With countless news media outlets out there, companies need to stay relevant by using social media to reach out to their audience. Although The Onion is purely satirical, it acts just like many other news outlets, such as CNN and Fox News, by using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube. Regardless of their content, they still catch the attention of thousands of readers; and for those who don’t seek out satire, social media allows these articles to bleed through and reach the public.
However, despite the social media presence, The Onion has a pattern of being stagnant within their platforms, not communicating or engaging with their audience.
The Onion’s Facebook page has a whopping 6.6 million likes. They use their Facebook page only to share links of articles from their main website.
An example of what The Onion posts on their Facebook page
Comments made on this content are mainly from users who know satire well.. Comments are lighthearted and filled with humor.
Some comments from the Trump article above included comments from Scott Hunter, who stated, “Look, I hate Trump as much as the next guy, but making him see Kelly-Anne Conway nude is just cruel and unusual punishment! Nobody deserves that!”, and Tom Larkin, who joked by adding, “This happened all the time during the Clinton administration for different reasons…”
However, not everybody realizes that these posts are all jokes. One Facebook user by the name of Majorie Waterman stated, “Looks like fake news to me. How about this Facebook???” Multiple comments, including emojis of face-palming, reminded the woman that The Onion is satire. Outsiders may not necessarily know that The Onion is fake when someone in their friends list shares these articles. With Facebook, you can see content without having to follow the company, so people may stumble upon The Onion on accident, as opposed to other platforms where you’d only really see the content if you followed them.
YouTube
The Onion’s YouTube page has 918 subscribers, and is filled with short-length videos of fake news casts. These casts include news anchors and fake quotes, all appearing like a legitimate news source (besides the crazy stories associated with them).
The front page of The Onion’s YouTube page
One of the videos, titled “How Do Self- Driving Cars Avoid Driving Straight To The Beach?” explores the artificial intelligence of self- driving cars, and how they long to spend their days at the beach instead of driving people around. The Onion’s Eliza Hayes narrates the story. She elaborates on this story by saying, “Engineers working on these vehicles had to overcome one issue in particular: how to prevent self-driving cars from heading straight to the nearest sandy beach and parking there all day long.” She expands on programming procedures and codes that stop them from going where they want to go by stating, “Once a car has warmed its leather interior on the beach for a few hours, it will intrinsically seek out the nearest boardwalk and rumble along the wooden planks in search of saltwater taffy”. She adds this segment by dropping the professional act and stating, “Experts are hopeful about the future of self- driving cars, promising that the next generation of these machines will come equipped with the knowledge that a trip to the beach is actually a huge f**king hassle.”
Screenshot of the self-driving car video
Videos from The Onion get mixed reviews. On this specific video, one user by the name of “bmwx3turbo” comically commented, “I’m voting for Eliza Hayes for Pulitzer Prize; this is the journalism we need, not want”.
However, for the most part, The Onion fans tend to prefer the articles over the videos, finding them childish or stupid. One user by the name of “arcanist9” commented, “The Onion’s videos constantly suck :except for Peter Rosenthal’s Film Standard series), but the articles on their website are still pretty funny,” Another user, “Alternate868” adds, “Are you guys even trying anymore? I can see that you recorded this, but i [sic] can’t see any effort.”
Out of all the previously- mentioned platforms, Twitter is The Onion’s biggest, having 10.6 million followers. The only thing The Onion does on this platform is post links to their articles. It gives their followers a quick notification of what’s new on their website. People may not check their main website regularly, so Twitter gives them a simple notification of when an article is up.
The Onion’s front page for Twitter
The Onion doesn’t “retweet” or reply to others, and when there are comments on their content, there aren’t many. Most of the action on that page are followers “retweeting” and “liking” their content. Although there are a lot of followers, the amount socializing on this platform seems to be kept at a low.
The last of the platforms that The Onion uses is Instagram, with a smaller following of 1.7 million people.
The Onion’s Instagram page.
On Instagram, The Onion shares thumbnails of pictures relating to the articles on their main website. The caption of the photo shortly explains what the article is about, accompanied by a separate comment which explains the article a little more, or contains a quote which expands on the story. Most comments on The Onion’s Instagram content are people tagging their friends by “@” ‘ing them.
![A screenshot of one of The Onion's Instagram posts. Contains a thumbnail of a cat and dog in lab suits in front of microphones. The caption states,"Pet Researchers Confirm 100% Of Owners Who Leave For Work Never Coming Back". They then added a comment to expand further, stating, "'Our data shows conclusively that every human who says they're going to work is in fact, gone forever the very moment they shut the door behind them,', said a West Highland terrier named Nugget, adding that the findings applied equall [...]"](https://kstrysky.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/onioninsta.png?w=425&h=603)
An example of what The Onion posts on their Instagram page.
What The Onion could Fix
Although The Onion has spread its satire throughout multiple platforms, they seem stagnant when it comes to how they interact with their fans. There is practically no interaction between them and their audience.
When it comes to their YouTube channel, it seems like the audience prefers their articles instead of their broadcasts. Maybe if they made video content to accompany their articles on their main website (like many other news outlets), they could then post their video segments from their articles onto YouTube. Rather than making videos that have nothing to do with their articles, they should incorporate video into what they know people like.
Regarding their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, I think The Onion could engage with their audience more. Replying or commenting on others’ comments would be beneficial, showing that they’re willing to connect with their followers. It would be beneficial to The Onion if it were to “retweet” other news companies’ content, comment on it, or even relate real news to their satire articles.
Social media presence doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a bigger following. If you take the time to engage with consumers and start conversation, people will feel like their experience is personalized and exciting.
Wordpress by Kat Strysky 