Miley, CNN and The Onion

Abstract

Following a twerk-heavy performance by Miley Cyrus on the Video Music Awards program, CNN featured the story on the top of its website. The Onion—a fake-news organization—then ran a satirical column purporting to be by CNN's Web editor explaining this decision. Through textual analysis, this paper demonstrates how a Fifth Estate comprised of bloggers, columnists and fake-news organizations worked to relocate mainstream journalism back to within its professional boundaries.

KEYWORDS:

• bloggers
• boundary work
• CNN
• Fifth Estate
• hyper-reality
• Miley Cyrus
• The Onion