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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The clip makes use of parody in that it reflects a typical news scene where the anchor is interviewing an "expert in the field". The news story is based on a magazine article titled "The Least Influential People in America". This in and of itself is a parody because no one is really interested in the least influential people in the US because they don't do anything. The fake news crew handle this like any news crew would which is another reason why this is ironic. Other signs of parody are that the news ticker on the bottom of the screen is all fabricated stories and the familiar CNN logo is Replaced with an Onion and an NN which parodies the CNN logo. Also the anchor ends by transitioning into a fake news story. This whole scene is a parody of a news scene.
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ReplyDeleteAccording to Sturken and Cartwright they state, “…history is a key point of inquiry for postmodernism.” This is important to understand when relating the postmodern humor/parody that is happening in the Onion clip. Time magazine has a long standing tradition of releasing their year end list of important people. Therefore due that history and past, the parody is more effective because of the long standing tradition, but also well known. The seriousness of the clip reflects that of a true newscast, and so therefore inherits the traits of something we deem to be “truth”. This level of seriousness lends to effectiveness of the satire. For example in Johnathan Swift’s great satirical novel Gulliver Travels there is a serious tone in Gulliver’s writings that make it appropriate for us to believe it to be truth.
ReplyDeleteSturken and Cartwright give numerous examples of how art takes a prehisting idea and makes commentary by adapting it and arranging in different ways. In the case of this video, The Onion takes the idea of most important man and presents least important man, and presents it in a serious tone. They include interviews with people associated with the man, they include quotes and even have an small interview with the writer of the column. This all takes on the same mechanics that CNN goes through each year with Time magazine selection.
-Rob Niesen
The onion news clip uses both parody and irony to convey a fictional news scenario. First, the clip is clearly a parody of a newscast. The anchorman summarizes a story and asks an “expert” to add his opinion on the matter. In addition, people familiar with the individual being covered are interviewed as a typical news story would entail. While the scene emulates an actual news cast, the content of the story is not only fictional but humorous. The onion plays on the popular “most influential people” list released annually by doing the piece on the worlds “least influential people”. Furthermore, the news ticker at the bottom of the screen lists comical stories rather than typical news updates and the onion logo is displayed looking incredibly similar to the CNN logo. The irony of the clip can be seen in the visual aspect. It is ironic that the worlds “least influential people” happen to be broadcast almost identically to a CNN broadcast. Moreover, the person featured in the story is listed among thousands and has no significance on the list whatsoever. As Sturken and Cartwright stress the importance of history in exploring postmodernism, the history of the “most influential people” allows the viewers to understand the comical aspect of the clip.
ReplyDeleteThe onion news clip uses both parody and irony to convey a fictional news scenario. First, the clip is clearly a parody of a newscast. The anchorman summarizes a story and asks an “expert” to add his opinion on the matter. In addition, people familiar with the individual being covered are interviewed as a typical news story would entail. While the scene emulates an actual news cast, the content of the story is not only fictional but humorous. The onion plays on the popular “most influential people” list released annually by doing the piece on the worlds “least influential people”. Furthermore, the news ticker at the bottom of the screen lists comical stories rather than typical news updates and the onion logo is displayed looking incredibly similar to the CNN logo. The irony of the clip can be seen in the visual aspect. It is ironic that the worlds “least influential people” happen to be broadcast almost identically to a CNN broadcast. Moreover, the person featured in the story is listed among thousands and has no significance on the list whatsoever. As Sturken and Cartwright stress the importance of history in exploring postmodernism, the history of the “most influential people” allows the viewers to understand the comical aspect of the clip.
ReplyDelete-Olivia Gilbert
According to Sturken and Cartwright we have a "culture of imitation, remake and parody..." Can there every be new ideas when there are already so many thought out? Though we will never know the real answer, things like parodies poke fun at things that have already been done and that are well known; things that have a history, which is what parodies mostly derive from. The clip from The Onion is no different. It parody's a short clip from a news station such as CNN or MSNBC . Most news shows have the main anchor speaking seriously into the camera about an important event that has recently happened, which is what is done on The Onion as well. The seem to be mocking Time magazines "most influential people of the year" by claiming to be doing a story on the "least influential people of the year." Our society is not very interested in people that did not do anything special, which makes the clip slightly humorous. They also seem to be poking fun at the scrolling bars at the bottom of news shows by putting stories that are inappropriate and have no significance. The irony in this clip is that fact that this clip of a fictional news station is run almost exactly like any other news station would be run. The way the anchor speaks, the way the anchor faces the camera, and all the extra texts on the screen, are seen exactly the same way on a real news station.
