Satirical cultures of media publics in Iran

The article discusses the relationship between political satire and changing media practices in the context of Iranian political history. It argues how such practices produce distinct forms of publics with mediated modes of expression of dissent. From print to the Internet, media technologies have enabled different forms of communication that, correspondingly, have led to the formation of different form of satirical publics of (sub) cultural variations. First, the study offers an account of political satire in its print cultural form and, second, its reconfiguration with the introduction of the Internet to Iran in the 1990s. With the Internet, I further identify three satirical practices: (a) prose, (b) cartoon, (c) and meme, with the last introducing a new form of satirical practice as a result of interactive communication in social media. The article finally discusses limits to studying political satire, especially in Iran, and argues that the impact of political satire on politics remains to be seen.