Postmodern style often addresses its viewers as sophisticated media readers and consumers. Referring to Sturken and Cartwright's chapter "Postmodernism, Indie Media and Popular Culture," and the Onion News Network clip posted above, describe how the text operates on the level of satire. In particular, how does the clip make use of parody and irony?
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Blog #3
Postmodern style often addresses its viewers as sophisticated media readers and consumers. Referring to Sturken and Cartwright's chapter "Postmodernism, Indie Media and Popular Culture," and the Onion News Network clip posted above, describe how the text operates on the level of satire. In particular, how does the clip make use of parody and irony?
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Morgan McPhearson
ReplyDeleteKate Balsley section 801
According to Sturken and Cartwright, “postmodernism is described as a questioning of master narratives. A master narrative is a framework that purports to explain society, if not the world, in comprehensive terms.” The onion news article is very obviously a postmodern work. It uses satire to “explain society”. It is making fun of the lack of influence majority of Americans have by making a parody of Time magazines 100 most influential people, 299 million least influential people. According to S&C, parody is described as “cultural productions that make fun or more serious works through humor and satire while maintaining some of their elements such as plot or character”. They use this parody of time magazines more serious list to get their point across; Time can probably find 299 million LEAST influential people, but only has enough influential people to make a list of 100. The clip also uses irony, “the deliberate contradiction between the literal meaning of something and its intended meaning.” (S&C). They use irony as sarcasm. This sarcastic style makes the clip even funnier. It is very obvious that Jim Stutts is not worth being recognized for anything, but is be recognized for not having any influence on anyone. This is a humorous contradiction. Their use of irony really drives their point home, more Americans are like Jim Stutts, and not making any impact on anything or anyone around them, leading an empty existence and many more are even LESS influential on people.
This clip shows an example of what S&C might view as "politically regressive" (315). Though, they say the idea is debated. It definatley shows some satire, highliting the vice of these least influential people. It does this through Postmodern irony and paradoy. S&C state that, "Postmodernism asks: Can there ever be new ideas and images, things that have not been thought of or done before?" In this way it seeks to undo the constant repetition. Irony, as described by S&C is a, "deliberate contradiction" between what is shown and the meaning. In this way, we can associate certain things with their representation in an image. As Baudrillard said, the image then becomes more real to us. This clip is also a parody, which S&C say is a work that "makes fun of more serious works", in this case news, "while mainting some of their elements". So, the paradoy is that of a newscast, the irony is that they arn't really celebrating these non-influential people, and the satire is all this combined and the highlighting of human vices.
ReplyDeleteEmily Downes
ReplyDeleteKate Balsley Section 801
Sturken and Cartwright construct a clear explanation of satire in terms of postmodernism in today's society. Postmodernity "has involved a scrutinizing of social institutions, such as the media...in order to analyze the assumptions under which they operate and the ways that power works within them in a manner more distributed and complex than previously recognized," (S&C 313). All assumptions are scrutinized in order to question values and ideologies that are seen as natural. The Onion news video embodies several characteristics of satire, and postmodernist ideas, including parody and irony. By addressing the news topic as 299 million least influential people, The Onion news video imitates Time magazines 100 most influential people, making it a parody, or pastiche, of a particular work. Sturken and Cartwright agree that "the primary way to understand pastiche is as an imitation that annoucnes itself as such and that involves combining elements from other sources," (S&C 328). The Onion news video uses satire and humor to make fun of a more serious work while using Time magazines article as the backbone for information, in order to relay a message. Irony is another strong characteristic in this piece, predominately as sarcasm in order to humor an audience. The Onion news video makes Jim Stutts, a man who recognized for not having any influence on anyone, a contradicting, and humorous, topic. Due to this, this clip deliberately contradicts the literal meaning with the intended meaning, otherwise known as the stories that are told in Time magazines 100 most influential people. By utilizing characteristics of Postmodern style, such as parody and irony, The Onion news video is a prime example of how effective works such as this are in treating viewers as sophisticated media readers and consumers.
