On Wednesday, November 12th, millions of Americans awoke thinking it was just like every other day, but it was not like every other day. All who received the New York Times on the morning of November 12th were emotional, reading the front page headline: "Iraq War Ends." Writer Jude Shinbin wrote on the front page, "Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom were brought to an unceremonious close today." (http://www.nytimes-se.com/) How could this be? Was it too good to be true? Unfortunately for Americans everywhere, it was.
This was the clever and challenging work of a culture jamming group, known as The Yes Men, who spent eight months producing the paper. Approximately 1.2 million copies of the fake New York Times were printed and distributed in states across the country. If you were look carefully you would see the flaws in its credibility immediately. First and foremost, the date of the paper was not November 12th, 2008. Instead, it was dated July 4th, 2009, the American Independence Day one year from now. The stories were also phony, as one article in the 'World' section read "United Nations Unanimously Passes Weapons Ban", and in the 'Sports' section, "Washington Redskins Renamed".
The Yes Men were interviewed on CNN, and through Youtube I have placed a portion of the interview at the foot of this post, as well as the reaction of the fake newspaper from the citizens who read it. Andy Bichlbaum, one of the group's leaders, said the following in regards to the production of the newspaper on his CNN interview:
"There is a tremendous desire to see change happen... and this was about showing how much change we really want, and making people realize that the only way we will actually have change is if we continue to give Obama the mandate and the pressure and the support that he needs to accomplish the change that we elected him to do." (CNN)
A culture jam seeks to affect mass media by conveying a message through a medium. The Yes Men affected Americans primarily, but the news of this 'fake news' was transmitted all around the world. The Yes Men created this culture jam as a means of bringing awareness to the media, and it worked superbly. American news stations caught interviews with the leaders of The Yes Men, but also went to the people to hear their reactions. When people gave comment to their first impression of the war being over, emotions included were relief, gratefulness and excitement. Bichlbaum said on CNN that "nobody supports the war", and that it has "incredibly low support at this point." They jolted the minds of the population, leaving them asking each other "why are we still in this war?".
The goal of a culture jamming organization is to create change, and groups like The Yes Men go to extremes to see this change happen. Though a hoax, the fake New York Times helped to create awareness among the people in a time of drastic political and economic transformations. Now we will slowly begin to see where these changes will lead us, hopefully to an era of peace.
Works Cited
"New York Times Hoax." CNN. 14 Nov 2008. CNN. 25 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/14/issues.ny.hoax.cnn?iref=videosearch>
<http://www.nytimes-se.com/>
This was the clever and challenging work of a culture jamming group, known as The Yes Men, who spent eight months producing the paper. Approximately 1.2 million copies of the fake New York Times were printed and distributed in states across the country. If you were look carefully you would see the flaws in its credibility immediately. First and foremost, the date of the paper was not November 12th, 2008. Instead, it was dated July 4th, 2009, the American Independence Day one year from now. The stories were also phony, as one article in the 'World' section read "United Nations Unanimously Passes Weapons Ban", and in the 'Sports' section, "Washington Redskins Renamed".
The Yes Men were interviewed on CNN, and through Youtube I have placed a portion of the interview at the foot of this post, as well as the reaction of the fake newspaper from the citizens who read it. Andy Bichlbaum, one of the group's leaders, said the following in regards to the production of the newspaper on his CNN interview:
"There is a tremendous desire to see change happen... and this was about showing how much change we really want, and making people realize that the only way we will actually have change is if we continue to give Obama the mandate and the pressure and the support that he needs to accomplish the change that we elected him to do." (CNN)
A culture jam seeks to affect mass media by conveying a message through a medium. The Yes Men affected Americans primarily, but the news of this 'fake news' was transmitted all around the world. The Yes Men created this culture jam as a means of bringing awareness to the media, and it worked superbly. American news stations caught interviews with the leaders of The Yes Men, but also went to the people to hear their reactions. When people gave comment to their first impression of the war being over, emotions included were relief, gratefulness and excitement. Bichlbaum said on CNN that "nobody supports the war", and that it has "incredibly low support at this point." They jolted the minds of the population, leaving them asking each other "why are we still in this war?".
The goal of a culture jamming organization is to create change, and groups like The Yes Men go to extremes to see this change happen. Though a hoax, the fake New York Times helped to create awareness among the people in a time of drastic political and economic transformations. Now we will slowly begin to see where these changes will lead us, hopefully to an era of peace.
Works Cited
"New York Times Hoax." CNN. 14 Nov 2008. CNN. 25 Nov 2008 <http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/11/14/issues.ny.hoax.cnn?iref=videosearch>
<http://www.nytimes-se.com/>
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