Abstract
Despite its cultural reach and influence, comedy may not be well-understood in communication and public engagement efforts for social justice challenges. Research about comedy’s influence in social issues exists across disciplines and lacks common language. This article creates a practical framework toward the understanding of mediated comedy in social change communication by presenting a typology of distinct formats of comedy – scripted entertainment, satire news, humorous ads, and stand-up comedy – and synthesizing multidisciplinary scholarship that deals with the role of comedy in audience understanding of civic and social issues. The resulting framework for comedy’s influence in social justice includes: attracting attention, persuasion, offering a way into complex issues, dissolving social barriers, and encouraging message sharing. Implications for leveraging comedy in social change public engagement efforts, as well as directions for future innovation and research, are discussed.
About the author
Caty Borum Chattoo is Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI), an innovation lab and research center at American University that creates, showcases and studies media designed for social change; and Assistant Professor at the American University School of Communication in Washington, D.C. She is an award-winning producer, scholar, professor and communication strategist working at the intersection of social change, documentary and entertainment storytelling. Her social-justice documentaries, including the 2014 comedy documentary, Stand Up Planet, have aired theatrically, on TV, and online in the U.S. and abroad. Peer-reviewed research on the intersection of creativity, storytelling and social change is featured and forthcoming in journals and outlets in communication and the humanities, including Journal of Communication, Journalism, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Mass Communication and Society, Oxford Bibliographies in Communication, and more.
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