Satire of News

Origins

An early example of satire in news is The Spectator, an English newspaper that ran in the early 1700s. Created by popular writers Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the newspaper consisted of one long essay narrated by a fictional character that would report and critique a single aspect of the news each day. Unlike a typical newspaper that would report hard news, The Spectator was satirical in a number of ways. First, the use of a fictional character to present real information allowed for variation in tone and a less systematic reporting [Page 1246]style, providing a sense of intimacy through storytelling and creating an element of entertainment. Its application of humor, for example, is definitive of news satire. Furthermore, The Spectator provided commentary beyond objective news reporting with the distinct intent to influence change in societal behavior and mindset. This fundamentally satirical goal was clearly evidenced by the newspaper's mission to “enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit with Morality.”

Newspapers

Newspapers are the oldest form of news satire, at least as old as conventional journalism in America. In American journalism, one of the most famous news satirists was Samuel Clemens, more popularly known as Mark Twain. In the 1870s, Clemens worked as a young reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, a newspaper in Nevada. He was relieved of his position at the Enterprise for publishing occasional spoof articles that were misconstrued by editors and readers as real. Clemens went on to publish what were deemed “hoaxes” in other newspapers across the country, for which he was also reprimanded.

While the genre of news satire has thus been around for centuries, its prevalence within American journalism dramatically increased with changes in technology. From the rise of the telegraph before the Civil War, to the birth of broadcasting in the early twentieth century, and on to the opening of the Internet to commercial use in 1995, technology has intensified the speed and breadth of mass communication and brought a new, grander scope to the genre of new satire. Today, news satire is disseminated rapidly on a wide scale due to the interconnectedness of modern technology, permeating popular culture and serving as an eminent source of news information for tech-savvy American youth.

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