Bridging the Features and Effects Divide in Satirical News Research
Authors:   , Droog Ellen Fieny 
Published: March 2023

Satirical news shows offer humorous news updates containing critiques of political, economic and/or social affairs. Scholars often portray satirical news shows as a powerful tool that can sway viewers’ (political) opinions in message-consistent directions. In explaining satire’s persuasive influence, satirical news has been studied from two different research areas: features and effects. However, these areas have largely remained two separate research traditions with little interaction. This has resulted in a features and effects divide in the study of satirical news. Despite various calls to break the boundaries between these research traditions, research connecting the features and effects of satirical news has still been scarce. Therefore, the main goal of this dissertation was to further bridge the features and effects divide in the study of satirical news. In this dissertation, four studies were conducted to achieve this goal. Chapter 2 gave more insight into the effects of satirical news by providing a theoretically grounded and empirical analysis of the mechanisms that underlie the persuasive influence of satirical news. The findings of a lab experiment indicated that satirical (vs. regular) news consumption impacted recipients’ attitudes indirectly through two opposing emotional responses, that on the one hand enhanced and on the other hand impeded persuasion. Chapters 3 and 4 gave more insight into the features of satirical news by providing a description of the structural elements and use of metaphorical humor in satirical news. The theoretical study in Chapter 3 introduced the Humoristic Metaphors in Satirical News Typology; HMSN typology) that showed how four different types of metaphors are used by satirists to fulfil satire’s three core communicative functions (humor, information, and evaluation) in isolation or in combination. This chapter provided more insight into the communicative value of metaphorical humor in satirical news by showing how the use of these different types of metaphors can give meaning to the political, economic, and/or social affairs discussed in satirical news, by trying to humorously explain and/or criticize them. The content analysis conducted in Chapter 4 provided an empirical verification and further specification of the HMSN typology. Overall, this chapter has provided more insight into the manifestation and role of the specific structural elements of metaphors through which metaphorical humor in satirical news is used to humorously explain and/or criticize current affairs. Chapter 5 bridged the insights of the features and effects studies in Chapters 2, 3 and 4 by investigating the underlying mechanisms of metaphorical humor effects in satirical news. The findings of six different experiments showed that consuming humorous metaphorical (vs. hyperbolical) satirical messages did not impact recipients’ attitudes indirectly. However, similar as in Chapter 2, humorous (vs. non-humorous) satirical messages did impact recipients’ attitudes indirectly through opposing cognitive and emotional routes, that on the one hand enhanced and on the other hand impeded persuasion. Based on the findings of this dissertation, a model called ‘the Indirect Features and Effects model of satirical news’ (IFE model) was proposed that bridges the features and effects divide in the study of satirical news. This model takes into account that satirical news features can vary at different levels, and accounts for the differential indirect persuasive impact of these different levels via various conscious and unconscious responses. The findings of this dissertation have advanced our knowledge of the role, characteristics, use, and persuasiveness of the features of satirical news. Moreover, the IFE model has led to a theoretically rich, robust, and unified approach towards the study of satirical news, and it is hoped that this approach inspires future research to further bridge the features and effects divide in the study of satirical news.