For me it was just exciting to see fake news catching on like that. We don't… you know, it's interesting. I think we don't make things up. We just distill it to, hopefully, its most humorous nugget. And in that sense it seems faked and skewed just because we don't have to be subjective or pretend to be objective. We can just put it out there.
--Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart from The Daily Show has been scrutinized quite a bit over the last few years, and not necessarily because of his content. It seems like every day the six o'clock news reports the results of another survey that claims most young adults get their news primarily from satirical shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Often, Stewart gets "blamed" for this, told his news program is skewing the opinion of millions of impressionable young adults.
His response, in a nutshell? It's fake! As you can see in the quote above, Stewart does not believe his satirical news show is obligated to follow the same journalistic standards as 60 Minutes or the Nightly News. Because The Daily Show airs on Comedy Central, Stewart argues, viewers should expect entertainment, not objective journalism. Fake news anchors do not have to swear to whatever version of the Hippocratic oath journalists take when they vow to be objective reporters of current events. "We don't consider ourselves equal opportunity anythings," says Stewart, "because that's not - you know, that's the beauty of fake journalism. We don't have to - we travel in fake ethics."
It seems to me that the problem is not with the show itself and its obvious lack of objectivity. The problem is that, allegedly, people are watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report instead of getting their news from a source that is expected to report objectively (whether they actually do or not). I'm still working through this argument. Even if it is true that there are young adults who watch fake news and nothing else, are they really laughing as hard as those who've seen the material being satirized? If I've never seen The View and I watch an SNL skit that parodies the program, will it be funny to me? And even if it isn't, will I never be able to take The View seriously after seeing Tracy Morgan dressed up as Sherri? My thought is that the responsibility is in the hands of the viewer, not the writers of satire, but it's true that SNL satire has forever changed my impression of Sean Connery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK1jpywBQLM
It is my feeling that lessons on satire are very important in the classroom for two reasons. First, teaching students to read satire is very important. Students should know what they're getting as viewers of a satirical news show, and what they're missing. One of the articles from this week explained that those who consider satirical news shows to be their primary source of current events knowledge are left with fewer facts and deeper impressions about public figures or events. Kari's blog this week compared articles from The Onion to headlines in the Star Tribune, which might be a good activity to help students compare the information and impressions transmitted by two different sources of news.
Another important way satire could be used in the classroom is to have students write their own parodies of news stories or other works. To understand and write effective satire, one must have a thorough understanding of the original source material. Asking a student to analyze or write a satirical version of A Christmas Carol, for example, both requires a high level understanding of the novel and calls on other critical thinking skills.
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4 comments:
Another great post. Oscar Wilde summed up this notion about sarcasm best when he said, "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."
Another great example of real news juxtaposed with fake news can be found on one of the media's most entertaining radio shows, "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!"
http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/
I like your lesson plan idea of having students write their own satirical parodies of newspaper articles or other works. That would be great to do in an English class, but it could work in other classes too depending on the content. You're right - they will really need to understand the original in order to get the satire/story right. It reminds me of summary writing. It seems easy enough to students, but it's really not, especially if they don't thoroughly understand what they're summarizing.
I completely agree with you when you mentioned how important it is to have our students be able to read satire. It shows up all over the place, and if they don't learn how to tell the difference between good fake writing and the real thing, they could get themselves into a lot of trouble down the road! Great post, Emily!
Definitely agree that telling the diff b/w satire and...well, everything else is important. Look at all the people who have though that Jonathan Swift was being serious in Modest Proposal. Shudder.
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