User:Aliciaskrinjar/The Onion and Satirical Newspapers in today's Media Industry

Satirical news sources have become a staple in today’s media. From Saturday Night Live to the Daily Show, media personalities have been taking stabs at real life events in attempts to bring humor to what is usually dull subject matter. Newspaper corporations are starting to follow the lead of these shows by creating entire newspapers dedicated to the delivery of satirical news to the public. They attempt to captivate the audience by taking real life situations and news stories and putting an ironic or humorous spin on them. The typical newspaper readership is generally older, working class citizens. By creating a satirical newspaper, media companies are able to attract a younger and a much more critical demographic. This younger demographic is the future. By catering to younger audiences with satirical newspapers, corporations hope to be able to attract these same young readers to their main daily. In Toronto, TorStar (the Toronto Star's holding company) has signed an agreement with the American newspaper, The Onion, in an attempt to attract this demographic. Newspaper corporations should own satirical newspapers as an alternate media holding. Although there may be some ethical issues due to the reliability of the source and material found within, newspapers such as The Onion attract a new audience to the fledgling print medium. This can help newspapers that chiefly attract the middle-aged working class, attract a younger and more influential audience

History of The Onion

In 1988, two men by the names of Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson founded a satirical newspaper called 'The Onion' at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where both attended. The following year, they sold it to Editor-in-Chief Scott Dikkers and Advertising and Sales Manager Peter Haise. The Onion first became popular in major university cities. By 1996, the creation of The Onion website allowed for more national attention to the newspaper. The tagline for the newspaper is “America’s Finest News Source”. The Onion reports on real life events with satirical twists to add humor to the otherwise would be seen as boring content. The printed newspaper and the website report on international, national and local news. The Onion has also created a non-satirical portion to their website called The A.V. Club. The A.V. Club has its own domain, separate from The Onion website. It reports on interviews and reviews of various forms of newly released media. In the print edition, it contains restaurant reviews and previews of upcoming live shows that are specific to the area it is being printed and distributed in.

Distribution

In October of 2010, The Onion entered into a business partnership with large media organizations across the US. These four were: The Denver Post, the Austin American-Statesman, the St.Paul Pioneer Press, and the Wisconsin State Journal. Under the terms and agreements, The Onion maintains complete control while the four partnering media companies take care of the business management and responsibilities for the newspaper’s local distribution The Onion is distributed free in Madison, Milwaukee, New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver/Boulder, Austin, Omaha, Santa-Fe, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Columbus.

Torstar and The Onion

In 2011, the printed version of The Onion ventured across the border for the first time. John Cruickshank, president and publisher of the Toronto Star and president of Star Media Group said that the addition of The Onion to the Torstar family is the latest effort in attracting a younger audience. He says that,

"The Onion typically reaches a very good demographic of smart young people, university age or older who are in household formation age, or slightly before that and are making decisions about relationships they are going to have with important brands. It creates a new opportunity for advertisers. We are very confident in our penetration and long-term popularity with the older, more mature market. We want to make sure we are complementing those readers with a younger readership."

Torstar is the fist Canadian company to adopt The Onion’s brand. The Star manages the advertising and distribution, while Toronto-specific content is added into the addition. Most of the Toronto content added will mainly be focuses around comedy, music and upcoming Toronto events.

Gone Too Far

Ethics play an important role when dealing with tough, hard-hitting issues. Satirical news sources, such as The Onion, take the day’s news stories and add a humorous twist to them. The stories are layered with sarcasm and irony, and many feel as though some of the issues should not be mocked in that way. According to ABC news, the satirical newspaper falsely reported and tweeted about a hostage in the Capital Building. At 10:44am, the newspaper tweeted the following: “BREAKING: Capitol building being evacuated. 12 children held hostage by group of armed congressmen. #CongressHostage.” Many people were in upheaval about the report and demanded that the newspaper did not report on such a sensitive issue. On the newspaper's website, they posted a picture of a man holding a semi automatic to a young child's head. Many readers tweeted the newspaper back, calling their story not humorous and the picture tasteless. The Capitol Police had to look further into the accusations, but were recently dropped.

