News satire, also called fake news , is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as journalism itself, but it is particularly popular on the web, where it is relatively easy to mimic a credible news source and stories may achieve wide distribution from nearly any site. Because news satire relies heavily on irony and deadpan humor, it is taken much more readily and finding increasing acceptability.
Contents |
Richard A. Locke successfully increased sales of The Sun newspaper in 1835 by publishing a series of six articles, now known as the Great Moon Hoax, under the name of a contemporary astronomer.[1]
Author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was employed as a newspaper reporter before becoming famous as a novelist and in this position he published many hoax articles. He left two separate journalism positions, Nevada (1864) fleeing a challenge to duel[2] and San Francisco fleeing outraged police officials, because his satire and fiction were often taken for the truthful accounts they were presented as. Of this experience he said, "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Perhaps it's fitting, then, that the accuracy of many newspaper and autobiographical accounts used to follow the early life of Samuel Clemens are in doubt.[3]
Newspapers still print occasional news satire features, in particular on April Fools' Day. This news is specifically identified somewhere in the paper or in the next day as a joke.
In 1934, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released a series of ten one-reel theatrical shorts called Goofy Movies, which included "Wotaphony Newsreel," a newsreel parody that paired actual footage with a mocking, deadpan narration.
Also in 1934, halfway through a Kraft Music Hall radio show, Dean Taylor ("Others collect the news, Dean makes it!) narrated a fake newsreel which began with a report on the New York Giants and Philadelphia Phillies being cancelled due to bad weather, and baseball season being rescheduled to when farmers need rain.
News satire has been prevalent on television since the 1960s, when it enjoyed a renaissance in the UK with the Satire Boom, led by such luminaries as Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, David Frost, Eleanor Bron and Dudley Moore and the television programme That Was The Week That Was.
In the United States, the NBC network adapted this program and also produced its own content, from the "news" segment of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, to the still-running Saturday Night Live mock newscast segment "Weekend Update". Cable television got into the cable news act with Home Box Office's Not Necessarily the News in the mid 1980s.
Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report are currently very popular in the United States. A 2004 Annenberg survey found that Daily Show viewers were better informed than those who relied solely on conventional network news,[4] and some have even compared the trust and influence Stewart enjoys today to that of CBS anchor Walter Cronkite in the 1970s.[5] However, a study published in the Journal of Communication suggests that entertainment news shows such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report may not be as influential in teaching voters about political issues and candidates as was previously thought. Researchers from Ohio State University have found reasons to discount how effective these shows are in informing the general public. People watching television news learned more about a candidate’s position on issues and about political procedures compared to those watching the fake news shows, while fake news shows primarily taught viewers about a candidate’s personal background.[6]
Fox News launched a news satire program in February 2007 with the title of The Half Hour News Hour. Its creator describes it as "The Daily Show for conservatives", but it was cancelled within a few months. Fox News has since launched the more successful Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.
In Britain, several news satires have been created, most famously the works of Chris Morris. Show such as the radio series On the Hour and its television version The Day Today parodied news programs very accurately, so they were almost believable and could have been confused with actual news programs, if it was not for the fake stories reported. Morris went on to continue this and several other themes in Brass Eye, one of the most controversial series on British television, especially after one episode broadcast mocked the way the news covered stories about pedophilia.
Currently, British news satire is similar to shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The Late Edition with Marcus Brigstocke, on digital station BBC Four, is heavily influenced by The Daily Show. News Knight with Sir Trevor McDonald parodied news differently, by using an actual newsreader as the host. Other news satires include Broken News, which featured several sketches of different news channels blending into each other.
In Canada, This Hour Has 22 Minutes is an ensemble news satire show with four anchors on CBC. The Rick Mercer Report is a spinoff of 22 Minutes with former anchor Rick Mercer, and is also shown on CBC. The 1960s series This Hour Has Seven Days, although primarily a real newsmagazine, included some satirical features in its format, such as political humour songs by actress and singer Dinah Christie.
In Germany, Heute-Show (ZDF), and formerly Wochenshow (on SAT.1) and Freitag Nacht News (on RTL) are popular news satires on TV.
News satire has been posted on the web almost since its inception, but few would contest that The Onion is foremost among recognized news satire site due to its enduring and profitable business model].[7] The website, which started in 1996, has become virtually synonymous with online satire; its content is syndicated through mainstream media sites such as CNN and CNET. Today there are hundreds of news satire sites online. Sites such as Real Celebrity News specialize in satirical articles of celebrities and includes photos of celebrity look-a-likes as well as satirical celebrity Twitter accounts written in the first-person narrative. Other satire sites attempt to emulate a genuine news source of some sort; however, these sites now take a variety of forms.[8]
| “ | If other fake news sources, like Fox News, are going after it then we have to respond. It’s just the responsibility we have. | ” |
|
—Sean Mills, President of The Onion, on news parody of tragedies., [9] |
||
Because interesting stories are often emailed and can quickly become separated from their point of origin, it is not uncommon for news satire stories to be picked up as real by the media; as had happened with a Faking News story about a lawsuit against Axe by an Indian man after having failed to attract a girl.[10] Additionally, a parody post on Al Sharpton's parody News Groper blog was quoted as if real by MSNBC.[11] Another satire publication, The Giant Napkin, published an article about a man literally fighting his house fire with more fire, a story taken seriously by several social networking sites. The fact that Google News accepts news satire sources helps contribute to this phenomenon; while Google News does mark such stories with a "satire" tag, not all readers notice the tag; moreover, sometimes satirical sources may not carry the tag.[12] At least one site, thespoof.com, relies on user-generated content in a Web 2.0 manner.
Some websites like Literally Unbelievable post the genuine and shocked reactions of individuals who believe the satirical articles are real. The reactions are taken from social media websites, such as Facebook, in which users can directly comment on links to the article's source.
Multi-author Indian website News That Matters Not, launched in November 2009[13], won the prestigious Manthan South Asia Awards for socially responsible e-content (Digital Inclusion for Development), organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation[14]. In India, several community-based news satire websites have crept up in recent times. Their popularity on Facebook defines that they are popular amongst the masses. Very new websites such as The Scoop Times, Sunkey.co.in and The UnReal Times also claim to be run by students, and were covered in The Times of India in July 2011 [15].
Several sites community of selected news satire sites which runs its own satire news feed on HumorFeed. HumorFeed is notable for its relatively high standards of admission and active community involvement. At present, over 60 sites are contributing members, at least eight of which have published books and two of which publish regular hard copy periodicals. Several HumorFeed members also run Check Please!, an online journal devoted to the serious examination of online satire, ranging from its role in relation to actual journalism to practical considerations of producing an online satire site.
In July 2009, a satire piece about Kanye West published on the website ScrapeTV was picked up by numerous media outlets and reported as factual,[16][17][18] despite disclaimers on the site.[19]