Postmodern style often addresses its viewers as sophisticated media readers and consumers. Referring to Sturken and Cartwright's chapter "Postmodernism 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?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Blog #8
Postmodern style often addresses its viewers as sophisticated media readers and consumers. Referring to Sturken and Cartwright's chapter "Postmodernism 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 text in the Onion News Network clip is satirical because it appears to be like a real news cast, not something that is completely made up. There are 'live interviews' with people that know about the person in the topic, that say complete nonsense. For example, the wife of the man who is the one of the top ten thousand least influential Americans says that it's great that he gets credit for doing nothing. It is ironic because people expect to praise people that are influential, not people that don't do anything.
The parody of this clip is when Time Magazine creates a list of the top 100 most influential people. The clip assumes that the viewer knows that Time Magazine uses this topic as their feature once about every year. The viewer must also know that Time ranks people in order to what they did that was influential in that year and how that person 'impacted the world' in some way. The Onion News clip makes fun of this by say how much the man didn't do anything substantial.
Postmodernism is displayed here in this Onion news clip through the example of mass media advertisement. This is one of many forms of postmodernism that Strucken and Cartwright presents in Practices of Looking. As a viewer I noticed that this is done during the 20th century because the way the newscaster displays the news, very comical, and different. This is also another point that Strucken and Cartwright states as part of definition of postmodernism.
The irony of this news clip is that it’s not really traditional news, it’s a spoof. The newsman is interviewing the lowest, least, uninfluential person named Jim Stutts, and making a big deal about what he does. Then the newsman makes comparisons of Jim and to other people around him. The people that are also interviewed make very vague comments about Jim.
The parody about this is that this subject made a huge hit on a famous magazine, Times Magazine. Another parody of this clip is the idea that the audience heard in the background is cheering for Jim’s success and this is something that most people would not appreciate in regular news.
For the news to capture the interest of the public, it needs to appeal to the widest verity of interests possible. While most of the viewers are interested in many different topics of world, local, and sports news, the producers realize that some audience members are also interested in celebrity news. The Onion assumes that the viewer is familiar with other television news broadcasts that report on pop cultural happenings. They exploit the opinion of celebrity news as “un-news-worthy” and “unimportant” to parody the promotional technique. By “reporting” on the ‘least influential people’ list they are quite bluntly commenting on the seemingly pointless sharing of celebrity news. It is as if to say that the ‘most influential people lists’ are as “newsworthy” as the average person’s job. In that, what they are being recognized for is what is to be expected from that person. So a business man who creates more jobs in a neighborhood is as important as a claims adjuster that has not affected the same neighborhood. The irony is taken even further by introducing the viewer to a claims adjuster who hasn’t adjusted any claims. This is done to show that the person who is the ‘least influential’ is supposed to have made some kind of change as required by their job.
Nathan Irish
TA Dayna Moses
The Onion newspaper and News Network are infamous in creating parodies of today’s society. The Network News mimics CNN in its format and the typical interviews with multiple source, even though the people being interviewed add little subject. The story focuses on Jim Stutts, who has been picked as the “least influential person of the year” for not doing any work. This title is a sarcastic play on Time Magazine’s yearly awards of the 100 most influential person of the year. Mr. Mullay, Time magazine editor, states that Jim Stutts came to the top of the list because “he makes no impression on anyone around him”. The only comment made by Jim’s boss is that “he just works here”. Jim’s wife acknowledges that he is finally getting recognition for not doing work. Throughout the interviews, the usually polished newscasters stutter though out the interview- a play on his name as well as his incompetence. Jim won first place over the second place contestant because she at least has a dog that listens to her while Stutts has nobody to listen to him. Jim is the lowest of nobodies
The Onion News video clip operates on the level of parody and satire because it makes an effort to present itself as an established news program like CNN or NBC with newscasters, reporters in the field, and interviews but instead reports “fake” news similar to Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, but with more of an effort to look real. Because the Onion newspaper is so established, they know that the people who read each week will also enjoy watching their take on a ironic news program, especially if it is comical, entertaining, and satirical. The reason this program works so well is because it recognizes that it isn’t real, so they can then report on anything they want and satirize pop culture and politics in any way they choose. By parodying Time magazine’s featured “Most Influential People” column the Onion changed it to “Least Influential People” and reported on people that were “useless” which most of us would find funny. The segment takes aim at “celebrity news” and instead puts the focus on everyday people which makes more relatable to the common person. In relation to Sturken and Cartwright’s essay on postmodernism the Onion uses irony and a sense of one’s own involvement in low or popular culture. (254) We get this sense of involvement because we know what they reporting is comical but forces us took look at what real new programs are reporting and calling “newsworthy.” It is an extension of lifestyle news that shies away from a serious journalistic approach to get people to take a minute and laugh at something that’s satirical and ridiculous.
