From Critique to Mobilization: The Yes Men and the Utopian Politics of Satirical Fake News

Abstract

To date, communication and media scholars have placed significant emphasis on the professionalized forms of satirical fake news currently operating within the structures of corporate media, pointing to their continued efforts to counter the prevailing attitudes and perspectives proliferated across the dominant channels of public discourse. What follows is a broader examination of how politically motivated and activist-oriented practitioners have deployed satirical fake news to call attention to various causes and sites of struggle and to create opportunities for dissenting perspectives to register with broader publics.