Stephen Colbert is a well known talk-show host. Funny, honest, and relatable; Colbert makes the Late Show fun to watch, even when its on serious topics. One thing that Colbert does incredibly well is his rate of speaking. He’s often interrupted by applause from the audience or has to pause in order to show respect for the issue.  He knows when to slow down so that the audience can process what he said, and he also knows when to move on from a joke because it didn’t hit well. Whenever I watch Colbert, I never feel overwhelmed by the information presented because he takes his time to cover the issues, instead of rushing through his thoughts and tripping over his words.

In terms of organization, Colbert sticks to one topic, instead of trying to talk about a broad range of topics. Because of this, he is able to go into depth on each point. He chooses to move through topics by relevance (rather than their chronological structure) which makes the information engaging and it feels worth the viewers’ time. He also switches between funny and serious, maintaining a light tone. Despite talking about the death of the leader of ISIS and Trump’s response, which is a pretty heavy topic, he incorporates jokes after the darker points to allow for comic relief. This is especially important because when viewing the news, consumers will often feel weighed down by the darkness of the news and stop watching.

Colbert is able to play with his persuasive appeals because he is speaking to a left-leaning audience. Because Colbert is known for his liberal views and mocking of conservatives, his audience tends to be on the left side and thus agree with his arguments. So, instead of trying to entirely convince someone to switch their whole views, he is able to focus on details, so that the audience sees the issue in a similar light to him. He does this by establishing an emotional appeal with the issue and then mocking the lack of emotion and empathy from the other side.