Jenkins said, "There is an enormous demand right now for public intellectuals who can help the public, policy makers and industry alike understand the stakes in these power struggles." (41)
Enter John Oliver and the staff of Last Week Tonight. They're here to help us understand what's going on in the world and teach us where we should point our outrage.
The show was particularly successful when it's net neutrality segment encouraged its viewers to flood the FCC website with complaints, and crashing the site in the process because of the overwhelming response. According to Bloomberg, we may have this segment to thank for the FCC ruling in favor of net neutrality. Indeed, the new consumer is active.
A television show inciting the public to action helped protect a free internet, and by extension, may have had a large impact on the way we will consume television in the future.
Oliver's efforts were also recognized earlier in the year in a Time magazine article (http://time.com/3674807/john-oliver-net-neutrality-civil-forfeiture-miss-america/) according to which the 'John Oliver Effect' has played a major role in influencing policy decisions and raising awareness about a variety of issues, including civil forfeiture laws, false claims made by the Miss America pageant, and of course, net neutrality. His approach towards the net neutrality issue, where he asked viewers to write to the FCC, was recently adopted by Indian net activists working to influence the Indian government regulatory agency on the matter: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfY1NKrzqi0
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