Comparing Apples to Onions: Traditional vs. Satirical News

Social media technologies have enabled communication to evolve in a number of interesting ways. Viral videos spawn memes and catch phrases. Memes evolve independently and spontaneously to synthesize a cultural stereotype and because they resonate with viewers and allow open participation, they gain a lot of traction. Both circulate through social media, taking on layers of cultural meaning.

These memes encapsulate stereotypes of the college experience. Left: freshman, overeager in academics and social life, transparently/ unsuccessfully tries to act like his idea of a cool college student to fit in and impress others, lacks experience and social awareness. Right: lazy college senior, has no work ethic, much more laid back and authentic than the freshman.

If it's a close friend's birthday, you might write a long public post on the wall of their Facebook page and a photo of you together, perhaps creating a collage with Pic Stitch. Even people you barely talk to can see a notification on the day of your birthday and easily send you happy birthday wish. Overall our social lives and documentation thereof are much more public.

As someone who grew up before viral videos came to popularity, it's strange to realize that younger and current generations have had their childhoods affected by social media in ways mine wasn't. It's merely a matter of timing that my day-to-day life as a young child was left mostly in obscurity.

David After Dentist

What did I look like when I had a tantrum when I was four? I don't remember, but I think there's a VHS tape of my brother and me eating peas while arguing at the kitchen table about who was "dumber." For many children today, social media has already captured these intimate moments of growing up. In some cases it's not only remembered, it's searchable - shared irrevocably to a mass audience far outside the immediate family.

You might also want to consider that in some cases sharing and documenting can be a good thing. A new serial podcast spawned by the popular radio series, This American Life, follows a 1998 murder case and mystery abounds as few people interviewed can even remember where they were or what they were doing.

The World at Large

Social media has changed more than the way individuals share and document personal moments. It has also become a large source of the material we read and consume for news about the world.

How has this method of consuming news influenced what we're consuming?

Satirical news sites have exploded in popularity, namely The Onion. By having Facebook pages, these sites can share links to their content and gain exposure with "likes" and shares. The rise in popularity seems to have followed the success of The Colbert Report, a news show much like any other except that the host, Stephen Colbert, is actually playing a fictional persona, delivering satirical versions of news events. Clearly television, news sites and social media have all mirrored a change in our cultural sense of humor.

Some articles feature remarkably absurd ideas dressed up in journalistic style and tone, somewhat mocking the claim to authority of traditional journalism. Many also respond to current events.

This article about a fictional sick healthcare worker perfectly captures the irony of a culture moment.

However, the one thing social media can be guaranteed to do is spread - even if what's being shared is totally made up (something talk show host Jimmy Kimmel proved with when he revealed several highly popular viral videos were hoaxes). Satirical news sites frequently get misinterpreted as real and contribute to misinformation, like in the example below from Empirenews.net, which a quick Google search reveals as satire. 

Personally I believe misinformation often results from a site unsuccessfully trying to imitate the way other popular sites do satire and instead end up writing about fictitious events that are merely unlikely. Satire can also be done well but come before social media users who are ignorant of the issue under discussion and simply neglect to do basic fact-checking. Other times the intent of the site is much hazier. 

In September 2014, Stuppid.com posted an article about lesbian mother-daughter couples that spread like wildfire. Other Internet users quickly dug up fishy details proving the article to be false. But why did the site try to fool people? With the lengths they went to cover their tracks it seems hard to believe that this is some kind of deep social critique meant to be seen for its true meaning by smarter people. 

Even though hoaxes don't always succeed, the dangers of how social media proliferates news are clear. But are we better off than before? You could say that in some ways news has evolved by allowing more information flow and access without relying on big institutions that act as gatekeepers. In another way it has regressed, allowing rumor to spread easily, like in the debacles caused by small town rumor sites. 

In my opinion, when a satirical news site does something well - it shows. Aside from purely humorous jabs at topical events, they provide something more. They make us laugh not only because it's absurd. A good satire must first recognize the outlook and experiences of a generation and, once it does, can get readers to engage with news and look at events through a new critical lens.