Political Comedy Engagement Genre Work, Political Identity and Cultural Citizenship Doona, Joanna
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Political comedy engagement Genre work, political identity and cultural citizenship Doona, Joanna 2016 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Doona, J. (2016). Political comedy engagement: Genre work, political identity and cultural citizenship. (1 ed.). Lund University. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 JOANNA DOONA JOANNA Printed by Media- Tr yck, Lund University 2016 Nor Political comedy engagement Political comedy engagement While broadcast news struggles to attract young audiences, political comedy is becoming more and more popular. To understand this dic Ecolabel 3041 0903 Political comedy engagement popularity, this thesis explores audience engagement in political comedy among Swedish young adults – focussing on how it encourages Genre work, political identity and cultural citizenship citizenship, both in the political and the cultural sense. By applying a contextualising, qualitative audience approach, the study considers the JOANNA DOONA generic qualities of contemporary political comedy, how the audience DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA | LUND UNIVERSITY 2016 defines and values it, and how this connects to identity and citizenship. The results indicate that political comedy is an important emerging space for political communication. Particularly, political comedy engagement answers to some of the uneasiness and uncertainties facing today’s political Genre and work, identity cultural citizenship young adult citizens: by inviting, representing, and valuing both critical and emotional investment. Faculty of Social Sciences 238950 Department of Communication and Media ISBN 978-91-7623-895-0 ISSN 1104-4330 789176 20 9 Political comedy engagement 1 2 Political comedy engagement Genre work, political identity and cultural citizenship Joanna Doona DOCTORAL DISSERTATION by due permission of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University, Sweden. To be defended at the Department of Communication and Media, September 16th 2016 at 1 p.m. Faculty opponent Joke Hermes, Inholland University 3 Organization Document name LUND UNIVERSITY DOCTORAL DISSERTATION Department of Communication Date of issue and Media September 16th 2016 Author: Joanna Doona Sponsoring organization Title and subtitle Political comedy engagement: Genre work, political identity and cultural citizenship Abstract Political comedy is a hybrid genre that mixes political news and analysis with comedy and entertainment. As it becomes more and more popular in most media forms and national contexts, researchers struggle to understand its role in relation to other types of political media, and of citizenship; in this sense, it challenges scholarly conceptualisation of political media and citizenship. Thus, this thesis examines and develops the understanding of how audience engagement in political comedy encourages political and cultural citizenship. The focus on engagement allows the study to emphasise diverse subject positions and their dynamic character. Additionally, it stresses that reasoning is both emotional and rational, rather than either or, which is especially important in the study of political comedy. By mapping contemporary examples of political comedy as well as carrying out in-depth interviews and focus groups with 31 young adult Swedes (18-35 years old) who regularly engage with political comedy (Swedish radio programme Tankesmedjan and/or American television programme The Daily Show), the study’s analytical attention is on modes of address as well as audience engagement. Focussing on constructions of genre, so-called ‘genre work,’ political identity and cultural citizenship, the thesis reiterates contemporary scholarly critique of the modern era ideal type of a dutiful, rational and well-informed citizen, from a normative and empirical standpoint. The study’s findings include a challenge to the understanding of ‘entertainment’ as separate from, and less valuable than, ‘information’; and contributes a deeper understanding of how audiences engage with these kinds of political media spaces. It shows how such spaces allow for so-called political play and emotional authenticity, which is important for the developing citizen. Further, it illustrates how audiences enjoy the double mode of engagement that is required by political comedy’s mix of serious and silly, whereby they analyse which is what. The thesis contributes knowledge about political comedy audiences being skilled, ‘media-savvy’ and ‘self-informed,’ yet lacking in political efficacy. They are highly interested in political news and political issues, but worry about various social aspects of increasing their political participation, which the present study labels as ‘uneasy’ citizenship. In this context, audiences enjoy the so-called symbolic levelling that results from political comedy’s critique of conventional journalism’s claim of epistemic authority. Through this, political comedy aids young adults in feeling like citizens, in a political and cultural sense, as it represents critical thinking and promotes an understanding of the perspectives of others. The thesis argues that the growing engagement in political comedy is a symptom of contemporary young adult citizenship, where the use of irony and humour is a way of coping with uneasiness. Hence, the study shows that political comedy engagement is an expression of the need for a wide variety of political media spaces, where different aspects of young adult citizenship can be recognised, including the emotional. Key words political comedy, audiences, satire, engagement, citizenship, cultural citizenship, genre, hybridity, identity Classification system and/or index terms (if any) Supplementary bibliographical information Language: English ISSN and key title ISBN: 978-91-7623-895-0 (print) 1104-4330 Lund Studies in Media and Communication 20 978-91-7623-896-7 (pdf) Recipient’s notes Number of pages: 256 Price Security classification I, the undersigned, being the copyright owner of the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation, hereby grant to all reference sources permission to publish and disseminate the abstract of the above-mentioned dissertation. Signature Date 4 Political comedy engagement Genre work, political identity and cultural citizenship Joanna Doona 5 Copyright Joanna Doona Cover photo by Pelle Kronhamn Faculty of Social Sciences | Department of Communication and Media ISBN 978-91-7623-895-0 (print), 978-91-7623-896-7 (pdf) ISSN 1104-4330 Lund Studies in Media and Communication 20 Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University Lund 2016 6 Till Pelle och Mamma 7 Content Acknowledgements 10 1. Introducing political comedy audiences 13 Political comedy and citizenship: Situating the research 14 Aim and research questions 18 Methodology and scope 21 Thesis outline 23 2. Theoretical reflections on political comedy engagement 25 Genre and form 26 Humour studies and political comedy 28 The audience and genre work 32 Citizenship and engagement 34 Identity construction and emotion 42 Summary 44 3. Researching political comedy engagement 47 Political entertainment research 47 Contextualisation of audience constructions 49 The fallibilistic approach 52 Designing and implementing audience research 54 Reflections on the research process 64 Summary 65 4. The hybrid forms of political comedy 67 Hybridity and inter-generic space 68 The range of political comedy 80 Summary 94 5. Audience genre work 95 Participants and their media habits 96 Genre work and cultural citizenship 99 The clever comedian 100 The political in political comedy 103 Criticising media 107 Transgressing boundaries of news and comedy 109 8 Comedians as levelling teachers 117 Summary 124 6. Political identity and citizenship 125 Young adult citizenship 128 The uneasy citizen 133 Communication and impression management 138 The ‘package deal’ 142 Representations of politicians and political culture 147 Democracy and efficacy 151 The affective deficit and irony 155 Self-informed citizens, play and laughter 159 Political engagement 163 Summary 167 7. Political comedy and cultural citizenship 169 Enjoyment and social context 171 National contexts 175 Ideology and strong emotions 180 Knowledge and education 185 Irony and indirection 191 Community constructing comedy 194 Summary 198 8. Conclusions 199 Summary of research 199 Key findings 202 The values of political comedy engagement 213 Reflections and future trajectories 219 References 223 Appendices 243 9 Acknowledgements Writing this thesis