Mimicking power

This article explores performances of satire as a form of journalism in Zimbabwe by analysing performances by satirists who mimic to mock journalistic conventions and political authorities. Through analyses of YouTube videos, the article explores the ways in which satire as journalism is visualised. Onscreen, satirists mimic the gestures, mannerisms and aesthetic objects connected to both political figures and state journalists on the state-run television station for ridicule. This paper argues that the parodying and mimicking of aesthetics of authority legitimises and professionalises satire as journalism, even as it seeks to critique notions of journalistic authority in an authoritarian state. Through analyses of three Zimbabwean satire shows on YouTube, the paper finds that, while satirists mimic journalistic practices and journalistic authority with the goal of mocking state media and the censorial state, a closer reading of their practices shows that they themselves become legitimate news tellers. This kind of satire plays with familiar broadcasting television aesthetics to signal authority, providing current news and otherwise censored critique.