Satirical techniques displayed in 'The Siege'

Satirical techniques displayed in 'The Siege'

1. Spoof

   • Highlights the duplicitous practices endemic within current affairs television.
     • Duplicitous = deceitful

2. Mimickery

   • Mimics sensationalist subject matter presented in current affairs programs.
     • Sensationalism = the presentation of stories in a way that is intended to provoke public interest or excitement, at the expense of accuracy.

3. Condemnation

   • Sitch says that current affairs programs are highly manipulative and masquerade as news, really ratings driven. Frontline is lighthearted condemnation.
     • The expression of very strong disapproval; censure.

4. Parody

   • Parodies media integrity, ratings, sensationalism and personalities.
     • e.g. Ray Martin, Mike Munro.

5. Simulation

   • Personalities, issues, medium itself.

6. Highlights

   • Banility and shallowness of current affairs and management teams.
     • Banality = not worthy, lightweight.
   • Imperceptible blending of real and false exposes highly questionable practices of media industry.

7. Realism

   • Comedy purposes- "anchor man" lampooned- lacks character, ethics and intelligence.
     • Lampooned = deliberately exaggerated to show something.

8. Paradox

   • Show uses this- a cynical interplay of sitcom, spoof and satire.

9. Verisimilitude

   • The appearance of being true or real is achieved through production methods and the absence of fixed camera positions. Characters are followed by the hand held camera (similar to Blair Witch Project) with grainy footage. This gives a documentary-like fluidity which heightens satire --> it looks like a real program.

10. Documentary-like

11. Imitatitative

12. Running visual gags

13. Narrative-like

14. Irony

15. Plays straight

16. Caricature

17. Humour

18. Pun