Good journalism is a superpower. 

With current events constantly evolving, journalism has taken a different road over the last several years. However, there's one crucial aspect that has stayed the same: storytelling. Journalism will inform, evoke emotion, and provide entertainment all in one effort. Because of its complex nature, it's a difficult art to master. We recently sat down with John Battelle, the CEO and Co-Founder of The Recount Media, to discuss how journalism has evolved and where it's headed.

First and foremost, let me start by saying, “Welcome to the family “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver, and the entire team of producers, editors, and show writers!”

In case you haven’t heard, “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” selected SnapStream’s TV recording and search technology to help build the TV clips and content that will be used on the show. (Here is the press release)

Need an example? Next time you tune in (the show airs every Sunday on HBO) watch for the pop-up TV clips that John Oliver references throughout the show. Those clips are pulled using SnapStream!

How They Use SnapStream

With SnapStream’s technology, the team at “Last Week Tonight” is able to quickly search and aggregate mass amounts of current, often obscure, TV content from worldwide sources. This technology, along with John Oliver’s undeniable genius for political satire, is the perfect equation for comedic gold.

Before I began researching the news comedy programs outside the U.S., I had no idea what the world had in store. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has inspired so many TV shows and spin-offs worldwide, that the initial query of "who are they?" evolved into a four-part series. (See posts 1, 2 and 3.) Right on key, the Foreign Policy in Focus recently wrote about the Global Stewarts, too.

We have learned that comedy and politics are tightly integrated, not just at home, but abroad. It's been good to pop out of our own "cable TV bubble" and to see how the international crowd entertains, from living rooms in South America to Israel. In today's final batch of shows, you'll see that every nation's comedic style reflects the social and political culture of the population. Comedy is how people make sense of, poke holes in, and cope with the critical, and oftentimes trivial, events gripping their daily lives.

Following up on yesterday's post: We're exploring international TV shows equivalent to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, in terms of their cultural significance and satirical style. To kick off our trip around the world, let's take a look at the funniest fake news TV shows of South America and Italy, where everyone loves Tarantino movies and double entendres. As awesome as descriptions are, it's even more telling to watch the clips!

First of all, who knew the East Coast of the U.S. was prone to seismic activity? The last earthquake on record for the region was 1897!

Today, we are saying goodbye to TV Trends. Since launching the free, online service in 2009, we have gleaned tons of valuable insight into what's frequently said on U.S. television. We harnessed SnapStream's powerful TV search technology to record lots of TV and then graph mentions, comparing up to 10 keywords at a time. TV Trends would show you the pulse of national news, listing the top, hot and cold trending phrases from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, MSNBC and CNN.

Blowing up the Tube

On Thursday night, Jersey Shore premiered with a blowout of 8.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched series telecast in the history of MTV. Love it or hate it, the Shore is up 62% compared to last year's debut, according to the Nielson Co.

As media outlets were buzzing yesterday about midterm elections, we were closely tracking what was mentioned on major television networks here at SnapStream headquarters.

So I'm a big fan of Oprah and I DVR every episode (season pass, obviously). Last night, I watched the "Are You Normal?" episode which aired yesterday. Throughout the show, Oprah did a series of polls with the audience about people's random habits to discern if the quirky things we do in private are "normal." Exploring tame questions like "How often do you pick your nose?" to much more personal and embarrassing subjects, it was human nature at its most candid and the results were funny to everyone.