News Parody and Political Satire Across the Globe

[...]satire can unmask the rhetoric and manipulative public relations sheen that characterise much public life. [...]Alice Bardan (pp. 144-56) analyses how the show Crónica Cârcota§ilor (2001-present) works in post-socialist Romania to preserve cultural - linguistic - pride and curb Romanian disaffection with government and politics by fostering a kind of national intimacy.4 A fourth claim makes the case that the political economy of satire has important implications. Waddick Doyle (pp. 39-50) argues that it was no accident that Les Guidnols de l'info (1988-present), a French parody programme on commercial television, rose to popularity as the public broadcasting monopoly was transitioning to a mixed public and private system, arguably reflecting a wider shift in trust, authority and power.5 In contrast, Amber Day and Ethan Thompson (pp. 169-81) look at Saturday Night Live's (1975-present) 'Weekend Update' segment and conclude that its political satire is anodyne because it serves as a platform to launch comic personalities; innovative satire is now found on cable television in the US.6 Perhaps most damning, Gabriele Cosentino (pp. 51-64) marks a commercial Italian parody programme as a reflection of marketbased politics: 'Striscia's [1988-] heavy emphasis on the critique of state institutions, on entertainment as a viable outlet of public discourses, and on the ubiquitous presence of scantily clad women seem to fit well with the type of ideological and cultural imaginary that in Italy has emerged over the past two decades around Silvio Berlusconi (p. 63)'.7 This book will certainly be of interest to scholars of political parody and satire, and popular communication; however, it is not without shortcomings. [...]many of the claims about news parody seem to transgress their methodologies, because most chapters are based on textual interpretation with scant reference to audience studies literature.