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Yet maybe comedic film can also poke fun at those in power and maybe even influence the world? Does it have any efficacy in the political realm?

4 types of comedic Approaches:

1) Parody

2) Satire

3) Irony (including postmodern)

4) Comedic tactics

(Perhaps there is a better term?)

(1) Parody: A type of satire that strictly involves mimicry.

A) Meant to mock, not necessarily focused on change in society.

Examples: SNL- http://www.rollingstone.com/tv/lists/20-most-savage-snl-political-impersonations-w465555/joe-biden-jason-sudeikis-w465611?utm_source=huffpo&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=feb2017

2) Satire: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Can involve mockery, mimicry, and ridicule.

A) Often tries to change society or politics.

B) Laughter is a weapon, not end goal

C) Efficacy depends on audience recognizing irony

Example of C not being true--Johnathan Swift--Irish babies?

Sometimes it does: Stewart on Crossfire--target news media--abandons cynical satiric stance. Why?

Q: How did Stewart get this platform?

Satire and irony...Colbert on The Late Show

Example: Turkey--Freedom of the press, expression

According to HR Watch freedom of the press has been increasingly suppressed under Erdogan: "In the first six months of 2015, Turkish authorities were responsible for almost three quarters of requests to Twitter worldwide for removal of tweets and blocking of accounts. " https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2016/country-chapters/turkey

Egypt's "John Stewart": Bassem Youssef

Larry King Interview (start at 19:22)

Irony (broad): Definition from Websters Dictionary

1 : a pretense of ignorance and of willingness to learn from another assumed in order to make the other's false conceptions conspicuous by adroit questioning —called also Socratic irony.

2 a : the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning

b : a usually humorous or sardonic literary style or form characterized by irony

c : an ironic expression or utterance

3 a (1) : incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2) : an event or result marked by such incongruity

"It is like rainnnnny on your wedding day" Lisa Colletta to picky?

b : incongruity between a situation developed in a drama and the accompanying words or actions that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play —called also dramatic irony, tragic irony

Colbert at White House Correspondents Dinner 2006

Common man vs. elites

Postmodern Irony

Colletta: "denies a difference b/t what is real and what is appearance and even embraces incoherence and lack of meaning."

"It claims our interpretations of reality impose form and meaning on life: reality is constructed rather than perceived or understood, and it does not exist separately from its construction."

"A postmodern audience is made conscious of constructed nature of meaning and of it own participation in the appearance of things, which results in the self-referential irony that characterizes most of our cultural output today."

A) Self-referentiality B) cynical knowingness

Examples from TV?

But what for Colletta what is the problem with irony and especially postmodern irony?

Postmodern politics says that it does not matter who is in power--"choice is really b/t fakes." Ironic, sophisticated voter is encouraged to let the powerful rule or "appear gullible." (p. 858)

This logic leads to a cynical lack of engagement and stifling of real and meaningful debate (Rob Wilkie, quoted in Colletta (2009)).

Opinion is king and "fake" news is in the eye of the beholder. "Truthiness" rules. Audience decides its "facts."

But are these claims true?

Problem: A lack of action from satire.

But perhaps the intellectual endeavor is worth it?

For Colletta it is. From satire "we may be forced to see things in a new way and to acknowledge alternative possibilities. This, in turn, could make viewers more tolerant of those who approach things differently, and thus inspire them to action they have not yet considered" (p. 872).

4) Beyond the Intellectual Endeavor: Comedic Actions

The made up "Dole Army" tricked the Australian news media's critique of social insurance while exposing stereotypes of people who receive it.

Flashmobs.

Example: Workers and LGBT rights in San Francisco

Pussy Riot: Putin Loves You

Film about the band on Netflix (A Punk Prayer) : https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Pussy-Riot-A-Punk-Prayer/70268213

Michael Moore (2/24/17 Huffington Post): JOIN THE ARMY OF COMEDY: Trump’s Achilles heel is his massively thin skin. He can’t take mockery. So we all need to MOCK HIM UP! Not just the brilliant people at SNL or Colbert, Seth Myers or Samantha Bee ― but YOU. Use your sense of humor and share it with people. Get them to do the same.

More Satiric films: http://www.indiewire.com/2015/10/10-essential-political-satires-109566/

What is press freedom?

Definition: The ability to report on and criticize government and corporate actions without censorship, retribution, violence and other forms of repression.

Powerful institutions (government, military, corporations) have a vested interest in controlling and suppressing information.

What do you think are characteristics of a country's press that are required for effective freedom of this press?

