Chasing Reporters: Intertextuality,Entertainment and Public Knowledge

Abstract

This article examines ‘What Have We Learned From Current Affairs This Week?’ — a very successful weekly segment from the ABC program The Chaser's War on Everything. It argues that, through its intertextual satire, this regular segment acts not as a traditional news program would in presenting news updates on current events, but as a text that reflects on the way news is reported, and how this in turn may shape public discourse. While the program has been highly controversial (enduring many a loud call for it to be pulled from air), this form of light entertainment can play an important public service by encouraging citizens to ‘read through’ (Gray, 2006: 104) commercial current affairs’ façade of ‘quality’ journalism.

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