Humor and Satire, Political

Abstract

For centuries, political humor and satire have been an important part of life in democratic societies. Respected and often feared for the influence they are perceived to have on citizens and elites, satirists have occupied a privileged role, both throughout history and in contemporary society. While the specific topics of and channels for political satire have changed since the days of Ancient Greece and Rome, the objectives have remained the same: to challenge the existing political and social order in a manner both playful and entertaining. With the application of social scientific methods and psychological theories, researchers have begun to identify and quantify the various forms of impact of political humor and satire. Recent important developments in digital technologies have expanded the possibilities for political humor's reach and impact. These technological changes as well as recent collaborations between scholars across methodological and epistemological traditions make it a very exciting and promising time for the study—and production—of political humor and satire.

Participatory effects of political satire revisited in the age of digital media : the role of hard news, political expression and social media

“…In other words, by dealing with important social and political issues in a simple, approachable, and entertaining manner, political satire provides audiences with a means for playful engagement with politics (Baym, 2005). And this is what makes political satire a potent form of political expression (Day, 2011;Young, 2016) and even "alternative journalism" (Baym, 2005, p. 259).…”

“…Political satire has been an important part of life in democracies for centuries (Young, 2016). In ancient Greek and Roman societies, playwrights used satire to challenge and criticize the power and reveal violations of social norms by political leaders and social institutions.…”

“…Nast, a cartoonist at Harper's Weekly, contributed to the downfall of Boss Tweed, the leader of the corrupt Tammany Hall Democratic party political machine. In the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, America's most well-known humorists and satirists, Mark Twain and Will Rogers, wrote stories and columns, focusing on the human foibles such as hypocrisy and inequties in the United States (Young, 2016).…”

“…With the advent of television in the 20 th century, political satire began to reach a wider audience, although the genre was able to expand its reach and cultural significance to the degree that it enjoys today only after cable television and the Internet came along (Gray et al, 2009;Young, 2016).…”

“…Studies offered to date, however, have generally failed to systematically examine the link between hard news use and political satire viewing and its influence on political outcomes, mainly juxtaposing hard news use and political satire viewing to simply highlight the possible differences between the two in terms of their political effects (Hoffman & Young, 2011). Lastly, unlike the research on news use and political participation, the research on the effects of political satire on participation has been lacking an effort to understand the underlying psychological processes between political satire viewing and political participation (Feldman, 2013), mainly relying on one or two conventional cognitive and attitudinal variables which are often included in the strict media effects paradigm (Young, 2016).…”