essay, I will be focusing on their more on its activities and role that revolve around the political scene regarding President Donald J. Trump, his staff members in the White House, as well as his family members. Though not part of the main cast, Trump is portrayed by Alec Baldwin. As for the other people in Trump’s administration and his “inner circle”, Kate McKinnon plays Jeff Sessions and …show more content…

According to Ralph Hanson (2017) “socialization is the process of integrating people within society through the transmission of values, social norms, and knowledge to new members of the group” (p. 38). As human beings, we are very observant of our surroundings and often base our actions off of what we recognize around us. From the skit, we can see that the writers and producers make it out so that Trump and the people around him are not the sharpest tools in the shed. This really gives a bad impression to the Republican Party as a whole. Though Trump is portrayed pretty accurately as an egotistical and self-centered person, the people that he affiliates with are very exaggerated. Sean Spicer, for example, was shown as a short tempered person who has no patience when dealing with others. His son, Eric Trump, is shown as somewhat of a manchild who is largely dependent on his brother, Donald Jr, in order to get through the day. From this, we can conclude that they may be trying to convert the younger generations into Democrats, rather than Republicans. Saturday Night Live is shown on NBC, a predominantly left wing sided channel. Biswas (2016) states that media “helps to provide a strong message to the world about what is right or wrong”. The millennials who turn to these types of entertainment shows as a source of news would be less likely be tempted to …show more content…

People tend to use the television and its content to not only to be entertained, but to also learn and gather information as well.Shows such as this and The Colbert Report, which was previously hosted by Stephen Colbert, can be categorized into an entertaining news show. Though they mention current issues and political topics, they generally try to make a tomfoolery of them. While there are some truths to the skits they perform, many of the facts are actually stretched out in order to get a few laughs here and there. This, however, gets into the way of the legitimacy and accuracy of the news reports. However, there is an advantage from incorporating the current issues in today’s society into entertainment. It has allowed a broader audience to be involved in news topics. Ostrow(2016) states that Saturday Night Live has “successfully blurred the lines between news and entertainment, with its political parodies serving as a news source for younger viewers who traditionally don’t watch TV news”.The younger generations have been a large percentage of the viewers of these types of shows. Hopefully, they are able to recognize that most of what they are watching are just jokes and will try and discover the actual truth behind the issues. Though the inaccuracies in these shows are deeply

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