From Sara’s points, it is clear that media institutions draw a heavy line between fake news and real news. Through my reading, Berkowitz et al. (2016) demonstrate the relocation of mainstream journalism to professional mannerisms through the works of ‘The Fifth Estate,’ bloggers and communists who confront fake news organizations. This is where I will be discussing the concept of political satire by traditional journalist media institutions.
Firstly, what is political satire? It is the method to achieve entertainment through political speech that enforces forbidden arguments. An example of this is shown within celebrities, as Berkowitz et al. (2016) reveal that popular media platforms such as ‘The Onion’ “create fake-news stories based on real events while also providing serious content on cultural issues.” Most traditional news institutions believe this misleads the concept of real news commonly demonstrated in mocking celebrities, such as Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance. In doing this, constructs the ideology of what is considered worldly news that fails to inform the public of serious issues. Berkowitz et al. (2016) also state that ‘The Onion’s’ production is an “effort to increase web traffic and boost advertising income.” In saying this, not only does ‘The Onion’ shine an unnecessary light upon this performance story, but it was also listed as one of the top 10 most important global news. As a result, achieved professional media backlash. Secondly, Berkowitz et al. (2016) show that these ‘fake news’ organizations establish ‘hyper-realism.’ The concept of hyper-realism is the purposeful act of generating entertaining content on political scandals and careers for the social goal of critiquing. Berkowitz et al. (2016) find that these fake news organizations set a “journalistic tone to mimic traditional broadcast journalism.” This is where professional media organizations become watchful, to publicly distinguish fake news and real news to avoid the consequence of ‘parody and satire.’
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Now, this is where professional boundaries come in. Berkowitz et al. (2016) state that these boundaries are created by traditional journalists who decide on the expectations of ‘ethical, professional and ideological’ barriers to avoid public satire upon world news. However, as their societal understandings change over time, so do their boundaries. This professionalist action is therefore implemented through ‘The Fifth Estate’ institution, as Berkowitz et al. (2016) state that their goals are to ‘engage in boundary work attempting to bring journalists back to the practices of their professional realm.’ This is why these fake news organizations are believed to be a main issue at this time.
Moreover, it is believed that journalism should support human action to positively inform the world instead of conducting propaganda for social entertainment. Although, other forms combine political satire and serious issues, that some Journalists agree with. It is believed that it does engage audiences to be politically active for either the right or wrong reasons. In the observer article in 2018, John Bonazzo states that surrounding John Oliver’s ‘daily talk show,’ “audiences pay attention to these types of issues.” This is because Jonathan Gray, a media professor states that “expectations get piled up… because a lot of people have lost faith in journalism… that they’ve moved their expectations … for journalists over to satirists.”
In conclusion, although some media institutions are negatively enforcing satire upon careers and politics to an extent, other media institutions ultimately demand the reflection of professionalism to refocus the importance of world news representatives.
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