Personally, I do feel that satirical news reporting is a legitimate mainstream form of culture jamming. Culture jamming is understood and defined in the text as a mode of resistance to the norms and convections of mass culture that exposes and opposes the media’s underlying power structures and ideological messages (Klein, 2000). Culture jamming is a concept used for many situations. It is useful for things such as raising awareness, subvert mainstream culture etcetera. It is understood that while watching or being exposed to satirical news reporting, there are messages and purposes for that media being exposed. I feel that because of this they are able to maintain the norms of society. Media news reporting controls what they release to the public; they often post what we want to see. Reporters control Media is released usually through televisions, computers, and cellphones etcetera. This relates to culture jamming and this becomes evident after reading this quote “The use of conventional and new media technologies for media activism and counter-hegemonic purposes, and it has discussed issues related to copyright law and the use of humour that arise in culture jamming (pg.226)”. In the text “media and society” it states that cultural jamming is “simply the viral introduction of radical ideas”. Therefore, news reporting is a mainstream form of culture jamming due to the fact that they are always introducing new information and ideas. When examining the media, we see cases of people introducing new ideas such as new technology. Although we have unlimited access to media and many forms of it, technology is something that will always continue to develop and this is often presented through media use. In regards to talk shows that insult the media such as late night comedy shows, in my opinion although they are sometimes insulting real life situations, they still educate and inform people on real life situations.
After examining the concepts presented above, it becomes clear that satirical news reporting is a legitimate mainstream form of culture jamming. Culture jamming can be very beneficial to society and the people living in these societies. This concept is used to address and present new ideas to people, which is critical in todays society in order to fit in with the social “norms” of society. For reasons such as those explained above, I believe that such media reportage can be a useful addition to the public sphere.
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