Throughout history, political satire has found itself at odds with mainstream news media. However, the tension built between the two proves less a matter of attacks ad hominem and more a series of critiques on how each mode, structurally, conveys information to their viewers. Whereas comedy shows (and their hosts) are rather transparent in their political and moral leanings, news sources have embedded information in a more subtle manner, a phenomena best encapsulated by Stuart Hall’s concept of “Encoding” and “Decoding.”
Hall posits that producers and consumers of mass communication can interpret a media event differently based on, among other things, the frameworks of knowledge present at both ends. For instance, cultural context or specialized knowledge, whether added or lacking, greatly affects the message transmitted from the media object at hand. As a result, different “meaning structures,” or understandings and takeaways from a media object, are created by both producer and consumer, whether intended or unintended.
But when meaning structures are curated by media outlets to specifically transmit a message or idea, as often ridiculed by political satirists, the process of making the news becomes less a mere subtlety and more an insidious act.
Let’s take Patriot Act‘s commentary on news coverage of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS).
Patriot Act, like other political satire shows, uses clips from news outlets to situate the viewer within the story at hand. However, in the Saudi Arabia episode, media outlets themselves became the story due to their apparent lack of integrity while reporting on MBS.
While the episode was written in the wake of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, host Hasan Minhaj was quick to point out instances where the media has idolized MBS. For example, Minhaj poked fun at how numerous outlets praised MBS for lifting the ban on women driving, noting how it contradicted the “progressive-minded, benevolent” image that had been cast upon the Crown Prince. In addition, Minhaj presented the coverage of MBS’s “Charm Offensive” with American business moguls on “respected” business-oriented TV networks such as Fox Business and CNBC as an example of how appropriate context and knowledge can impact one’s understanding (and the resulting ramifications) of news events.
While Patriot Act and Fox Business may serve a different clientele, the former gained a more holistic understanding of MBS by including context regarding the Crown Prince’s power grab and Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen. To cite Giltrow, news media, as with all forms of media, “remembers” and “forgets” certain aspects of a story to promote a certain angle (41). However, by skewing with the viewer’s frame of knowledge, news outlets convey conflicting views of the same individual, whether for financial gain or agenda-setting purposes.
(Expanded post available here.)