Know Current Events: Political Satire

In order to understand the public, you must have a stable comprehension of what is going on in the news and what is currently surrounding the public. Current events are important in understanding the public's placement in emotional, financial, and sociocultural environments; this way you can strategize ways to approach your target audiences with this background information.

Soft news is one trending way that people are receiving their news. Soft news would be described as something that's main purpose is to entertain, while providing news on human interest topics, such as disaster and scandal, according to Matthew A. Baum in the American Political Science Review. Currently, there are a lot of news-broadcaster-types providing soft news every night. Here's a breakdown of three you've probably heard of, and may want to check out:

Jon Stewart (host of The Daily Show) Mon-Fri @ 11PM EST on Comedy Central 
Jon Stewart has always been the "funny guy", but since 1999 when he increased the ratings for The Daily Show by 400%, his humor really took off with a whole new purpose. Jon Stewart reports the news to you with a sarcastic attitude, one that makes it very clear which side he's on of any story. BUT it's okay! Because through his platform, he can get away with reporting in such a way that hard news outlets never could.

Book: America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart & The Daily Show writers

(Source : The New York Times)

Stephen Colbert (host of The Colbert Report) Mon-Fri @ 11:30PM EST on Comedy Central
A spin-off of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report uses satire to explain, well, everything. More specifically, it's more likely to comment on the conservative. You can think of Stephen Colbert as somewhat of a "fake" anchorman.

Book find: I AM America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert

(Source: zap2it)

John Oliver (host of Last Week Tonight) Sundays @ 11PM EST on HBO
Last Week Tonight comes on once a week in both the U.S. and the U.K. With a host with such a loud personality as John Oliver's, this show has a following weekly that matches the tastes of other satirical news shows, like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. John Oliver reports on general current events over a longer span of time.

(Source: Sesame Workshop)