Political Comedy as Fuel for Populist Rhetoric?

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-91
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Political Satire ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Political Humor ◽  
Political Comedy ◽  
Positive Elements ◽  
Public Broadcaster ◽  
The Right ◽  
Alternative For Germany

In popular culture, politics are frequently framed with negative stereotypes, and there is some overlap between the anti-establishment rhetoric of political humor and populist challengers. This article probes similarities shared by politicians as presented in the television comedies Eichwald MdB (about a backbencher in the Bundestag) and Ellerbeck (about a kindergarten teacher turned mayor) and supporters of the (right-)populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD). The analysis of the storylines uncovers representations of self-serving and incompetent politicians that align with the fundamental critique expressed by the AfD. However, the negative depictions in the shows are interwoven with positive elements that speak to a responsiveness of democratic institutions. The two case studies help us better understand the specific form of German political satire produced by a public broadcaster and how satirical entertainment oscillates between negativity and meaningful critique of political power.

scholarly journals Film as medium for meaning making: A practical theological reflection

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita L. Cloete
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
The Self ◽  
Practical Theological

The reflection on film will be situated within the framework of popular culture and livedreligion as recognised themes within the discipline of practical theology. It is argued that theperspective of viewers is of importance within the process of meaning-making. By focusing onthe experience and meaning-making through the act of film-watching the emphasis is not somuch on the message that the producer wishes to convey but rather on the experience that iscreated within the viewer. Experience is not viewed as only emotional, but rather that, at least,both the cognitive and emotional are key in the act of watching a film. It is therefore arguedthat this experience that is seldom reflected on by viewers could serve as a fruitful platform formeaning-making by the viewer. In a context where there seems to be a decline in institutionalisedforms of religion, it is important to investigate emerging forms of religion. Furthermore, theturn to the self also makes people’s experiences and practices in everyday life valuableresources for theological reflection. This reflection could provide a theoretical framework forespecially empirical research on how film as specific form of media serves as a religiousresource and plays a role in the construction of meaning and religious identity.

scholarly journals Where is the Law in ‘Unlawful Combatant’?: Resisting the Refrain of the Right-eous

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-159
Author(s):  
Melissa Gregg ◽  
Glen Fuller
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Holy War ◽  
War Machine ◽  
The Us ◽  
Saddam Hussein ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right

The rhythms of war and popular culture intermingle, amplify each other and become expressive. At the leading edge of the US military’s war machine assemblage, as the nation of Iraq is deterritorialised from the despotic signifier ‘Saddam Hussein’, the soldiers’ music consolidates a milieu of the battlefield. It also consolidates a space-time of the here-now with something less horrific. The popular music refrain produces a home away from home. In their patriotism, many of these singer–soldiers see a religious act. When someone is saying ‘God is on our side’ they are no longer talking about the nation-based context for which, whatever the rules of war might be, such rules are relevant. They’re talking about a Holy War. It has different rules. How to hold them to any actual account is the difficulty we seek to explore here.

Political Comedy as a Gateway to News Use, Internal Efficacy, and Participation: A Longitudinal Mediation Analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob A Long ◽  
Min Seon Jeong ◽  
Simon M Lavis
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Test ◽  
The United States ◽  
Talk Shows ◽  
Political Satire ◽  
Political Comedy ◽  
Late Night ◽  
Theoretical Synthesis ◽  
Promising Line ◽  
News Use

Abstract Despite a great deal of research, much about the effects of political comedy programming on its viewers remains uncertain. One promising line of work has focused on increased internal political efficacy—the sense that one is competent to engage with politics—as an outcome of exposure to political comedy programs. This may explain results showing that viewers are more likely to participate in politics. We extend this approach by considering the role of political comedy’s “gateway” effect in encouraging political media consumption, which can promote additional increases in efficacy and participation. This study provides a theoretical synthesis of prior research and a rigorous empirical test using a representative panel survey of adults in the United States, providing evidence of a relationship between political comedy and participation with both news use and internal efficacy serving as mediators. Furthermore, we find that only political satire, not late-night talk shows, appear to produce these effects.

Why perceived political bias on TV does not inevitably lead to a polarized audience. The case of NRK and TV2 in Norway

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 382-406
Author(s):  
Anders Todal Jenssen ◽  
Toril Aalberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Polarization ◽  
Wide Audience ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
Political Bias ◽  
News Source ◽  
Public Broadcaster ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right

Abstract This paper investigates whether political polarization of the TV audience is emerging also in a typical democratic corporatist system. The study is motivated by the claim put forward by several US scholars, who argue that in today’s high choice information environments, partisans tend to see mainstream media as ‘hostile’ and therefore seek out and select broadcasters who confirm and deepen their worldview (Arceneaux and Johnson, 2013; Iyengar and Hahn, 2009; Tewksbury and Riles, 2015). This demand, they argue, expands the market for partisan TV and contributes to growing political polarization. We ask if there is evidence of a politically polarized Norwegian TV audience, by exploring the relationship between partisan preferences, perceived political bias and selective exposure to TV news. We find that many Norwegians believe that both the public broadcaster and the leading commercial broadcasters are politically biased. Consistent with the “hostile media hypothesis”, people on the right accuse the broadcasters of favoring the parties on the left, whereas people of the left tend to see the broadcasters as favoring the parties on the right, albeit not to the same degree. By using a survey experiment, our study also demonstrates that given the opportunity, the audience does select news stories consistent with their political beliefs from a politically ‘friendly’ broadcaster. However, they also choose news stories consistent with their political beliefs from a perceived hostile news source over politically inconsistent stories from a friendly source. This suggests that ‘friendly’ content triumphs perception of broadcaster bias. Despite widespread perceptions of partisan favoritism in the Norwegian TV market, we find few traces of a politically polarized audience. The main reason for this is that the public broadcaster still draws a wide audience across the political spectrum, as even critics consider this news source as too important and relevant to be ignored.

scholarly journals A case of subclavian steal syndrome with a specific form of obstruction of the right proximal subclavian artery.

