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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As described in the Sturken and Cartwright chapter entitled, "Postmodernism, Indie Media and Popular Culture," Postmodernism has been an idea that has effect various types of media since the late 1970's. This concept is rooted in the realization of our personal relation within our culture, via media, corporate branding of products and also political and economic factors, and how this immersion different cultural values effects personal experience. There is a strong emphasis in Postmodernism on the culturally ironic ideas and in a sense making fun of the media and culture inside of a works country of origin. In the United States, postmodernist thought is truly demonstrated through these ideas of both irony and parody.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Onion News Network Clip,' is exactly what the chapter in the reading describes as "shape shifting and can be rescultped into new shapes and forms," all the while making heavy use of cultural irony and is at the very heart, a parody. The clip is making fun of the annual list that Time magazine issues that deals with the most influential people in society and culture in a given year. This is a parody, reshaping the to the opposite angle, the 100 least influential people in cultural society. This is a total simulation of a CNN news broadcast, that would inevitably take the release of this ridiculous article entirely too seriously. The very idea that we as a culture need to be told who is influencing us and intern must read about how incredible these people are, is the complete antithesis of Postmodernist thought. Which then opens the door for the use of irony in the piece, having a man that could be recognized as the least influential man is intended to challenge the idea that there could be a definition a most influential individual in society, who is receiving the exact same notoriety. We see parodies of interviews saying how completely unimportant this man is but is still being given this huge slice of media attention. This is obviously intended very satirical jab at the idea that we need to be told who is influencing our culture and the idea that many people take something like a list telling the most influential people far too seriously, hence the attention to detail in the interviews and explaining why he is worthy of such an honor of being named the least influential man in America. This is satirized even more by the list inside the video being the 200 million least influential people. This is also the tone of the writing inside of Sturken and Cartwright's chapter about Postmodernism. Writing in an almost sarcastic tone, speaking of how this indie media is becoming more and more predominant in popular culture, which is intern creating a continuing separation of ideas and even more indie media begins to pop up, poking more fun than the one that came before it.
In Sturken and Cartwright's essay they begin to ask about the possibility of new ideas and images as if everything has been thought of and done before. Referring to pop culture and art forms they state that the idea and concept of original art pieces have been thoroughly corrupted and demolished. A key concept within the form of parody and satire is questioning the status of the original, which refers to 'pastiche.' When pastiche is used within the remaking of certain art forms and elements of the past it can fall into the category of parody. An important part of a parody or satire as a viewer is knowing the aspects of the genre theory and certain formulas that the viewer can recognize. They tend to see particular elements from the past that are re-worked and a variation from the original to the parody. What if someone had no knowledge of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film "Psycho" and caught the satirical episode of "The Simpsons" that re-enacts the shower scene? These are the certain formulas and genre theories that lie within pastiche that the viewer must pick upon in order to understand the satire that is being conveyed. It is re-evaluating the past in light of the present, "critiquing the concept of the modern subject as the center and author of discourse."
ReplyDeleteThe onion news Network clip makes use of parody by mocking the articles before it in which we as a society are told who the most influential people are. Whether a particular list of some sort usually remains in the range of 100, The Onion stretches the article to "America's 299,000,000 Least Influential People." Particularly making fun of Americans and how worthless so many of us are. While a list such as "The Most 100 Influential People" goes into detail why each particular person is as influential as they are, the Onion states in its list how people such as Jim Stutts have done absolutely nothing beneficial to anyone or anything around them. The onion clip is the method of parody in which they have re-created something that has been done times before it, re-working it, and establishing a variation from the original to the parody.
Media has always been looked upon as a fact based database that delivers this information through TV and newspapers. When we watch the news such as FOX or CNN that delivers this information that is viewed as the truth told upon the society. The internet is also a good example of how this information spreads and is delivered to the world. In today’s world of postmodernism leaves confusion behind the true meaning of this term. Postmodernism has no boundaries and consists of today’s internet, TV, newspapers, art, and exc. Our society is based off of a strict lifestyle as we are only exposed to information that seems to be best suited to be delivered to our society. The Onion, which is a news parody, takes traditional news storied and flips them around to deliver the opposite result to the viewer. Not only do they take similar stories, but the Onion also delivers it seriously and in fashion as if you’re watching it on a news network.
ReplyDeleteThe way they deliver these stories is to make a parody of traditional news delivery. The Onion is a great example of how postmodernism today is viewed in today’s world. The news coverage consists of a phone call, interviews, and as well as a picture of the man and his family as he is rated in the top 10 of the least influential people in Time Magazine. They cover one of his workers supervisor, only saying “He works here”, then goes off to Editor of the magazine that goes over a controversy of the list. In all seriousness of this story coverage it is delivered sarcastically, but all in a serious tone. This video of the least 299 million influential people is a good comparison to the article “Postmodernism, Indie Media and Popular Culture”, which the video makes a great use of parody and irony throughout the clip.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Sturcken and Cartwright chapter on "Postmodernism, Indie Media and Popular Culture," the thing that stuck with me the most was the word 'pastiche.' The term came up several times during the reading and can be related to what a lot of postmodernism is: artistic imitations of previous work and its style or genre. Although not all postmodernism is related to pastiche, C&W do describe postmodern as being "characterized by a kind of fatigue with the new and the sense that everything has been done before." However, not everything is like the Onion clip which directly parodies a style. Some use of pastiche can be done as an homage, as a comedic recreation (i.e., The Simpsons) or faux replicas such as the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas.
