Satiric TV in the Americas

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.

Paul Alonso, a Peruvian journalist and author, is Associate 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.

- Chapter 1 - Introduction: TV Satire and Critical Metatainment in the Americas - Chapter 2 - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and 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 and Negotiated Dissent