Satirical news shines a light on political and economic crises
The makers of Venezuela's explosively successful satirical news site, El Chig眉ire Bipolar, will join The Chaser's Julian Morrow to discuss the politics of satire on Tuesday 28 November at the University of Sydney.
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Since 鈥榝ake news鈥� entered the zeitgeist, everyone from publishers and governments to Facebook and citizens have been grappling with how to stamp out the problem.
But could fake news be the way into real stories and in fact help generate a discussion around the threat posed by 鈥榓lternative facts鈥�?
The makers of Venezuela鈥檚 explosively successful satirical news site, El Chig眉ire Bipolar, will join The Chaser鈥檚 Julian Morrow to discuss the politics of satire on .
El Chig眉ire was the brainchild of three friends, Elio Casale, Oswaldo Graziani and Juan Andr茅s Ravell, who saw an opportunity to use satire to expose the harsh realities Venezuelans face every day. With food shortages, widespread hunger and limited access to medicine, many citizens have demonstrated their frustrations with the government during protests in recent months.
Satire or comedy on its own won鈥檛 bring back democracy in Venezuela. But it can start a conversation about the solutions.
The site isn鈥檛 all fun and games. Every post on El Chig眉ire Bipolar has a link to an independent serious digital news source, connecting a highly engaged audience to stories absent from the mainstream media, which is largely state-owned.
Co-founder of The Chaser and alumnus of the University Julian Morrow said, 鈥淓l Chig眉ire Bipolar use fake news not just to entertain but also as an antidote to state propaganda, by connecting Venezuelans, particularly young people, to independent reporting about the military regime. At The Chaser, we just used fake news to avoid getting a real job.鈥�
El Chig眉ire Bipolar were awarded the prestigious V谩clav Havel Prize for the Creative Dissident 2017, in recognition of their outstanding commitment to honestly covering the news, earlier this year.听
According to Garry Kasparov, secretary of the Human Rights Foundation, "Their combination of humour, coupled with honest uncompromising analysis demonstrate the great power of satire when criticising authoritarian regimes."
Following this event, the University of Sydney is also a proud partner of the听,听to be delivered by El Chig眉ire Bipolar on the 30 November at the .听