ReplyDelete-Stephanie Bane
Anthony Hunt
ReplyDeleteSturken and Cartwright claim postmodernism is a movement set to departure of facets of society. These create medias that take into account the ideas of modern society and represent them in a new philosophical standing. In the onion, it takes mainstream media and turns its seriousness into absurdity for comedic purposes. They use the dry approach to a news broadcast through interviews, background information and news room updates to imply that this is "real", but in reality it is a joke. Even from the title of the report, "the least influential people of 2007" a focus on people that don't matter. Ala satire. This in all creates a parody of our news today, wrapped up in too serious reports that give either fear to people or power, this is an opposite approach. It strikes a funny bone but if thought about shows how absurd the mainstream news corporations can be.
According to Sturken and Cartwright one essential aspect of parody is genre theory. The idea of genre theory contains the aspect of certain genres containing conventions and formulas that are recognizable to viewers. Viewers enjoy seeing familiar techniques in genre specific movies, but they also enjoy seeing variations in these movies. So, in parody the movies work on two levels, both creating new ideas but within the structure of old ones.
ReplyDeleteThis video Is obviously creating a parody of the news. With this example very careful attention was paid in order to make an extremely accurate parody. The approach from this is video is almost completely aimed at realism there is not much stylization in the acting or dialogue. The costumes of the characters are very typical of the clothes that anyone seen on the news actually wears. The editing and special effects are very similar to those on the actual news. Even the cinematography is based all on techniques that would be used on the actual news.
The only thing that then sets it apart from the actual news is the context of what they are discussing. The idea that they are talking about "the worlds least influential people" turns this video into a comedy; it is a comedy because of the use of irony. Irony is created because the real news talks about serious issues, especially when an issue receives this much focus. But, this issue is not serious at all. The effect of the irony is heightened by the extreme use of parody. Because the parody is so realistic it makes it seem as if this is a real news network and that this is a real story. Even though while examining the context, the viewer should be able to figure out that it is fake.
jeremy wuerch
Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright state, “Postmodernism has been characterized by a kind of fatigue with the new and the sense that everything has been done before.” I feel that this is why we such things as parody. Take for example this clip there are several thing that have been taken from news channels like CNN or Fox News. The symbol in the corner has a direct relation to CNN’s. The “top ten least influential people” is also a criticism of current media. It seems like every channel has some list of the best people. Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright also say, “Postmodern culture is also produced through changes that have taken place in the production, dissemination, and marketing of media forms.” This can be seen in the video clip. Now videos can be easily made by anybody. Parodies are something that is even easier to create.
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ReplyDeleteIn today’s society irony abounds all around. It seems that any political comic, television commercial or magazine advertisement has a satire or ironic statement included. According to Sturken and Cartwright their definition of irony includes “postmodernism emphasizes irony and a sense of one's own involvement in low or popular culture" (p.314). For each individual we can relate place ourselves in the position of ironic situations. Examples of this are everywhere for instance the entire production The Onion. Specifically we can relate within ourselves to the humor of the Onion clip and its irony.
ReplyDeleteThe Onion news clip, in regards to parody, is the use of the format of the evening news. The irony is the role reversal of Time Magazines most influential list, converting it to the least influential list. The clip portrays a so-called expert in judging whose life is the most worthless has the least amount of significance. To make a note the expert he does not possess much more charisma than Jim Stutts. The point being made is as if people who accomplish nothing more that there everyday life are newsworthy. In addition, as boring as the editor is so what is he doing on the news as well. Blah Blah Blah! The major Irony of the clip is what separates the expert from Jim Stutts the “winner” of the person who has influence over no one. Jim Stutts did nothing in order to have this recognition. This is to parody the reality of politician, celebrities, and so on.
Another ironic sense of the clip is the texts scrolling across the screen at the bottom. Nothing was earth shattering or of any significance at all. For example, it mentioned that "National Anthem Screamed", does society care if the National Anthem screamed or not? What about the next statement Traffic caused by people slowing down to watch two turtles fucking? The use of irony is when the texts took out the importance of the news converting it into a popular culture satire. I think that people may pay more attention to a comedy of the news than the actual news itself.
