John Oliver: Exposing Misinformation With Humor - Essay Sample

John Oliver uses humor to show how most of the media's information is about research that might not be true. The show makes one laugh at some of the ridiculous information in the talk shows and news reports. The show informs its audience about why these scientific studies are many and might be misleading. John is not afraid to use sarcasm and involve other funny comments to make his point. John Oliver's shows make one think of how people can be easily misinformed because they do not know how research is conducted. The show makes me think about how to improve the relay of scientific research findings to lay-persons.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Discussions on a talk show and news reports about scientific research cause the audience to change their behavior to suit the study's findings. The media influences and shapes public opinion about an issue. If the problem is about health, the audience's opinion about the health issue might be influenced by discussing a talk show. Scientific research findings report in mass media changes the audience’s ways of thinking and living. Media transforms people’s personalities and promotes the formation of new beliefs about health.

Most lay-persons get their information from mass media content. Scientific researchers should, therefore, make their information and results about their studies understandable by non-experts. Researchers should use narratives, stories, and anecdotes since they can easily comprehend and engage more with the non-expert audience (Deploy & Gitlin, 2019). Researchers should decide when and how narratives can help communicate non-experts effectively and appropriately about science and scientific results.

An example of a research study is ‘Flu virus can travel on dust particle. Does the same hold true for Coronavirus?’ (Preidt, 2020). The study is not as conclusive; it does not say if it holds; instead, it shows how flu spreads on some guinea pigs (Preidt, 2020). The results are accurate and easy to follow since the study clearly states which specimen the research was done on, and the results do not necessarily reflect on human beings. The study's limitation is that it does not give results of what the study is meant to investigate. The social science research process should have an added step whereby replication studies are done to ensure that the results are true.

References

DePoy, E., & Gitlin, L. N. (2019). Introduction to Research E-Book: Understanding and Applying Multiple Strategies. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Preidt Robert (2020, August 26) Flu Virus Can Travel on Dust Particles. Does the Same Hold True for Coronavirus? HealthDay News https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-08-26/flu-virus-can-travel-on-dust-particles-does-the-same-hold-true-for-coronavirus

Oliver John (2016, May 8) Scientific Studies Last Week Tonight with John Oliver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnq1NpHdmw&feature=emb_logo&has_verified=1