PRESENTATIONS OF THE STUDY

A. THE „MEDIA‟ OF STAND-UP COMEDY

As stated in the previous chapter, this thesis was written to express its two interests: how Stand-Up Comedy held significance both socially and academically. The answers were to be found out using library research and interviews. Of the two methods, the former covered researches on the role of media, because the writer‟s thesis was interested in discovering how media in this case television and Stand-Up Comedy itself offered alternative ways to look at social issues. Therefore, this chapter was dedicated to present a brief history of how influential media had been in communicating certain messages. This chapter, furthermore, did not only discuss TV as the only media, but more than that it also viewed comics who delivered jokes in Stand-Up Comedy shows as media themselves.

1. MEDIA AND SOCIETY

Prior to the writing of this sub-chapter, which is dedicated to media and how it has become an integral part of human‟s life, the writer experienced a brief flashback to times where the knowledge he learned at school mentioned that in this life human had a list of necessities. However, in the list, there was never a single mention of „media‟, suggesting that way back then, media was seen as a luxury and not everybody had access to different types of media. Gone are those days, though, as right now media has become an irreplaceable part of human life. Not only has it become one of the most sought-after things in life, but more than that, it is being sought-after by so many individuals that, consequently, media has transformed itself into a plethora of forms, tailored to the needs of its audience, which seems to always grow despite its already-gigantic size. Of the forms of media, discussions can and will go deep and wide, because as stated above, media, from its early stage of life as an embryo, has now been reshaping itself into different figures no one would have dared imagining a decade ago, and there is never going to be any way back, that the writer has enough confidence to envision that despite the off-the-chart development of media, it is still likely to gather more pace with the help of technological advancement. Technological advancement, the writer understood, has been the lynchpin of the fast growth enjoyed by media. This time, for no sentimental reason, the writer offered another trip to the past when technology, albeit present, was not as advanced as it is today. Those were the undisputed glory days for newspapers, books, magazines, and fixed-line telephones, to mention a few examples of media taken from a not-so-thick imaginary Big Book of Media of The Yore. Then suddenly the complexion of the game took never-seen-before dramatic twists and turns with the invention of digital technology, introduction of digital technology to media, and finally the stage when digital technology itself became the prevailing media, not to belittle the role of content, although too often we find anything digital more interesting than the actual content. One press on the fast forward soft key, and suddenly we are here, inundated by abundant examples of modern day media. The list is long; personal computer, TV, smartphone, tablets, newspapers, e- newspapers, books, e-books, personal music players, games consoles, and the Internet and its seemingly-unlimited contents, to mention some of the most popular media amongst us. Given how important the presence of media is in h uman‟s life is, Hodkinson argues that where we live right now can be rightly labeled „media society‟ or „media culture‟ 1. What he proposed provided an obvious pointer of how our life system has now been strictly controlled by media of any kinds. As a result, absence of media would cause a direct effect on its frequent users, who have been so used to the presence of media. Absence of media they are used to, therefore, would leave a void in their lives. Before this sub-chapter becomes a shrine to praise the enormous spell of media under which human race have willingly surrendered to, it is vital that we went back to the heart and soul o f media itself; the plural form of the term „medium‟, the essence of media was always be communicate contents, from a sender to a receiver Hodkinson 1. Understanding in that very basic concept of media is necessary because in spite of the many forms of media nowadays, a media-related discussion should revolve around the issue of how media was used between a sender and a receiver to exchange ideas between them, if the connection was intended to be reciprocal. During the writer‟s observation on media, a paradox was discovered. That was in the fact that although the development of technology has always been fast-paced and never looked as if it was ever going to slow down, actually the first and foremost medium that was the real driving force of technological development was human Hodkinson 2. That said, human would always sit right at the heart of any media we could think of. Still on the pivotal role of human, Hodkinson added that human, with their speeches, facial expressions, and gestures, is irreplaceable, and therefore the roles of artificial media were „only‟ to amplify human‟s effort to send messages to their receivers Hodkinson 2. What