Investigating how comedy news informs and entertains

“News may seem to offer viewers information, but satire does more. Satire asks the audience to take a piece of news and play with it, test it, reflect on it, and question it.” Sophia A McClennen (2011) America According to Colbert: Satire as Public Pedagogy, Palgrave Macmillan: New York, p.74

STUDIO PROMPT

To investigate comedy news production practices and to explore how comedy news may operate as alternative public pedagogy.

DESCRIPTION

News satire has continued to flourish in the post-broadcast era; in many ways we are saturated with news satire. However, it is important that we understand and continue to interrogate the ways that news satire – or more broadly, comedy news – can productively blur the distinction between ‘news’ and ‘entertainment’. Comedy news offers the possibility “to see the social and scientific anew” (Gray, Jones and Thompson 2009 9).

This studio will merge theory and practice through reading, viewing, discussion, and making of comedy news segments. Students are encouraged to play with the standard comedy news form, experiment with it, and potentially find ways to transform it as they research, script and eventually shoot a series of satirical/ parodic news segments. We will be making use of the RMIT TV Studios, and students will explore the creative possibilities and challenges of a multi-camera studio environment.