Humorous Approaches to Environmental Issues. The Case of Illegal Logging in Romania

This article highlights the civic role of humour as revealed by the analysis of two Romanian online satirical publications (Times New Roman and Cațavencii). The analysis will emphasisedifferent humorous strategies and the crisis narratives deployed by the journalists, inaccordance with the profile of the publication. While a ludic frame is preferred for the TimesNew Roman authors, the authors from Cațavencii use aggressive humour or articles withhumorous insertions in order to make accusations against public or private power structures.Satirical publications are not only meant to entertain the public, but also to raise awareness tocritical issues such as the environmental aspects (for example, climate change, deforestation,loss of biodiversity, etc.). The analysis will also tackle the appraisal of humorous articles by thepublic and the risk entailed by the lens of humour on the public’s perception of the topic: illegallogging in Romania.