Satire and dissent. A theoretical overview

In an age when Jon Stewart tops lists of most-trusted newscasters and Michael Moore
becomes a focus of political campaign analysis, the satiric register has attained renewed
and urgent prominence in political discourse. Day focuses on three central contemporary
forms: the parodic news show, the satiric documentary, and ironic activism.
She highlights their shared objective of circumventing the standard conduits of political
information and the highly stage-managed nature of current political discourse. In
so doing, she argues, they provide fans with a sense of community and purpose notably
lacking from organized politics in the twenty-first century.

TV info-satire and its effects

Info-satire is a satirical genre which uses the parody of news media
and other elements of popular culture to describe the social and political reality of
a country. Taking a new institutional perspective this article examines the media effects
of info-satirical television programs on the opinions, political knowledge and
attitudes of the audience. In particular, the purpose of this study is to clarify if infosatirical
television programs lead the aware public to deepened political knowledge
and consciousness or to broader cynicism and disaffection. This paper uses empirical research on the American Late Night Shows and on the Spanish El Guiñol and Polònia
for its analysis.

Satire, politics and television in Italy

The relationship between satire and television in Italy was initially characterized
by a strict control exercised by means of censorship, from politically appointed
top management. The Seventies were marked by good-natured political satire, based
on the imitation of formal and aesthetic traits of the politicians, best represented by
Alighiero Noschese. The Eighties, in keeping with the logic of commercial and neo television
and with the progressive crisis of the political system, witnessed a more biting
and corrosive political satire that conquered new spaces and programs. Today, political
satire is present in the information programs and the politicians themselves are actively
involved in its staging. These profound transformation of its original nature, places
political satire at the center of popularization of the politics.

Political satire in the internet age

This essay explores the new forms of online satire, trying to answer to the
following questions: how political satire changes in the internet age? What kind of
functional consequences technological changes produce on traditional relationships
between satire and power? How they impact on production and consumption practises?
How on producing of media contents? Our study belongs within the larger framework
of web sphere analysis, conducted on a sample of 180 political satire videos spread on
Facebook and YouTube during 2011. Monitoring observation, conducted thorough virtual
ethnography methods, considers a two main dimensions of analysis: the relations
between satire and both political power and media. Results show as technological innovations
and connected cultural changes redefine original function of political satire,
author’s role and ways of producing, sharing and consuming satiric contents.
Keywords: satire,

The Emperor has no clothes. Petty politics and the worries of satire

The satire is not the only form of laughter, but that specific kind of laughter
arising from the unexpected downsizing of those who are considered to have more
power than us. To be target of the satire, something has to have power and prestige.
The troubles of contemporary political satire are linked to a process that has rendered
the politics too weak and discredited to be worthy of satire. Appropriate object of satire
can be someone or something that is still endowed with prestige and power, on the one
hand, or our illusions about ourselves, on the other.

Hobbes’ Leviathan between satire and humour

Should Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan be read as a satire against monarchic
absolutism? This is the question raised by Jesse Braun in a recent e-book. His answer
is a firm refusal, that asks us to remember Hobbes’ seriousness. However, a reconstruction
of Leviathan theological-political sections, ignored by Braun, allows to identify
some satirical elements in Hobbes, as well as to understand the real adversaries of his
polemic. Maybe, to remember Hobbes’ humour, together with his seriousness, is still
today a necessary interpretative move in order to understand the true meaning of his
masterpiece.

Political satire in Russia

Political satire in Russia has always had a hard life: first opposed by the
tsarist power, then by the Soviet totalitarianism, finds relief only during the first Yeltsin
presidential term, before tasting again the sharp blade of censorship with the arise of
Putin and Medvedev. The enemies of satire have always been at the center of the power
in Russia: they have just changed their methods, although the willing to mutilate the
freedom of speech and expression in the Country has remained the same. Indeed, if
czarist power was used to arrests and seizures, current censorship works behind the scenes, affecting in an indirect, tough fatal strike, to the media and public opinion
power.

«The elephant in the room»

In an attempt to map down the dynamics between Chinese political cartoons
and institutional power, this short introduction discusses the Chinese artists who
were active during the Chinese civil war, the war of resistance against Japan and the
cultural revolution. Since their first appearance in Shanghai’s newspapers at the beginning
of last century, Chinese political cartoons became increasingly popular, playing an
important role in some of the most tragic moments of Chinese history. China today is
experiencing new and totally different historical and economical phase. Old fashioned
propaganda tools still maintain their formal importance but are being gradually traded
for more subtle and yet more effective means of persuasion.