Postmodernism is used throughout the text and the clip above not only for parody and irony, but also for a different way of viewing the world around us. According to S&C "...one of the primary aspects of postmodernism is that it entails a reflective recognition of our lived relation within the world at a level of consumption, branding, images, media, and the popular." (314) The clip above applies that notion very well as it not only reflects about the 100 most influential people in the world, but also makes a parody about the least influential people in the world. This makes for a very funny entanglement of parody and irony to come together. For example, while mentioning Jim Stutts - an extremely non-influential person, The Onion interviews his boss, an Allstate Insurance Supervisor. His supervisor acknowledges that he works for the company, but not until he checks his employment roster. Also, according to S&C many parodies and ironic situations are mostly set up by the emergence and rise of technologies: "...we could say that the rise of the remix culture is the result of shifting postmodern sensibilities coupled with the emergence of a set of technological practices enabled by the Web and digital technology." (315) Therefore, remixes, parodies, irony and satire are all used to help our culture reflect on specific events, labels, ideas and consumption while at the same time giving us a good laugh and entertaining a mass audience.
ReplyDeleteThe text operates on the level of satire through “…imitation that announces itself as such and that involves combining elements from other resources.” The Onion News Network clip is addressing “…its viewers as savvy individuals jaded by contemporary popular culture…” because the piece utilizes an exaggerated format of a typical news program to touch upon the topic of the ‘Least Influential People’ list, a direct reference to TIME Magazine’s ‘The World’s Most Influential People’ issue. The clip relies on intertexuality, “…[the] presumption that the viewer knows the text that is being referenced,” to parody the original list published by TIME. In recognizing 299 million non-influential people, the Onion News Network is giving out rewards, which are typically reserved for accomplished people. This ironic statement helps to signify that the segment as purely satirical.
ReplyDeleteEvan Jones
The text operates on the level of satire through “…imitation that announces itself as such and that involves combining elements from other resources.” The Onion News Network clip is addressing “…its viewers as savvy individuals jaded by contemporary popular culture…” because the piece utilizes an exaggerated format of a typical news program to touch upon the topic of the ‘Least Influential People’ list, a direct reference to TIME Magazine’s ‘The World’s Most Influential People’ issue. The clip relies on intertexuality, “…[the] presumption that the viewer knows the text that is being referenced,” to parody the original list published by TIME. In recognizing 299 million non-influential people, the Onion News Network is giving out rewards, which are typically reserved for accomplished people. This ironic statement helps to signify that the segment is purely satirical.
ReplyDeleteEvan Jones
The above clip exemplify's Sturken and Cartwright's definition of satire in that it lampoons serious organizations and facets of our culture.In this way, The Onion and the resulting pieces contributes to our Postmodern society. What makes it so definitely Postmodern is that it is an exhibition of how self aware our society is of it's conventions and flaws. The clip used for this discussion does just this by taking a look at well known and accepted facets of American culture (news networks, TIME magazine and their list of 100 most influential people) and tweaking it so that the effect is humorous and changes the perspective on established conventions. The audacity of a major magazine centering it's spotlight on the inneffectual and sad leads to dark humor and the irony of the unexpected news report.
ReplyDeleteLiz Leighton
Balsley 802
The above clip is an exemplification Sturken and Cartwright's definition of satire in that it lampoons serious organizations and facets of our culture.In this way, The Onion and the resulting pieces contributes to our Postmodern society. What makes it so definitely Postmodern is that it is an exhibition of how self aware our society is of it's conventions and flaws. The clip used for this discussion does just this by taking a look at well known and accepted facets of American culture (news networks, TIME magazine and their list of 100 most influential people) and tweaking it so that the effect is humorous and changes the perspective on established conventions. The audacity of a major magazine centering it's spotlight on the ineffectual and sad leads to dark humor and the irony of the unexpected news report.