The Onion News clip upholds the postmodern style because it assumes that that its viewers have a knowledge and understanding of not only real news casts, but the topics they cover. By covering of a story on the Times Most Influential People as a parody, viewers are able to not only appreciate the humor and irony of in fact the least influential person, but also relate to it on some level. The clip appears to be real, with headlines streaming at the bottom of the screen, and a professional looking logo. There’s also cuts to an interview with the character, in which friends and family express their opinions. It’s relatable because most of us have never done anything worthy of Time Magazine or a news coverage. In this way, The Onion is making fun of the way society views and rates people based on celebrity status, and also of the average person not really deserving of such an award. The viewer knows their own status and can laugh about it for a moment. This likens to comedy and commentary programs such as The Daily Show, or Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Particularly, a segment called ‘Worst People in the World’ on Olbermann’s show which highlights the quotes or actions of people in the news who, in his opinion, have somehow negatively influenced the world that day. Because he’s approaching it in a comical way, we’re more willing to watch and pay attention. It also may offer cause to stop and think about the real effect of these people, or in The Onion’s case, consider the choice of things and people the media chooses to broadcast as ‘news’.
Cassie Hutzler
TA Dayna Moses
The Onion News Network clip and the Sturken and Cartwright's chapter "Postmodernism and Popular Culture" describe the level of satire. The clip is set up with a news network interviewing and talking about this man and how he is on the list of being one of the least influential Americans. The humor of it is that people usually would not set a goal to be on a list of the least influential people. The news man continues with interviewing the mans wife and a friend of his.
The parody of this is the whole making fun of the man and how he has nobody. At the end of the clip the news anchor speaks with the man that created this list and explains that he just beat out a woman because her they found out she had a labrador who will sometimes listen to her, whereas this man, Stutts has nobody.
This clip makes use of the irony by pretending like it is a good thing to be on the top list of the least influential people's list. They interview Jim Stutts' wife and her tone of voice is that of being proud and overjoyed for her husband.
Li Wang Film 114 Section 801
According to Sturken and Cartwright, Postmodernism emphasizes irony in low or popular culture. This Onion News Network clip is a postmodern style parody which imitates the style of a serious Television News program reporting ironic fake news.
The Onion News Network clip as a parody, assumes that audiences familiar with the original text in Time Magazine. And most of the audiences do familiar with that. Time’s most famous feature in its history has been the annual “Person of the Year” cover story, in which Time recognizes an individual who has had the biggest effect on the year’s news. In this Onion News clips, the host reports that Time Magazine releases annual “Least Influential People” List, which is the contrary of “Person of the Year”. Onion News applies standard forms of journalism report such as dialogues from interview and investigation to tell the story, making it more realistic to audiences.
People normally are proud of being famous and influential. But in Onion’s report, the wife of the Jim Stutts (new face of Top Ten thousand least influential person) says that she is glad and proud of her husband for being least influential. More ironically, in this report, Jim is a claim adjustor who supposes to have important impacts on other people’s lives. In fact, under real condition, Jim’s career should be difficult to not influence people around him. But he was reported that “two years without making an adjustment”. The host says “Amazing” as a comment to that, which seems like a praise of an influential individual and his accomplishment. Being the Least Influential, as we all know, is not supposes to be proud of. But the Onion News uses such a praise tone to describe the person of being almost no influential. By doing so, the Onion makes a contradiction between the literal meaning of Least Influential and its intended meaning.
Kevin Witkowski
Satire is a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn according to Webster’s dictionary. By human vices, they mean attributes of human life. In this video’s case, they are using our knowledge of a T.V. news program to make fun of it by having a bogus story in the same format a real new program would. All of the elements of a real news story are there, but they all revolve around a fake story, which is exactly what satire is.
A parody is something that imitates and copies the style of something else, in an effort to ridicule of for comedic effect. This fake new report obviously is a parody of other news report. The one thing they changed is the content in which they are reporting, in this case, the least influential people.
The video is ironic in the way that they celebrate the least influential people. If they’re so non-influential, how did they even get noticed? The irony is all part of the parody, which satirizes normal T.V. news reports.
This clip is a great example of postmodernism because the video is aware that most people know what a T.V. news report looks like and it uses our knowledge of news reports to satirize it. In S&C, they write, “Reflexivity is not only a feature of postmodern art, it has become a central aspect of postmodern style in popular culture.” (S&C p 264). This clip reflects upon our knowledge of news reports and is there fore a great example of postmodernism.
Kevin Witkowski
In the video clip, a news report is doing a parody of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. In Practices of Looking, it is stated that, “In advertising, intertextuality is a means to tap into consumers’ memories of other ads, and to speak to consumers as savvy viewers”. Though the clip did not mention ads, we can substitute ads with current news. In order for us to get the joke being shown, we need to have previous knowledge of what is being referenced or parodied. In the video clip instead of being presented an annual list of 100 most influential people, we are told about Time magazines two hundred-ninety-nine million least influential people list. Throughout the video clip they parody the list on many levels. The first is the obvious one, the fact that it is least influential as opposed to most influential. They also poke fun at the amount of people on the list. Instead of the average list of one hundred, we get a list containing a ridiculously large number. They also poke fun when they say that there was some controversy in the making of the list. The irony in the video is that they are acknowledging a person that had least influence, as opposed to most influence. It is ironic that no one is paying any attention to the influential people. Also in the video clip, they interview people, one of them being the boss of the least influential person. When the boss is shown, he simply looks at what is presumably a list of employees, and after a few seconds of silence he says, Yup he works here. This again shows that it is ironic that Time magazine is taking the time to look for people that are almost irrelevant in our society; instead of looking at someone like Barack Obama, or some other influential person.
