Saturday, May 01, 2010
ROFLing the News
It's 2:30pm on Saturday and we're now listening to a panel talk about poking fun at news reporting.
Mark Hale and Ken Lowry are taking their FakeAPStylebook which is a parody of the news reporting service, Associated Press, and their writing style book. They talk about how the original AP style guide seems to have lightened up a lot since the launch of their Twitter feed.
We've just watched Evan and Andrew Gregory's (of Auto-tune the News fame) clip -- Auto-tune the News #11 -- which pokes serious fun of news media. The lads talk about how auto-tuning politicians makes them sound like superstars and opens up whole new career opportunities for them... These blokes are extremely funny in person!! A very poplar episode of Autune the News is Episode #5: Smoking Lettuce. Turns out that Martin Luther King Jr. has the best auto-tunable voice because he was a naturally lyrical speaker. Katie Couric and Joe Biden both tie for second--Katie Couric for her old-school broadcaster enunciation, and Joe Biden for his enthusiastic delivery.
Mark and Ken talk about how lots of journalists enjoy the fake AP style guide. They're not sure what the actual bosses think, though. They mimic the AP's authorattive "we" style of speaking. discuss their work as being a-political. We *still* wish they'd put out a fake*APA*style guide, though!!
The wonderful Dave Weinberger is moderating and suggests that neither set of parodies is not simply just about being absurd. This turns into an interesting discussion about remix and parody and meaning-making.
