The Oliver Twist: Why young adults watch Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

ABSTRACT

Motivations matter because they affect cognitive processes, which in turn impact any effects that satire might have upon viewers. Therefore, a better understanding of motivations add nuance to future research and generates suggestions on how to create engaging news narratives for a twenty-first century audience. This paper investigates why young adults watch the popular journalistic satire show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Through semi-structured interviews with young adults (N = 11), using theoretical thematic analysis, a framework of 11 motivations for consuming satire was constructed. The results of this study carry four implications: (1) entertainment and information are interdependent, (2) information is made up of learning and understanding, (3) two new motivations were discovered: inspiration and host, and (4) young adults desire authenticity.

KEYWORDS:

• Interview
• John Oliver
• journalistic satire
• Last Week Tonight
• motivations
• political satire
• young adults

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [Grant Number: 016.Veni.195.123; awarded to Dr. Mark Boukes].