Satirical newspapers are meant to be taken lightly. Although some stories may be believable, readers must keep in mind that a great deal of the news stories they are reading are not entirely accurate. It is easy to say that The Onion took this joke too far. Anything that deals with children should not be taken lightly, especially if it has to do with national security. Many of the congressmen’s jobs were on the line, and many parents thought that their child or children’s lives were in danger. This story became an issue of national security since the United States government and the Capitol police did not know whether or not this story was true. If this story had been true, it could have led to a major national crisis, where jobs would have been lost and many questions would have been raised in regards to national and government security.

Are Satirical Newspapers Good for Society?

Although satirical news sources may not be the most reliable method of obtaining news, the stories and information within them stem from true events the majority of the time. Most young people are educated enough to be able to formulate a general understanding of the event, even though the story may be riddled with satire, irony, and tongue in-cheek humor, in the end, it may help them better understand the situation. A poll was taken by the Pew Research Centre for the People in the Press in 2004 about the people’s primary source of news. Coming in at the top, the majority of people researched (47%) said they got their daily news from The Daily Show, while the least amount of people (33%) said they got their news from the Nightly Network News. Researchers came to the conclusion that those who rely on non-traditional sources of information are certainly no less informed than those who rely on traditional news sources. Dannagal Young and Russell Tisiginer took a close look at the study in 2006 and came to the conclusion that:

... individuals use diverse forms of content to create political understanding, regardless whether the content is on NBC Nightly News or a late-night comedy program. And while some news producers may be uncomfortable with the notion that shows like The Daily Show might play an important role, perhaps their growing relevance speaks to a larger trend in the information environment (Young and Tisinger, 2006)

Although these events have been twisted for satirical purposes and audience enjoyment, there remains underlying truth to these stories. In order for these newspapers and other forms of media to satirize daily events, they have to understand the real situation first. Frank Rich, a New York Times columnist quoted Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News saying,

“There are a lot of people that don’t think there’s a hell of a lot of difference these days between news and comedy.”

He replied to this quote by saying,

“That’s not entirely factitious. Young viewers who ditch their parents news source often do get their news from Jon Stewart’s ‘The Daily Show’ and other comic venues that not infrequently have more insight and command of the facts than, say, the Ken and Barbie dolls lately recruited as news ‘personalities’ to stem the hemorrhaging at CNN.”

Without a thorough understanding of the situation, they would not be able to mock the events with have a successful, humourous outcome. Their goal is to create a parody of the event in order to appeal to a target demographic. These satirical news sources mainly appeal to a younger demographic. They are educated enough to know what is going within our world, and to form an educated understanding of the event. They are able to appreciate the humour that The Onion and other satirical news sources are trying to provide.

Satirical journalism crosses many ethical boundaries. These journalists embellish the truth and add insights or opinions that would not be considered valid in order to sell more copies of their newspaper or to attract a larger audience to their television show. Journalism is an industry, with the goal being to inform the general public. Their job is to deliver the news to their audience in the best way they can, whether the news consists of real events, or fabricated or embellished stories. There are two sides to journalism. First, journalism is an industry, a major player in the profit-seeking market, and journalists are workers within that industry, driven by the need to make a living. Secondly, journalism is a profession, founded on ethical principals, which direct and regulate the conduct of the practitioner. Journalists strive to deliver a story that will be captivating to audiences. Some outlets, such as The Onion have been able to find their niche in promoting satirical news stories. They deliver what their target audience is looking for as well as an alternate and comical viewpoint.

Is The Onion considered an Alternative Media Source?

Although Torstar and other major news corporations within the United States distribute The Onion, The Onion is still considered an alternative media source because it offers an alternative viewpoint. Alternative media sources operate under a different set of news values than that of the dominant and corporate media, and they provide ways of seeing and understanding events that are marginalized or are not available there. The Onion provides a satirical viewpoint of the news. Their goal is to provide their audience with current events and a satirical spin, rather than a viewpoint from the left of right. Since The Onion is a small news source, it needs a larger corporation to move and distribute the paper. Torstar and other major news corporations are in charge of the advertising and distribution, while The Onion has full control over the content. The only content the supervising corporations have control over is the content specifically linked to the city that the paper is being published in. This city specific content deals with upcoming events, comedy and musical acts occurring in the city. Never will you find city specific daily news within the paper. Daily news in this sense refers to current events or stories with heavier subject matter. The Onion helps animate autonomous or alternative “public spheres” – that is, communities in which traditions, ideas and values that differ from the dominant culture might develop and flourish. It opens up a different viewpoint than that of a standard newspaper.

