Satirical news from left to right: Discursive integration in written online satire

Britta Brugman; Christian Burgers; Camiel Beukeboom; Elly Konijn

doi:10.1177/1464884920979090

Satirical news from left to right: Discursive integration in written online satire

Britta Brugman, Christian Burgers, Camiel Beukeboom, Elly Konijn

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Previous research suggests that a defining characteristic of satirical news shows (e.g., The Daily Show) is discursive integration: a creative blend of genre conventions of regular news and fiction (Baym 2005). This study aimed to extend the concept of discursive integration to another popular form of satirical news: written satirical news. We focused on both liberal (e.g., The Onion) and conservative (e.g., The Babylon Bee) online outlets of satire. We collected texts published in 2018 by a total of 36 satirical news, regular news, and fiction websites (65,530,647 words). Discursive integration was measured by means of linguistic register, because genres can be effectively identified through patterns of linguistic features. Four linguistic register dimensions were identified. Findings showed that written satirical news is indeed characterized by discursive integration because written satirical news’ register scored in between the registers of written regular news and written fiction. No differences in discursive integration levels were found between liberal and conservative satirical news. This study demonstrates the value of discursive integration for understanding the genre of satirical news across partisan lines.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1626-1644
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journalism
Volume	23
Issue number	8
Early online date	10 Dec 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884920979090
Publication status	Published - Aug 2022

Funding

We would like to thank Bob Brugman, Wouter van Atteveldt and Kasper Welbers for their help with web scraping. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research in this paper was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), Vidi grant 276-45-005.

Funders	Funder number
NWO	276-45-005
UK Research and Innovation	103691

Keywords

satirical news
political satire
journalism
discursive integration
linguistic register

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1177/1464884920979090

Persistent URL (handle)

Persistent link

Cite this

@article{fd56e762765841b2aa94ce7d6ce4fcc1,

title = "Satirical news from left to right: Discursive integration in written online satire",

abstract = "Previous research suggests that a defining characteristic of satirical news shows (e.g., The Daily Show) is discursive integration: a creative blend of genre conventions of regular news and fiction (Baym 2005). This study aimed to extend the concept of discursive integration to another popular form of satirical news: written satirical news. We focused on both liberal (e.g., The Onion) and conservative (e.g., The Babylon Bee) online outlets of satire. We collected texts published in 2018 by a total of 36 satirical news, regular news, and fiction websites (65,530,647 words). Discursive integration was measured by means of linguistic register, because genres can be effectively identified through patterns of linguistic features. Four linguistic register dimensions were identified. Findings showed that written satirical news is indeed characterized by discursive integration because written satirical news{\textquoteright} register scored in between the registers of written regular news and written fiction. No differences in discursive integration levels were found between liberal and conservative satirical news. This study demonstrates the value of discursive integration for understanding the genre of satirical news across partisan lines.",

keywords = "satirical news, political satire, journalism, discursive integration, linguistic register",

author = "Britta Brugman and Christian Burgers and Camiel Beukeboom and Elly Konijn",

year = "2022",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1177/1464884920979090",

language = "English",

volume = "23",

pages = "1626--1644",

journal = "Journalism",

issn = "1464-8849",

publisher = "SAGE Publications Ltd",

number = "8",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Satirical news from left to right

T2 - Discursive integration in written online satire

AU - Brugman, Britta

AU - Burgers, Christian

AU - Beukeboom, Camiel

AU - Konijn, Elly

PY - 2022/8

Y1 - 2022/8

N2 - Previous research suggests that a defining characteristic of satirical news shows (e.g., The Daily Show) is discursive integration: a creative blend of genre conventions of regular news and fiction (Baym 2005). This study aimed to extend the concept of discursive integration to another popular form of satirical news: written satirical news. We focused on both liberal (e.g., The Onion) and conservative (e.g., The Babylon Bee) online outlets of satire. We collected texts published in 2018 by a total of 36 satirical news, regular news, and fiction websites (65,530,647 words). Discursive integration was measured by means of linguistic register, because genres can be effectively identified through patterns of linguistic features. Four linguistic register dimensions were identified. Findings showed that written satirical news is indeed characterized by discursive integration because written satirical news’ register scored in between the registers of written regular news and written fiction. No differences in discursive integration levels were found between liberal and conservative satirical news. This study demonstrates the value of discursive integration for understanding the genre of satirical news across partisan lines.

AB - Previous research suggests that a defining characteristic of satirical news shows (e.g., The Daily Show) is discursive integration: a creative blend of genre conventions of regular news and fiction (Baym 2005). This study aimed to extend the concept of discursive integration to another popular form of satirical news: written satirical news. We focused on both liberal (e.g., The Onion) and conservative (e.g., The Babylon Bee) online outlets of satire. We collected texts published in 2018 by a total of 36 satirical news, regular news, and fiction websites (65,530,647 words). Discursive integration was measured by means of linguistic register, because genres can be effectively identified through patterns of linguistic features. Four linguistic register dimensions were identified. Findings showed that written satirical news is indeed characterized by discursive integration because written satirical news’ register scored in between the registers of written regular news and written fiction. No differences in discursive integration levels were found between liberal and conservative satirical news. This study demonstrates the value of discursive integration for understanding the genre of satirical news across partisan lines.

KW - satirical news

KW - political satire

KW - journalism

KW - discursive integration

KW - linguistic register

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85097391580

UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85097391580&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/1464884920979090

DO - 10.1177/1464884920979090

M3 - Article

SN - 1464-8849

VL - 23

SP - 1626

EP - 1644

JO - Journalism

JF - Journalism

IS - 8

ER -

Satirical news from left to right: Discursive integration in written online satire

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this