The Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries invite you to join us on Thursday, March 24, 2022 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. via Zoom for Irony and Outrage: The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the U.S., presented by Dr. Dannagal G. Young, Professor of Communication and Political Science at the University of Delaware.
For almost a decade, journalists and pundits have been asking why we don't see successful examples of political satire from conservatives or of opinion talk radio from liberals. In her book, Irony and Outrage, Dannagal G. Young turns that question on its head to argue that opinion talk is the political satire of the right and political satire is the opinion programming of the left. They look and feel like two different animals because their audiences are literally two different animals.
Drawing on decades of research on political and media psychology and media effects, as well as historical accounts and interviews with comedians and comedy writers, Young unpacks satire's liberal "bias" and juxtaposes it with that of outrage's conservative "bias." Using research from political psychology, she details how traits like tolerance for ambiguity and the motivation to engage with complex ideas shape our preferences for art, music, and literature; and how those same traits correlate with political ideology. In turn, she illustrates how these traits help explain why liberals and conservatives vary in the genres of political information they prefer to create and consume. In her talk, Young will present the core argument of her book, and will explore how these same dynamics are at play in our current political, media, and health context.
About the speaker:
Dr. Young studies the content, audience, and effects of nontraditional political information. She has published over forty academic articles and book chapters on the content, psychology, appeal, and effects of political information, satire, and misinformation. Her book Irony and Outrage examines satire and outrage as the logical extensions of the respective psychological profiles of liberals and conservatives. Her current book project, Wrong: How Identity Fuels Misinformation and How to Fix it, is under development with JHU Press.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session led by Boaz Nadav-Manes, Lehigh’s University Librarian. This event is free and open to the public.
Please register in advance. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Sponsored by The Friends of the Lehigh University Libraries.