True Lies: Satirical News Reporting 101
Instructors: Larry Greer, Learning Skills Center, and Gary Goodman, University Writing Program, College of Letters and Science
Description: Scientists at the Brain v. Brain Institute recently discovered that hard truths delivered via transparent lies and in a medium of irony and/or silliness fail 9 times out of 10 to trigger the fleshy pink little apparatus in the brain responsible for producing a low-frequency “la la la la la” designed to drown out messages we don’t want to hear. This finding raises to the level of scientific fact the popular belief that phony and humorous news stories make great delivery systems for the bitter pill of social commentary (particularly in times of unbridled human boneheadedness—which is to say, in all times, with the possible exception of the heyday of “The Great Generation”). In this class, students will take a crash course in the history of satire by way of soft-scientifically complementing this hard-scientific understanding of fake news. Students will themselves also produce many examples of this powerful tool, in the tradition of The Onion, Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, and The Daily Show. With any luck, seminarians will learn just how very true it is that simple truth, reason and maturity are not by a long shot the only shots in the medicine bag of the crusader bent on wiping out social ills in our lifetime.
Format: The seminar will meet for two hours each week for ten weeks. The instructor will provide or direct students to old-time material from the Jon Stewarts and Tina Feys of their day. This material will be politely laughed at, perhaps imitated and mined, and rigorously studied. More contemporary satirical material will also be provided and will receive about the same treatment as the above. Receiving most attention, though, will be the original fake news pieces produced by students. The class will also write, produce and immortalize on videotape a half-hour fake news magazine along the lines of The Daily Show. Grading: Participation in class discussion (30%), three 250-word fake news pieces (35%), contribution to fake news show (35%). Extra credit points will also be awarded to anyone whose unsolicited fake news piece gets published by any of the many web-based fake newspapers out there.
About the Instructor: Larry Greer, a writing specialist at the campus’s Learning Skills Center, holds a Master’s Degree in English with an Emphasis in Creative Writing from UC Davis. He has been a Lecturer in English and in Education at UCD, where among other classes he has taught creative writing. For a short time he was also a fake news reporter.