The Onion News Network clip is a remake of a typical TV newscast parodying Time’s 100 Most Influential People. As Sturken and Cartwright state, this form of “playful engagement” allows viewers to enjoy “involvement in both the old text and its parodic remake” (330). The clip functions as a parody by creating a pastiche based on typical, established elements of a news broadcast. Not only are the background visuals convincing, but the piece utilizes newspaper clippings, live and over-the-phone interviews, as well as expert commentary to simulate the feel of a TV news story. The news story itself puts a spin on Time’s 100 Most Influential People, changing it to Time’s 299 Million Least Influential as a means to parody the magazine’s selective, elitist choices.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of content, the clip’s news story relies heavily on irony to make the parody effective. The Onion assumes that its viewers are familiar with Time’s 100 and will enjoy the “layered intertext between the two works [“100 Most…” and “299 Million Least…”]” (331). To start, the cover of Time’s 299 Million Least Influential People ironically depicts the back of someone’s head as the announcer says “a new face.” The woman being interviewed says that Jim is finally being recognized for “not having an effect on anyone,” a seemingly non-newsworthy attribute, which is confirmed by his high school friend when he states that he won’t move back to Indiana despite Jim’s advice. The use of ironic elements in discussing Time’s 299 Million Least Influential People helps viewers understand the purpose of both the original work and its remake so as to bring awareness to the “depth of feelings that extend across both texts” (331).
-Brian Lis
This clip in particular is an example of a news report. TIME magazine has a reputation of acknowledging influential people and this fake news story flips that and thinks that the least influential people would be news worthy. It is very easy to notice that the clip is a fake and mocks the news for many reasons including the “expert” being asked questions and the obvious humor of the subject matter. Another factor that adds to the parody is that the bottom has obviously fake news reports tracking along the bottom. Struken and Cartwight discuss the trend of parodies. I would place this clip in that trend because it is used to make people laugh, but it also does a fair job at portraying an actual news report. The humor is the driving force and the news element is the tool to achieve the laughs. The satire is present in that those working for the Onion use their wit to poke fun at the idea that you can make anything look like news if it is handled the same way that any other news report would be.
ReplyDelete-Kevin Speers
The Onion is so widespread that it has become a newspaper and media model for current postmodern media. In this ONN production there is a classic example of parody. The Onion takes on the asthetic of a news/media television station all the while presenting material that humourously contradicts traditional news story criterion. ONN uses two well dressed men who are beyond their forty's to be main talking heads, claiming wisdom with their confident antics and serious vocal tone. The background noise is consistent with that of a traditional busy news station. The filming, the set and all asthetic attributes line up with large networks.
ReplyDeleteThe content of the story and the scrolling text break the expectation of the entire production and sonsequently turn the media into something different altogether. The use of something that is already in existence to create something new is the most common form of humor I find these days. Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons and South Park are three popular television shows that commonly use parody and irony to manifest humourous outcomes.
The irony in the ONN clip is obvious. The content is directly contrary to any story that might be seen on a television news network. It is this simple use of irony that is often ef used for humourous affect in all forms of media. Time magazine always does a list of the most important people of the year, as they see it. The onion is very stratetic in the manner that they use parody. Many times, like the clip above for example, they will parody certain ideas or texts that have a long standing history and/or that are prevalent and widespread among society. This use of history and pop culture is what gives them the edge of relevance in the mass-informational age that we currently live in.
The video clip portrayed a great deal or irony. The Onion has set there name in the parody world of news casting. In this case, the anchor is telling of a list made by Time Magazine, of the "Least Influential People". The anchor portrays a very, seemingly important list of the least influential people in America. He brings in an Editor from Time Magazine to give it more credit. They discuss a man in particular, pointing out what makes him one of the least influential people in America. Of these, they talk about how he doesnt make any effect on anyone around him.
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that our daily news is too concentrated on the most important and world changing people. The Onion bring to mind the people that are out there that aren't changing the world, celebrating there achievements or lack thereof. The anchor and guest editor are very serious in there discussion which makes this clip achieve its full intentions. the parody was portrayed greatly.
The consumers of the standard news shows of CNN and Fox News are categorized as intellectual people. Therefore, the media brings them the news in a serious manner. The Onion also captured the same manner in this clip, which made fun of the ridiculous articles in magazines of labeling people as better than another.
Sturkin and Cartwright relay the importance of history in postmodernism. The history of our news media is very elaborate stories and sophisticated statistics. The Onion demonstrates a humorous role in the presentation in a parody of those topics. S&C are made an example of in this idea, that we laugh at our lask lustered traditions in the world of media. For we concentrate on the least bit of importance in the news room. (most of the time).
Joshua Long 40302