News Satire - News Satire On The Web

News Satire On The Web

News satire has been posted on the web almost since its inception, with The Onion foremost among recognized news satire site due to its enduring and profitable business model. The website, which started in 1996, has become virtually synonymous with online satire; its content is syndicated through mainstream media sites such as CNN and CNET. Today there are hundreds of news satire sites online. Sites such as Hollywood Leek specialize in satirical articles about celebrities and Hollywood entertainment news. Sometimes fake news reporters influence real world politics, like Citizen Kate whose 90 episodes covered the 2008 presidential campaign trail, she commissioned a butter bust of Obama presented to him by the Butter Cow Lady of Iowa, making international headlines. El Koshary Today is an Egyptian website that carries fake international news stories. Other satire sites attempt to emulate a genuine news source of some sort; however, these sites now take a variety of forms.

Because interesting stories are often emailed and can quickly become separated from their point of origin, it is not uncommon for news satire stories to be picked up as real by the media; as had happened with a Faking News story about a lawsuit against Axe by an Indian man after having failed to attract a girl. Additionally, a parody post on Al Sharpton's parody News Groper blog was quoted as if real by MSNBC. Another satire publication, The Giant Napkin, published an article about a man literally fighting his house fire with more fire, a story taken seriously by several social networking sites. The fact that Google News accepts news satire sources helps contribute to this phenomenon; while Google News does mark such stories with a "satire" tag, not all readers notice the tag; moreover, sometimes satirical sources may not carry the tag. At least one site, thespoof.com, relies on user-generated content in a Web 2.0 manner.

Some websites like Literally Unbelievable post the genuine and shocked reactions of individuals who believe the satirical articles are real. The reactions are taken from social media websites, such as Facebook, in which users can directly comment on links to the article's source.

Multi-author Indian website News That Matters Not, launched in November 2009, won a prestigious Manthan South Asia Award for socially responsible e-content (Digital Inclusion for Development), organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation. In India, several community-based news satire websites have crept up in recent times. Their popularity on Facebook defines that they are popular amongst the masses. Very new websites such as The Scoop Times, Sunkey.co.in and The UnReal Times also claim to be run by students, and were covered in The Times of India in July 2011.

Several sites community of selected news satire sites which runs its own satire news feed on HumorFeed. HumorFeed is notable for its relatively high standards of admission and active community involvement. At present, over 60 sites are contributing members, at least eight of which have published books and two of which publish regular hard copy periodicals. Several HumorFeed members also run Check Please!, an online journal devoted to the serious examination of online satire, ranging from its role in relation to actual journalism to practical considerations of producing an online satire site.

In July 2009, a satire piece about Kanye West published on the website ScrapeTV was picked up by numerous media outlets and reported as factual, despite disclaimers on the site.

British satirical websites are now growing in number - with many of them inspired by America's the Onion. Many of them produce merchandise such as T shirts and enjoy a strong presence on social media.

The most established website is the Daily Mash which has around 60,000 followers on Twitter. But there is also satirist John O'Farrell's site Newsbiscuit, The Haddock, and Newsthump.

Other UK websites which have smaller followings and are of a similar genre include: The Spoof, News Toad, and the Newsfox.