Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on the dynamics of short video by reassessing ethics of pranks, skits and satires in the digital and information disorder era. Using content analysis and survey, it draws inferences from their production and distribution to the Nigerian audience with low level of media literacy.

Paper long abstract:

The digital age has further opened a litmus test for the centuries held maxim that “seeing is believing”. False narratives and deep-fakes have burred the lines between fictions and non-fictions with the production of skits, pranks and satires. In combating information disorder (fake news, misinformation, disinformation and other typologies), media and non-governmental organisations have developed parameters to determine the extent of “factuality” of media contents and has gone a step further to engage in media literacy to develop the critical minds of audience. Though efforts have been made on deep-fakes, has such intervention been extended to the making of short videos (skits, pranks, satires) and how the audience experience these contents as fictions or non-fictions? What ethics guide the making of these contents? Are there basic guidelines or principles in the assessment of these contents? This paper reflects on these questions by reassessing the ethics of pranks, skits, satires making in the digital and information disorder era. Using content analysis and survey, this study will draw inferences from the production of skits, pranks and satires, and their distributions to the Nigerian audience with low level of media literacy.This study argues that there is a need to develop a model for the assessment of these contents to establish their “truthfulness”, “reliability” and determine whether they are what they claimed to be (fictions or non-fictions). It also emphasises the need to integrate accountability in the production of these contents as a way of building trust in the contents produced for audience consumption.