ReplyDeleteLiz Leighton
Balsley 802
The Onion clip is an example of a postmodern style of satire. The format of the news it itself a parody of television news. The news story is also a parody of the news's focus on celebrity rather than pure journalism. The comedy in the clip is derived from the ironic juxtaposition of subjects: instead of celebrating one of the most influential people in the world, it focuses on a lowly nobody. It's style is very postmodern, there is no laugh track or punchlines, but thorough satire. It assumes its viewers to know what they are talking about, because it relies on the viewers knowledge of the subject for them to "get" the joke. It is pure satire, because it looks at a subject from our culture from a different angle to make us realize how absurd it is in the first place.
ReplyDelete-Joe Teiken
The Onion report is postmodern in that it is a simulation of the real. It is a reflection of popular culture from within, presented as a news program about a popular magazine, but slightly twisted. In this case the twist takes the form of parody, the presentation is the same as would be expected from professional news, but the subject is silly irony (the Time article is about unimportant people specifically, but the article existing makes them important), creating incongruity between form and content.
ReplyDeleteRather than condemning mass culture like previous art movements, postmodernism embraces mass culture and seeks to explore it and use it in art. Oftentimes, postmodern artists parody the mass culture ubiquitous in their society. “Postmodernism emphasizes irony and a sense of one’s own involvement in low or popular culture.”(314) Mass culture is the easiest to parody because a mass audience will understand the joke. Postmodernism also usually parodies the omnipresent nature of mass media itself through television and news print. The Onion News clip parodies TIME Magazine’s 100 “Most Influential People” article by reporting on a fictional “Least Influential People” article. They speak about the least influential person ironically as if it’s an honor, commenting on our society’s simultaneous celebration of and disdain for averageness. Irony is defined as “the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning.”(Merrian-Webster)In many cases in the clip the things said are meant to imply the opposite. Like when the wife of the least influential person says she’s proud of him when there’s absolutely nothing to be proud of. The newsman comments on how hard it is to gauge influence (or lack thereof) and calls into question the process by which TIME names their 100 Most Influential. According to Sturken and Cartwright, “One of the key strategies [of parody] is a questioning of the status of the original.”(328)
ReplyDeleteMegan Linner
I think the Onion News Network clip operates on the level of satire for several reasons. For one, they use parody by emulating Time Magazine’s annual list of the world’s 100 most influential people of the year. However, they do this in an ironic fashion by broadcasting the world’s least influential people of the year. I think this is a good example of how Sturken and Cartwright explain postmodernism. They mention how, “history is a key point of inquiry for postmodernism.” I think this quote works well, because the list they mock is obviously well known, and is annually released. If it wasn’t so recognizable, I don’t think this clip would have as large of an impression as it does. Mainly, because there wouldn’t be anything with history to compare it to. What I enjoy most about this clip, is how serious the reporters actually are when discussing how these people have not been influential. I think this helps, because it adds to the parody of ‘poking fun’ at Times Magazine.
ReplyDeleteChris Brehmer
Kate Balsley 802
This clip from "The Onion" takes a look at our ideas of serious publication. An article in Time Magazine, "Top 100 Most Influential People", is made fun of through satire and parody by following the ideas of postmodernism. Sturken and Cartwright define parody as "a cultural productions that make fun of more serious works through humor and satire while maintaining some of their elements such as plot or character." (S&C 452) This clip from "The Onion" uses this formula by following the same structure as a news program that would typically be seen on CNN. A news anchor grabs the spotlight, he is telling a story in a dramatic tone, there are televisions in the background with scrolling headlines at the bottom of the screen, and even the news logo in generic type is located at the bottom right hand corner but instead reads "ONN" as opposed to "CNN".
ReplyDeleteEverything appears to be factual but the story is full of irony, much like the characteristics of postmodern art. The story is about "Time Magazines 299 million least influential people" with the focus on one man named Jim Stutts, who is new to the list this year. Sturken and Cartwright describe postmodernism as "Popular culture that engage in parody, bricolage, appropriation, and iconic reflexivity, as if there is nothing truly new to say, no ultimate knowledge to reveal." (s&c 454)