This qualitative study explored diverse college students' perspectives on the portrayal of college life in recent popular films. Results from this study suggest that White college students dismiss stereotypes as comedic satire whereas their non-White peers readily identify the influence of negative media representations upon their academic and…

The soap opera "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" presents an interesting new genre in television, as it defies the conventional standards and stereotypes associated with daytime drama. The central character is not a dependent victim but a survivor who indicates to her viewers the concept which advertisers and media management have of them. A…

This paper examines the rhetorician Kenneth Burke's reaction to "technologism," an area where Burke's rage at the vagaries of human motivation, industrial exploitation, and environmental victimage are most clear. The paper analyzes in-depth the formal movement of the Helhaven project as a reflexive satirical treatment of the problems of…

A study involving 59 undergraduate speech communication students investigated relationships between intelligence, understanding of editorial satire, and appreciation of satire. The students were asked to read three satirical essays and then to pick one of five statements that best described the thesis as intended by the author. Then each satire…

A 16-page, four-color-on-newsprint magazine, "Krokodil" is among the world's most popular magazines of humor and satire. As a product of the Pravda Publishing House, it is produced by a branch of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, yet there are no official taboos or guidelines. Connections, popularity, and profits give…

This paper traces the interest by academic popular culture scholars in the films of the American slapstick comedy group of the 1930s and 1940s, "The Three Stooges." Noting that between 1990 and 1995 at least 17 scholarly articles have been presented at various popular culture association meetings, the paper touches upon the universal and…

Satire is a genre long extant if not especially beloved in human history. Practitioners of the art claim the intent to persuade and educate through their works. Many quantitative studies have tested the persuasive effects of satire. In research on persuasion, A.D. Annis (1939) compared the effects of editorials and editorial cartoons and concluded…

Born in 1900, Jacques Prevert was destined to become one of the most popular poets of the twentieth century. After spending his young adulthood with artists linked with the surrealist movement, Prevert became a satirist, social critic, songwriter, writer of children's stories and television programs, and poet. Prevert's interests in the visual…

In a study of satire as persuasion, two experiments were conducted--one to determine whether dogmatism affected the understanding and appreciation of editorial satire, the second to determine the same about intelligence as measured by the Scholastic Aptitude Test. In the first experiment, 116 college students read three satirical editorials. After…

In order to test the hypothesis that dogmatism is related to the understanding and appreciation of editorial satires, 116 University of Georgia speech students read and reacted to three editorial satires (two by Art Hoppe and one by Art Buchwald) arranged in booklets in three different orders. Students were asked to choose from a list of five…

In his novel "Small World," David Lodge lampoons the professional conference experience and satirizes the academic participants. One real-life conference-goer identifies herself with one of the main characters of the novel: she is a conference and professorial novitiate but a quick study. After attending a few conferences, she found…

No living American satirist has pushed the limits of satire--perhaps the most extreme form of expression that society has tolerated--further than Garry Trudeau, who draws the comic strip "Doonesbury." Newspaper editors regularly pull the strip, alter it, or accompany it with a disclaimer when they think it is unfair or libelous. And the…

Satire appears to be one of the least attractive forms of humorous literature because many readers feel it encompasses negative and ill-mannered comic devices. By virtue of the fact that satire is not considered polite literature, it rarely makes its way into the planned literary curricula until students enter high school English courses. In this…

Because of the historical influence of religion in the national life and personal lives of many American citizens and the interplay between religious and national affairs in public discourse, it is useful to study the secular media for its portrayal of religion as news or as value system. A study describes the nature of commentary on religion by…

Satirical writing offers a means of encouraging students to criticize those forms of victimization and inequality that trouble them most without that overt, dogmatic indoctrination of a political agenda that many would consider an anathema to democratic teaching. The indirect, satirical jab provides students with an intellectually challenging and…