Independent

(from gov’t, corporations, politics, economic actors)

Pluralistic

Control of materials essential for its production and dissemination (presses, Internet access, etc.)

No media monopolies

Greatest possible number of newspapers, magazines and periodicals reflecting the widest possible range of opinion within the community.

Derived from the Declaration of Windhoek, UNESCO, 1991 and author.

Furthermore, journalists must be free to practice their profession, in particular when investigating corruption, without facing pressures such as assault, harassment, arrest and imprisonment. (UNESCO 2007, p. 14).

Why should we care about freedom of the press/Internet?

Is freedom of the press a human right?

Yes! According to human rights law…

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts: “[e]veryone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Welcome to the Internet, Please Enjoy Your Stay

Freedom of the Press in the USA

“The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

Finley Peter Dunne, journalist The Chicago Evening Post, 1893

“Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

Thomas Jefferson, Third U.S. President, 1786

“There can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and to shame the devil.”

Walter Lippmann, American Newspaper Columnist

The press, often called the Fourth Estate, was seen by U.S. founders as an unofficial fourth branch of power to provide a check/watchdog on the government.

Religion,

Speech,

Press,

Assembly,

Petition government to redress grievances

Today the press is constitutionally protected against:

Imprisonment and execution of journalists

closure of press facilities,

censorship and restraint of publication,

economic and ethical pressures

BUT THESE ARE NOT ABSOLUTE…

Limits on protections to publish

Libel

Invasion of Privacy

Protection of Sources

Publication that incites unlawful behavior or violence

Some Important Precedent Setting Cases

Watergate...

Other limitations on the right to publish...

Libel is published inaccurate information about individuals that harms reputation.

Protection refers to Journalist freedom:

Public Officials: Most protection. New York Times vs. Sullivan: 1964. Alabama Commissioner.

Public Figures: Less Protection. Celebrities, (actors, sports figures, business leaders, musical artists) Curtis Publishing vs. (Wally) Butts, athletic director of University of Georgia 1966.

Private Citizens: Least Protection. Gertz Vs. Robert Welch (John Birch Society) 1974.

Laws Provide Tools to Protect freedom of the press...

Reporters Privilege: Protection under constitutional or statutory law, from being compelled to testify about confidential information or sources.

Often called “Shield Laws” these are not absolute protection and vary by state. A total of 39 of 50 states have shield laws and they apply in state courts only.

Yet there is no federal shield law to protect journalists in U.S. Federal courts

Freedom of Information laws

Both Federal and State. Created after Watergate Scandal.

Establish public and press access to government information, records and many types of meetings. Vary for each state. Federal law covers federal records.

Positively impacts economic development and good governance. Why for each???

Recent Attacks on Press Freedom in the USA

After Sept 11, 2001, Federal and many state governments restricted information based on national security concerns.

Privacy laws have been expanded to restrict press access to some government information.

Federal and some state FOI (Freedom of Information) laws under constant assault.

The Obama Record on Press Freedom...

Speaking in recognition of World Press Freedom Day on May 1, 2015, President Obama paid tribute to the "vital role that a free press plays in democracy."

"Journalists give all of us as citizens the chance to know the truth about our countries, ourselves, our governments," he said. "That makes us better, it makes us stronger, it gives voice to the voiceless, it exposes injustice, and holds leaders like me accountable.”

Yet, the Obama Administration has sometimes tried to intimidate the press and their sources. Accessing emails and phone records to discover sources.

Reporters Without Borders (2015) - USA ranked 49: Difficult situation.

Enemies of the People: Freedom of Press the Trump Era

Trump's rhetoric against journalists and their profession is unprecedented for a modern US President. Time will tell if policies threaten freedom of the press. Rhetoric already does:

http://www.salon.com/2017/02/22/milo-donald-trump-and-the-outer-limits-of-hate-speech-when-does-absolute-freedom-of-speech-endanger-democracy/

Steps you can take to mitigate your risk when publishing (especially in a difficult situation)!

Depends greatly on the current situation in your country:

1) Know the laws that might effect you in your area: http://en.rsf.org/

2) Be aware of often changing current events regarding threats to freedom of the press in your area: http://en.rsf.org/

3) Separate your business from personal pursuits online.

4) Practice “Net etiquette” and professional journalistic practices.

5) Be very careful in areas where media is highly censored.

Notes for what to do: For Net Etiquette guidelines: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html

For professional journalistic practices-society of professional journalists: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Exploring the Political Power of Satire Across Cinema: A case study on modern TV satire—The Daily Show, Colbert Report, SNL, and Egypt’s so-called “John Stewart.”

