The Onion is a
news satire organization. Though it was once strictly a satire newspaper, it
now has a large website that features satire as well as the A.V Club which is about entertainment.
Recently, The Onion’s article “Kim
Jong-Ung Named The Onion’s Sexiest
Man Alive For 2012” was accidently reported by the Chinese News paper People’s Daily. This is not the first
time The Onion’s satire has been
taken for actual reporting. Earlier this year, sports journalist Stephen A.
Smith mistook the article “Stephen A. Smith Thinking Son Is Ready for the Sex
Argument” as non-satirical reporting.
While the above examples may seem outlandish, it is
undeniable that actual and satirical writing- or in general creation- can often
walk a grey line between what seems legitimate and what is outlandish. This
said it is very likely that the majority of The
Onion’s readers understand fully that they are watching or reading parody.
Therefore, it seems that The Onion must
make it a primary goal of partially concealing the parody- which might be done
by adding an element of truth into its creation. Acknowledging this fact, The Onion often uses popular newspaper
and media devices or creations to buttress a “legitimate feel” in both its visual
media use, as well as its writing. An example of this is the section “American
Voices” which is reminiscent of non-satirical reporters asking questions to
people in a community.
In thinking about writing, The Onion uses some recognizable and even cliché forms of the
newspaper and mass media in order to play into a myth that it also exists
inside the “real” of America’s mass media. Though they may be found in many
articles, the recently published article “42 Million Dead in the Bloodiest
Black Friday Ever” uses some interesting rhetorical devices, which buttress’s an
unspoken goal of this organization to conceal the fiction, and make what
appears to be a true and legitimate form of mass information.
In the first paragraph of this particular article we read “According
to emergency personnel, early estimates indicate that more than 42 million
Americans were killed this past weekend in what is now believed to be the
bloodiest Black Friday shopping event in history”. This statement plays
into numerous cultural allusions which are reminiscent of horrible events that
we associate with “Black Monday” (Including riots, economic collapses, and assassinations
to name a view). Black Friday, for many Americans, besides being a time for
shopping, also might conjure up memories of the yearly reports of aggression
and violence which are, sometimes, over reported. The Onion is able to use this existing cultural idea and exploit
it, as a half truth, half fictional hyperbole with unspoken criticisms of
materialism.
This article also uses a sort of artistic journalistic style,
which is a technique used to put some emotion and color, what might be called
pathos, into dull and objective “story telling”. A very good example of this is “the
bloodbath only escalated throughout the weekend as hordes of savage holiday
shoppers began murdering customers at Wal-Mart, Sears, and JCPenney locations
nationwide, leaving piles of dismembered and mutilated corpses in their wake”.
These words, especially blood bath, dismembered, and hordes are some of the
most loaded- or gruesome words that might be chosen. Here scesis onomaton is
used to a ridiculous degree; however it stays faithful to what I identify as a
common mass media device of artistic journalism. Furthermore, the writer(s) of
this article use alliteration such as “hordes of savage holiday shopper”, which
creates not only a nice sounding jingle and promotes ease in reading, but (in
my opinion) creates a sentence that could be a mass head that is memorial. Such
a technique is similar to how the phrase “Cold War” is not only well known, but
began to develop very intricate and powerful meanings over time.
Furthermore, this article uses scope as a way to juxtapose
ideas with very humorous results. One passage is “As the weekend of sales drew
to a close, ambulances could be seen circling the now empty and completely
ravaged shopping complexes”. In this sentence the use of a broad scope (prior
to the comma) stands in very odd relation to the second half of the sentence.
Here the writer uses meiosis where the first part of the sentence gives sort of
a general statement, while the second half is almost downplayed by its sentential
position. It seems that the writer directs our attention toward the fact that
the shopping week closed and, as an afterthought, mentioned the results of a
tragedy. It might be argued that the first and second parts of this particular
sentence actually are written in a way to suggest a tautology, that is,
shopping is commonly thought as a thing that sparks mass disaster.
Another sort of journalistic standard is including witness
accounts of events. We read in this article “The level of bloodshed this year
was almost beyond imagination—no prior Black Friday could have prepared us for
this, said National Guard commander Frank Grass”. This “witness account”
underscores that cultural idea that Black Friday’s are a time of disorder and
violence, but what this passage does to the article is shows us that there is
the idea- an idea held for a person of high standing- that this chaos really is
what Black Friday is all about. Not only does this serve to direct readers
toward the half truth and half jest idea of an article, but such a confirmation
of an idea is a sort of jest of “mass media” which, according to some,
reinforces cultural norms. One might search into the fiction founder of The Onion T. Herman Zeibelt’s
editorials, in which he tells the reader’s that his newspaper is only for selling ads, making money and keeping
people ignorant.
Very
often when I read or watch a video clip created by The Onion I find myself actually not knowing what real world event
they are referring to. For example, the article “Romney Locks Himself in the Oval
Office” lead me to fact that our president invited Mr. Romney to the White
House. In this way, I actually learn that something happened or something is
occurring, which I would not otherwise know. While someone might tell me that
this knowledge is inconsequential, I could respond that, even thought the
particulars are fictional, all news
reporting is an attempt to make meaning out of an event that (the writer) most
likely had little involvement or understanding of (at least prior to the
article). Therefore, The Onion not
only makes us aware of what I call “event knowledge” but also tries to make
sense out of the event. And while the actual and particular event knowledge might
be purposefully misconstrued, what the writer creates and what a reader
receives, I think, is a starting point for very engaged thinking.
On
the other side, it might be said that The
Onion, and other forms of commentary (which are not limited to satire) can
destroys values, traditions, or what might be simply called good. Even for a
reader who understands what satire is, it does seem very probable that this,
and other articles, actually might influence their convictions in “bad ways”
i.e. this article promotes the idea that many people are materialistic psychos.
This influence might be unconscious. This influence is something that media
understands quite well, and in a way what I have identified as journalistic
techniques (personal testimonies, masthead lines, the use of in sentence
emphasis to recall a few) are likely popular because they are found to be things which people remember, find
amusing or like. For best or worse, The
Onion like its vegetable form has (as Shrek once pointed out) many layers.
Lastly,
I think it would be very interesting to know if the creator’s of The Onion’s articles and clips have a
central goal when they write. The New
York Time actually lets its viewers have access to their goals, procedures,
scopes (and other consideration), and post their core purpose as “enhanc(ing)
society by creating collecting and distributing high-quality news, information
and entertainment”. What, I wonder, and if it exists, is The Onions? Destruction of society? Promotion of a unique way of
thinking? Money and Power?
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