NewsThump
 | |
Type of site | Satire |
|---|---|
| URL | newsthump.com |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Launched | 2009 |
| Current status | Active |
NewsThump is a left wing British news satire website that publishes spoof articles about current events. It is similar to other British news satire sites such as The Daily Mash.[1]
History
[edit]The site was started in 2009 by Richard Smith, a comedy writer. It had grown to receive around 100,000 hits a day by 2011-12.[2] In a 2016 Reddit AMA,[clarification needed] Smith said that the site was receiving 2 million views per month.[3]
Asked about how writing satire had changed online since he began NewsThump in 2009, Smith told The Big Issue that, "Ten years ago, something would happen in the news and we would spend a few hours going through it, knock around a few ideas and maybe publish something on the website. Now if something happens and someone thinks of a good joke, it is a race to get it online."[4] In 2017, he said, "People perceive satire to be quite cynical, but people go onto our sites to be entertained."[5]
Content
[edit]The site's articles are presented as genuine news stories, with frequent use of fake quotes, which editor Richard Smith has suggested are intended to mimic the BBC News website.[2] In 2016, he was quoted as saying that "if someone shares one of our stories believing it to be true, then we would see that as both amusing, but also a failure on our part" but claimed that he was not worried by a clamp-down on "fake news" by social media companies.[6] In 2017, however, he complained that their articles had been hit by Facebook's implementation of a "fake news" filter.[7]
NewsThump content has sometimes been mistaken for real news. In 2015, the right-wing British National Party mistakenly believed a NewsThump article claiming Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn had implemented a "hug a jihadi" policy within his party was factual.[8] A spoof story about British Prime Minister Theresa May cancelling a general election was mistaken for real news and debunked by Snopes[9] as was a story on NewsThump that a BBC weather presenter had described the weather as "Cold as F*ck".[10]
In 2017, the site provided financial support for the charity Reading Family Aid, who had to cancel a Christmas Toys and Teens appeal for local children after a lack of funds.[5]
In a paper for the 2018 Internet, Policy & Politics Conference, Chamil Rathnayake of the University of Strathclyde characterised NewsThump and its peers as "a distinct layer of post-truth new media".[11]
NewsThump has frequently been accused of a left wing bias by critics, despite its authors claiming that its satire targets people from all sides of the political spectrum.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Smith, Jodie (27 February 2016). "The fake stories hitting the headlines". BBC News. Retrieved 18 November 2018.
- ^ a b "NewsThump – The Comedy Crowd". thecomedycrowd.com. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
- ^ "r/IAmA - I am Richard, Editor of NewsThump, the UK's second most popular Onion rip-off, ask me anything". reddit. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
- ^ "In a world of fake news, what happens to satire?". The Big Issue. 23 November 2018. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ a b "Reading Family Aid's annual Toys and Teens Appeal has been boosted by a donation from a satirical website". Reading Chronicle. 10 December 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ Could satire get caught in the crossfire of the fake news wars? Esther Kezia Thorpe, medium.com, 25 November 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ "NewsThump's Richard Smith on how satirical humour sites are being hit by 'fake news' filters - Media Voices Podcast". Media Voices Podcast. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
- ^ "The BNP (Remember Them?) Has Fallen For A Fake News Article". HuffPost UK. 21 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
- ^ "FACT CHECK: Did Theresa May Cancel the Next General Election Because She Doesn't Think She'll Win?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ No Sanction for BBC’s Carol Kirkwood Over ‘Cold as F*ck’ Weather Forecast. Dan Evon, snopes.com, 22 January 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2019.
- ^ "Conceptualizing Satirical Fakes as a New Media Genre: An Attempt to Legitimize ‘Post-Truth Journalism", Chamil Rathnayake, University of Strathclyde, 2018. p. 2.