TAKING SATIRE JOURNALISM SERIOUSLY: LIVING AND LAUGHING TO BRING THE STATE DOWN?

This dissertation examines the relationship between satire and journalism in censorial contexts. While mainstream and traditional journalism is severely censored in authoritarian regimes, I argue that satire allows for a greater degree of latitude in situations of political intimidation to critique the state. Though we tend to think of satire and journalism as separate storytelling genres, with different and sometimes antithetical practices, this dissertation theorizes satirists as journalists. It argues that the use of humor and satire to tell forbidden stories about those in power, recast the news, and critique journalistic practices that do not serve audiences in authoritarian and censorial regimes manifests in a unique practice of “satire journalism,” ensuring the survival of political reportage. Focusing on performances of satire journalism in Zimbabwe by Magamba TV, the country’s leading producer of political satire, the dissertation draws on textual analysis of 142 episodes of three shows on YouTube (Zambezi News, The Week with Comrade Fatso and Tsaona), critical discourse analysis of 73 news articles about Magamba TV by local and international press, and ethnographic observations about where the content is made. I specify how satire journalism works in Zimbabwe, including its aesthetics, its relationship to radical storytelling genres that have resisted censorship, and its symbiotic relationship with mainstream and traditional journalism as “alternative” journalism.Satire journalism also exposes the benefits and challenges of YouTube as an alternative platform on which alternative journalism can remain uncensored by the state. While YouTube remains mostly untouched by Zimbabwean authorities, it is still a surveilled and a contentious political space. This requires media practitioners to think more vigilantly about their safety on the platform and off. Ultimately, the dissertation points towards re-imagining journalism through humor and a more hybrid practice, orienting it towards doing journalism in ways that have largely gone unnoticed in the Global North.