ReplyDeleteIn The Onion clip, it is a direct parody of news stories and articles that rank "The Most Influential People in the World." Satirical news stories are generally always supposed to be ironic and humorous, but since they rely so much on deadpan they can often be mistaken for real stories. By the clip poking fun at these lists, though, they are basically trying to say "who cares?" Fake news such as The Daily Show or The Colbert Report are comedic parodies of the "propaganda" of news shows that are either liberal or conservative based. Although their main goal is to take real headlines and mock them for purposes of entertainment, there is a certain of truth to them. In relation to the postmodern, this clip is an imitation of supposed real news shows and networks. It is a parody of the genre of news reporting and it exploits their conventions, but at the same time revels in their possibilities. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have somewhat of a voice in the media, sometimes being claimed as the only two sources of news for young adults. News reporting and pointless articles are usually so depressing or fake, this clip recreates the headlines with a more comical and amusing spin. To me, "real news" is fake news and I guess that is where postmodernism comes into play. Perhaps clips such as this from The Onion have completely reworked the way people hear or see the news.
Postmodernism at its core is an imitation of something else. This onion news video is a parody of the countless lists of “Most Influential People” we see every year. It is trying to point out how pointless these lists are and how really un influential these lists are. Postmodernism relies much more on addressing the audience. Not always by breaking the fourth wall. As was seen in the Simpson’s clip from “Homer Loves Flanders”. Lisa tells Bart about how it always seems like they get into a crazy situation every week but it returns to normal by the time the next week comes. This addresses the show’s weekly format and although they’re not addressing the audience they are acknowledging them.
ReplyDeleteThe above clip makes use of Irony because no one really would care about the most un influential people. How it’s ironic is because most people do not really care about the most influential people either. Most cannot recall who was on the list the previous year. But we watch it anyways. So they created a similar situation only in a much more entertaining matter. Postmodernism likes to try and sneak satire into entertainment and is often based entirely on satire. The Daily Show is a similar format to the onion news video. Although the Onion is a completely fake piece where as The Daily Show is making fun of current news topics they both serve a purpose to critique our modern society. whether it’s political or societal. I like to think of this video as something that uses lies to tell the truth. Which is why it works on many different levels.
Nick Aldrich
TA - Heather
I really liked this clip. It does a great job of making fun of Time magazine and the most influential people in our society. In this clip, we see that the list switches to the least influential people in our society. This parody is clever in mocking the actual lists of people that are influential, because we do not need to be told who is influential. The piece is funny because it is being broadcasted like an actual news report, but giving pointless information, which most news that is reported is anyway. The viewer can tell that this clip is giving off this feeling of how pointless some lists and some news reports actually are. The Onion does a great job of showing postmodernism today and how it’s viewed in our society. This clip is extremely ironic and does a good job of having a serious tone throughout.
ReplyDeleteMike Anderson
TA Heather
This Onion News clip assumes that everyone viewing it has seen CNN or any of the other news channels, which is a pretty safe assumption to make. They make a parody of many different levels of the newscast. They take typical types of mannerisms and vocal inflections used by newscasters, the ticker at the bottom which constantly gives us snippets of news, or in this case, joke news, and the type of non-stories that are told, and parody them all. It also safely assumes that everyone is familiar with the Time Magazine “Most Influential” or “Most Beautiful”-types of stories that we often see.
ReplyDeleteIrony is used often, and in this case, it is seen when the newscaster says “the dark-skinned boy,” because it is something that you would never hear on the news these days. If you did, it would be a blooper. It is something that at one time could have been thought of as an acceptable thing to say, but is now completely inappropriate, so it is humorous for them to have him say something unexpected.
As the reading of Sturken and Cartwright said, postmodernism assumes that we will understand the different references, most obviously in this Onion clip being cable news stations and Time magazine. These days, we are bombarded with images, even on the news, as we see parodied here. At some point early in the 2000s, all of the news channels started having the ticker at the bottom, so people could constantly see different news stories and not have to be bored with the one they are talking about. This clip does that, which on the surface is a parody, but at the same time they are bombarding us with jokes. If you get bored with the drawn out joke in the main story, you can get quick, short jokes at the bottom to read. It is working in the same way as the news channel, but bombarding us with different types of information. The reading talked about having different levels of reference, so people could understand on at least some levels, even if they didn’t catch everything.