Satiric TV in the Americas

Critical Metatainment as Negotiated Dissent

Paul Alonso

First book to focus on Latin American audiovisual satire
Introduces a new concept for the study of contemporary satire: "critical metatainment as negotiated dissent"
Offers a unique lens on political popular culture in Latin America
Connects Latin America and the United States in ways rarely seen in academic work, examining international flows of popular media culture within the framework of spectacle, globalization and hibridity

Satiric TV in the Americas

Critical Metatainment as Negotiated Dissent

Paul Alonso

Description

In a time of global infotainment, the crisis of modern journalism, the omnipresence of celebrity culture and reality TV, and the colonization of public discourse by media spectacle and entertainment, postmodern satiric media have emerged as prominent critical voices playing an unprecedented role at the heart of public debate. Indeed, satiric media has filled gaps left not only by traditional media but also by weak social institutions and discredited political elites. In Satiric TV in the Americas, Paul Alonso analyzes the most influential satiric TV shows in the Americas--focusing on shows in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Chile and the United States--in order to understand their critical role in challenging the status quo, traditional journalism, and the prevalent local media culture. Alonso illuminates the phenomenon of satire as resistance and negotiation in public discourse, the role of entertainment media as a site where socio-political tensions are played out, and the changing notions of journalism in today's democratic societies.

Introducing the notion of "critical metatainment" -- a transgressive, self-referential reaction to the process of tabloidization and the cult of celebrity in the media spectacle era -- Satiric TV in the Americas is the first book to map, contextualize, and analyze relevant cases to understand the relation between political information, social and cultural dissent, critical humor, and entertainment in the region. Evaluating contemporary satiric media as a consequence of the collapse of modernity and its arbitrary dichotomies, Satiric TV in the Americas also shows that, as satiric formats travel to a particular national context, they are appropriated in different ways and adapted to local circumstances, with distinct consequences.

Satiric TV in the Americas

Critical Metatainment as Negotiated Dissent

Paul Alonso

Chapter 1
Introduction: TV Satire & Critical Metatainment in the Americas
Chapter 2
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver & The Stewart/Colbert Impact on U.S. Political Communication in the Post-Networt Era
Chapter 3
Jaime Bayly's El Francotirador: Peruvian Satiric Infotainment After Fujimori's Media Dictatorship
Chapter 4
Brozo's El Mañanero: Televisa's Grotesque Clown as Transgressive Journalism in Mexico
Chapter 5
Peter Capusotto y sus videos: Satire, Identity, and Spectacle During Kirchner's Argentina
Chapter 6
Latin American Digital Satire: Critical Humor as Glocal Entertainment in Times of the Internet
Chapter 7
Conclusions: TV Satire as Critical Metatainment & Negotiated Dissent

Satiric TV in the Americas

Critical Metatainment as Negotiated Dissent

Paul Alonso

Author Information

Paul Alonso, a Peruvian journalist and author, is Assistant Professor in the School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His academic research focuses on the convergence of journalism, entertainment, satire, politics and popular culture in the Americas.

Satiric TV in the Americas

Critical Metatainment as Negotiated Dissent

Paul Alonso

Reviews and Awards

"With case studies from the U.S. to Argentina and points in-between, Alonso offers a welcome Pan-Am mapping of political satire. He traverses a number of national contexts to illustrate the diverse ways that satire takes shape at the intersection of the local and the global, and the multiple critical strategies it pursues to intervene in a landscape of precarious democracy."--Geoffrey Baym, Professor and Chair of the Department of Media Studies and Production, Temple University

"All over Latin America, satirical news shows have been gaining audiences not only on TV, but also on digital platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. This book is the first in-depth study of this phenomenon and its growing political and social impact. Alonso's work not only maps uncharted territory, but also offers new lenses through which understand the global phenomenon of satire as political communication in today's world."--Rosental Alves, professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Journalism and founder, and director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas

"Paul Alonso adeptly surveys satiric television across Latin America, paying particular attention to the genre's ability to mediate between local contexts and global forms. This smart and comprehensive volume fills what had been a gaping hole in satire scholarship."--Amber Day, Associate Professor of Media and Performance Studies, Bryant University