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press."

Notes: Originally intended to prohibit infringement by U.S. Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court has broadened the scope of the First Amendment to protect the press from censorship by any government entity, from the federal government to local police.

That freedom is often challenged and reinterpreted by the courts.

1st Amendment provides five freedoms:

Notes on extent of 1st Amendment: In fact, according to David Kaye the current UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the 1st Amendment actually protects freedom of expression more than current human rights law. Under the ICCPR the state parties can suppress information and expression due to “national security or cultural threats.” Malaysia Sedition act is an example of this. Recently have targeted the cartoonist Zunar again—facing jail time along with about 100 others.

Pentagon Papers 1971 (NYT v. US)

Daniel Ellsberg

Neil Sheehan

Or

Spying on Citizens: "Sunshine Laws" 1974

Spying on Citizens in the Digital Age (2013-today)

Notes on Hersch:

Extra info on Hersch involvement from the web.

“"During Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, the president's White House counsel, John Dean, met with the head of the Internal Revenue Service, Johnnie Mac Walters, and presented him with an envelope. Inside was a list of approximately 200 names -- the names of Nixon's political enemies and with it came the understanding that the IRS begin investigating the "enemies list" and perhaps start sending some people to jail.

Stunned, Walters sealed the White House list, locked it in a safe and later fended off complaints from Nixon aide John Ehrlichman about the IRS's "foot-dragging tactics.”

Two years later, on December 22, 1974, with Nixon having resigned from the Watergate scandal, the New York Times' Seymour Hersh published a front-page blockbuster, headlined: "HUGE C.I.A. OPERATIONS REPORTED IN U.S. AGAINST ANTIWAR FORCES."

Hersh detailed how the CIA under Nixon hatched "an elaborate and secret domestic" spying operation built around illegal wiretapping and the reading of mail. Additionally, the Times confirmed "that intelligence files on at least 10,000 American citizens were maintained by a special unit of the CIA. "

The report sparked the creation of the Church Committee in Congress, which soon uncovered years worth of intelligence abuse inside the CIA, FBI and IRS, among others. Many of the abuses came at the request of the Nixon White House.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/06/11/sorry-rush-nixon-spied-on-enemies-viewed-the-ir/194418

Richard Nixon

Seymour Hersch

Snowden and Glenn Greenwald

Julian Assange Chelsea Manning

Hollywood...

Washington Post Reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

A deeper case study for understanding comedic freedom: Freedom of the press!

What is comedy?

Notes for why: For point one: Yes, correlated with various measures of development, good governance, poverty, and health outcomes. Plus, no country with a high level of poverty, or low GDP, has a free press-UNESCO report 2007. Harder to prove causal relationship. Slow, overtime development is my guess, similar to accrual through good governance.

UNESCO 2007 report gives some mechanisms for why a free press improves governance: "The three basic suppositions were as follows: press freedom tends to expand participation in the political decision making process beyond a small inner circle, extending it to the whole population; press freedom provides access to a whole variety of different ideas, opinions and information; press freedom makes governments more accountable to the population and allows policy implementation and the practices of those in power (corruption, for example) to be monitored. These three arguments have thus been confirmed: a free press is needed for good governance to be effective" (p.109).

At it's most basic level it does not have to be political AT ALL. Come on, make me laugh...

Does a free press have an impact on economic development?

Does freedom in the press, including a free Internet, have an impact on your freedom of expression?

What about its impact on governance?

Democracy Now! Feb. 12th 2014

Why?

An analysis by the Associated Press found that the administration set a record in 2014 for censoring or flatly denying access to documents found under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Nearly 40% of requests were censored or blocked.

The administration has aggressively prosecuted whistleblowers who provide information to reporters.

Tried to force NYT reporter James Risen to disclose the sources of sensitive information he published about the CIA. Evenutally did not force him to disclose even after Supreme Court sided with the Adminstration.

In essence, Pippa Norris (2002) claims a free press has 3 functions: (1) be a watchdog;

(2) provide a civic public forum;

(3) set agenda.

Original content:

Sean Spicer

Parody: SNL

Shorter version of tension:

Clips of "spicy" moments:

But does everyone "get it"?

Many successful cases: https://www.newtactics.org/comment/5735#comment-5735 or https://informationactivism.org/en/exposing_the_ridiculous#

Sources:

For Reporters without borders press freedom methodology: http://fr.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/methodology-en.pdf

Ranking--https://index.rsf.org/#!/index-details

Lisa Colletta (2009). Political Satire and Postmodern Irony in the Age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 42, No. 5.

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