1988 ◽  
Vol 52 (10) ◽  
pp. 1216-1220 ◽  
Author(s):  
TETSUO ISHIKAWA ◽  
YASUHIKO FUKUDA ◽  
TOSHIMASA ASAHARA ◽  
KIYOHIKO DOHI ◽  
MICHIMASA YUBA
Keyword(s):  
Subclavian Artery ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Subclavian Steal Syndrome ◽  
Subclavian Steal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Steal Syndrome

European Employment Strategy: the right answer for candidate countries?

2003 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mira Celin
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Member States ◽  
Eu Countries ◽  
Positive Elements ◽  
The Future ◽  
Common Strategy ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu ◽  
New Jobs

It is not easy to gauge the extent to which the European Employment Strategy (EES) has influenced the EU labour market over the last five years but it has surely contributed to the creation of more than 10 million new jobs and 4 million fewer unemployed. However, is this common strategy the right answer for the labour markets of the future member states? This article examines how the candidate countries are adapting to the EES and where they stand as compared to the current EU countries in achieving the Lisbon targets. The article assesses whether the EES is appropriate for the labour markets of the future member states by analysing both the deficiencies and the positive elements of this strategy for these countries, taking into account proposals for a new revised EES adapted to the needs of changing labour markets, globalisation and enlargement.

Latinx Popular Culture and Social Conflict: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Film

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick Luis Aldama
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Comic Books ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
The United States ◽  
Corporate America ◽  
Consumer Market ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Cultural Imaginary

Despite Latinxs being the largest growing demographic in the United States, their experiences and identities continue to be underrepresented and misrepresented in the mainstream pop cultural imaginary. However, for all the negative stereotypes and restrictive ways that the mainstream boxes in Latinxs, Latinx musicians, writers, artists, comic book creators, and performers actively metabolize all cultural phenomena to clear positive spaces of empowerment and to make new perception, thought, and feeling about Latinx identities and experiences. It is important to understand, though, that Latinxs today consume all variety of cultural phenomena. For corporate America, therefore, the Latinx demographic represents a huge buying demographic. Viewed through cynical and skeptical eyes, increased representation of Latinxs in mainstream comic books and film results from this push to capture the Latinx consumer market. Within mainstream comic books and films, Latinx subjects are rarely the protagonists. However, Latinx comic book and film creators are actively creating Latinx protagonists within richly rendered Latinx story worlds. Latinx comic book and film creators work in all the storytelling genres and modes (realism, sci-fi, romance, memoir, biography, among many others) to clear new spaces for the expression of Latinx subjectivities and experiences.

Germany’s CDU looks set for modest shift to the right

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Euro Area ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Political Fragmentation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Christian Democratic Union ◽  
German Politics ◽  
Regional Branch ◽  
Good For ◽  
The Right ◽  
Alternative For Germany

Subject CDU leadership race. Significance On February 8, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced she would resign as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) after the party’s regional branch in Thuringia defied party rules to vote with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Her resignation reopens the question as to whether the CDU continues with Chancellor Angela Merkel's pragmatic course after she steps down, or whether it will take a more conservative direction; it also raises the possibility of a snap election. Impacts Deepening political fragmentation will make it increasingly difficult for the CDU to maintain its policy of not cooperating with the AfD. German politics will become more domestically focused in 2020, thereby slowing progress on issues such as euro-area reform and EU defence. Kramp-Karrenbauer’s leadership was underwhelming, so her resignation may be good for the CDU if a more authoritative leader replaces her.

Life, Liberty, and Property

1984 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Kelley
Keyword(s):  
Specific Form ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Common Root ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Basic Difference ◽  
Political Position ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Ideal

The words “liberty” and “liberalism” have a common root, reflecting the commitment of the original or classical liberals to a free society. Over the last century, the latter term has come to represent a political position that is willing to sacrifice liberty in the economic realm for the sake of equality and/or collective welfare. As a consequence, those who wish to reaffirm the classical version of liberalism – those who advocate liberty in economic as well as personal and intellectual matters – have invented a new word from the old root; they call themselves libertarians. Both in doctrine and in etymology, then, partisans of this view define themselves by their allegiance to liberty. Yet they spend most of their day-to-day polemical energies defending property rights and the economic system of laissez-faire capitalism that is based upon such rights. Evidently there is a strong link between liberty and property at work here. What is that link?The history of political thought is full of ideas and controversies about precisely this question. My goal here is to raise the question in a specific form, one that I think captures a basic difference in approach between classical liberals and most libertarians today. The difference is not in the substance of the position – it is not a disagreement about how the ideal society would be constituted – but rather in the way the position is to be defended. The key question is: can the right to property be derived from the right to liberty?Of course a property right is a right to kind of freedom.

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