Antonio Vargas
TA Dayna Moses.
The onion news story shown in the video clip shows how a popular magazine made a parody of a feature Time usually does about the 100 most influential people. They article was not at all serious but instead it was a type of satire. They took a popular news event and completely reversed it so it would make very little sense and seem quite ridiculous. Instead of picking out a person who has great political or popular influence over people it reversed it and took someone who was pretty much invisible. The man's boss had to look through a massive list of employees and finally was able to confirm that this man did indeed work for him. This showed the irony of how this Onion News Network article compared to a news story CNN would do about the most infleuntial people in Time magazine. Postmodernism is displayed through this segment of satire through the use of connecting and broadcasting to its audience by using mass media.
As Sturken and Cartwright mentions, “a parody assumes a viewer who is familiar with many different texts, and who will enjoy the activity of guessing references and getting the joke.” In the clip, the Onion parodies two different forms of media: cable news channels and news magazines. The Onion News Network is a well developed creation, they use graphics, text, as well as anchors similar to those of MSNBC or Fox News. In relation to news magazines and the “story” in the segment, the ONN means to parody not only many “best of” lists which come out each year, but specifically Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential people. With this “serious” display of caring about how “uninfluential” one can be, the viewer laughs at the ridiculousness of the “least influential” having a space in the spotlight. This helps pose the question to the viewer as to why the actual display of the 100 most influential people is important in the first place.
Matthew Dwyer
Section 33068
The Onion News Network text works on the level of satire because it mocks news stories. For example, a news story talks about the least influential person, Jim Stutts. They even make the story realistic by interviewing his wife. They say that he "has no impact on anyone." They make fun of how he beat out other people because they lived a better life. They talk about how he doesn't do anything and think that it is a good thing. His boss is even interviewed and all he says is that works there but doesn't say exactly what he does at work. People are even proud that he was recognized for being the least influential person and how he was chosen. The news story even refers to a list and gives a specific number on the list as to where they are.
This clip makes use of irony because a person is usually chosen for being the most influential person. Instead, he is the least influential. We are supposed to believe that this is a real story and that it is important to the audience. People who watch this clip are thought to have knowledge of the magazine's real heading as someone being the most influential person, which has become the postmodern style. Stories on the news today sometimes report on things that are useless to most people watching the news. We often hear about where that person is and why they are there. Even though nobody usually cares about this reporting, they still watch it because it has become part of the news casts.
Erik Wagner
T.A. Dayna Moses
The clip of the Onion News Network is satirical because it looks like an actual news cast but also because Time Magazine has a list every year of the 100 most influential people. Within the clip there is an interview with Jim Stutts wife and how proud she was that he hasn’t influenced anyone. The newscaster brings up that how can the little dark skinned boy who brings him coffee and doughnuts every morning be any different from Jim Stutts and the Time Magazine guy said that the boy would be missed when he doesn’t bring the newscaster his Danish. Now this clip is a parody because obviously now actual magazine would make a list like that and also the setup of the clip is meant to look like actual news broadcasts. Also along the bottom where the scroll is there are ridiculous things being shown like the next 9/11 will replace the old 9/11, a toy company is recalling certain toys like Sir Knifes-a-lot and Fat Barbie, and that a major highway was backed up as people stopped to watch two turtles cross the highway. It’s supposed to look like CNN or MSNBC with the actual news story and a scroll going reporting multiple stories at once. This clip has irony because the newsman is talking about a man that is considered the least influential in the US and does an entire story on him with interviews and the magazine editors talking about why they chose Jim Stutts when in reality no body really cares.
Kaitlyn Murray
The Onion Network news clip is a comedic take on both an annual Time magazine article and on news networks such as CNN. The clip goes on to describe Time magazine releasing it's list of the most un-influential people, which is a parody of the lists the magazine actually releases such as Time magazines “100 most influential people”. The comedy sketch accurately mimics the style in which the news is presented to the average TV viewer on a daily basis.
The clip practices reflexivity tack of intertextuality. According to Sturken and Cartwright “intertextuality literally means the insertion of another text, with its meaning, within a new text.” One of the most import aspects of intertextuality is that the viewer is familiar with the text being referenced. It also assumes that the viewer has a large amount of media literacy and is familiar with many cultural products. The clip uses ironic humor and parody, both of which, again according to the Sturken and Cartwright, assumes that the viewer is familiar with many different texts, and will enjoy the activity of guessing references and getting the joke.
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