Abstract
This essay uses theoretical positions established in contemporary cultural studies to analyze “outlandish” American supermarket tabloids like the Weekly World News and the Sun. In particular, Pierre Bourdieu's notion of cultural capital, Mikhail Bakhtin's conception of menippean satire, Michel Foucault's theory of disciplinary power, and John Fiske's understanding of the popular are used to explain various aspects of tabloid discourse. The paper also draws upon evidence from a recently published study of tabloid readers.

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