Culture jamming is a form of "resistance to the
norms and conventions of mass culture that exposes and opposes the media’s
underlying power structures and ideological messages" (O’Shaughnessy,
2012). With the popularity of
news satire, some are questioning if the satirical news media is a form of
culture jamming and whether it is a useful addition to the public sphere. Satirical
news is a parody of “hard-hitting” news, like Fox, that is presented in a way
that is typical of mainstream journalism. While there are several similarities,
like the use of fake advertisements and new stories, the concrete link between
the two has yet to be identified.
Since the aim of culture jamming is to
highlight and question the media, news satire seems a fitting and rather
popular representation. A favorite of mine is Jon Stewart, who has made a
career out of publicizing and questioning media figures, among them is Bill
O’Reilly, a political commentator and anchor at Fox news. The link below is a video
of a Jon Stewart interview with Bill O’Reilly where they discuss rapper
Common’s appearance at the Whitehouse. Paying attention to Stewart’s central
point, his intent for this interview and, arguably, his entire show becomes
clear.
Satirical news in the vein of Jon Stewart and
Stephen Colbert serves as an addition to the public sphere, regardless of its
accuracy. News in this style urges people to make comparisons between it and
mainstream news, meaning that its function is not to inform viewers but to
promote critique which means the accuracy of the information becomes almost
unimportant. News satire is also meant to poke fun at whoever it is
highlighting, so again the focus strays from concrete fact.
Another aspect of satirical news is the speed
that the information can travel1; because it is not always factual,
stories can be forged to be more controversial, for example, and will spread
faster as a result. Whether this is good or bad for the public sphere is
dependent on whether this satire is viewed in the right way; if viewers keep in
mind that this content is satirical, it may lead to a public that is more
critical of the news that it is presented with, which would benefit public
awareness and critical thinking. However, if this content is regarded as
serious and factual, widespread misinformation would result, pushing citizens
even further from the news and harming awareness and the public sphere in
general.
In an age of scandals and misinformation, only
exacerbated by the internet and the ease of creation that technology has
enabled, something that engages the public and gets them thinking about the
accuracy and legitimacy of media content seems essential. Satirical news media
has been shown to urge this kind of thinking when the true intentions of the
media itself have been revealed. I believe that satirical news is not only
culture jamming but also a useful addition to the public sphere based on the
fact that it can promote critical thinking in the general public.
·
1“Email
and other forms of computer mediated communication (CMC) have been celebrated
as being both democratic and empowering mediums of mass communication because
they enable individuals and small groups to get their message out to large
numbers of people without having to contend with restrictive policies and
regulations or prohibitively expensive equipment and production costs” (O’Shaughnessy,
2012)
References
O’Shaughnessy, M., & Stadler,
J.. (2012). Media and Society. 5th Ed. South Melbourne, Oxford University Press
No comments:
Post a Comment