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, and activist. He is known as the “father of modern linguistics” and has delivered renowned viewpoints on mass media. He has also written many books and articles that criticized mainstream media. Chomsky believes that mass media is a tool for propaganda. He believes in order to make money, major media outlets have to sell their audience to advertisers; the more privileged the audience, the better the advertising rates and the more money these companies will make. The Onion is directed at the young and educated, therefore it is a good way to advertise and sell to the privileged and cultured crowd. The main reason Torstar distributes The Onion is for advertising purposes and to attract a younger audience to the newspaper. If Torstar was not distributing The Onion, this younger demographic most likely would not be reading the Toronto Star. The Onion involves satirizing news events directly for The Daily Show generation. Chomsky would view these major news corporations, such as TorStar, as using these satirical newspapers and other satirical news outlets to draw a new generation of readers to their main daily.

Noam Chomsky views mass entertainment in mass media as a way of diverting people’s attention from important issues because he thinks that people who put the content in the media chose it for their own personal agendas. TorStar only has the advertising and distribution rights to The Onion in Toronto. They have no say on whether or not certain content should be placed in the newspaper. The Onion provides its readers with satirical news stories that question moral and ethical boundaries. TorStar does not have the ability to tell The Onion not to publish certain stories. The Onion has the ability to guide the reader’s attention to stories that would otherwise be diverted by major daily newspapers. Noam Chomsky says that, “It would hardly come as a surprise if the picture of the world they present were to reflect the perspectives and interests of the sellers, the buyers and the product.” News companies publish their version of the story that would be most beneficial to them, and ignoring all of the facts that could hurt their media empire. In this case, the major news corporation, such as TorStar, cannot tell The Onion what they can and cannot publish. It is up to the journalists of The Onion to make that decision and know that these corporations will still advertise and distribute their product.

Chomsky believes that the reader should be able to think and criticize for him or herself, and not rely on the critiques made by others. Major daily newspapers usually offer a biased opinion, one either coming from the left or one from the right. Their critique does not allow readers to formulate their own opinion. Since the news is satirized, The Onion’s articles allow readers to come to their own conclusions about the subject matter at hand. They are able to make an educated opinion and decipher between what is real and what is fake. There is a limited amount of political opinion involved within the articles, which allow readers to come to their own conclusions.

In dealing with The Onion and the subject matter it presents to its readers, The Onion and other satirical news sources should not be looked upon in a Chomskian fashion. Chomsky’s main points and beliefs of the media are based upon large, power hungry corporations. The Onion is a small newspaper that is published once a week. Although it can be reached by anyone online, the printed version only impacts the readers of the cities it is published in. Their goal is to not guide readers into a certain direction or belief, but to provide a satirical twist on the daily news. The Onion is for entertainment purposes only, not to provide the truth in every scenario. Although Chomsky’s ideas do apply to mass media as a whole, it should not apply to satirical news sources, such as The Onion.

Should Satirical Newspapers be adopted as a Daily?

There is an ongoing debate as whether or not satirical newspapers should be brought on as dailies. Satirical newspapers should not be published as dailies. Although it is an effective way of delivering an alternative viewpoint in the news, not all stories should be satirized. Readers should be able to read about specific stories that pertain to their city, instead of reading a satirized article that may or may not affect them. Daily newspapers provide them with the news that affects their community specifically, whereas The Onion deals with a lot of American based content. Canadians should be able to open up a newspaper to find out what is happening in Canada, and not what is happening in the United States. With satirical news, the line between the fake and the real is extremely blurred. Readers have to understand the fine line between real and fake, and this might take away from the enjoyment of reading a daily newspaper. Although a satirical newspaper may help in the understanding of news stories, it does not always provide the facts. Especially in this day in age when information comes at you from all angles, readers have to be careful in believing what they read in a satirical newspaper. Because of the surge in the growth of technology and new media, information is very accessible. Readers have to be cautious of the source they are reading the news from and whether this source is reliable. Satirical newspapers and other satirical news sources should be accessible to readers and viewers, but it would not work as an effective daily in today’s society.