Political parody, which is entitled to free speech protection under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, aims at criticizing politicians' policies and ideas with humor. As such, political parodies represent a serious threat to a politician's brand image and reputation. Despite their prevalence in political life and debates, the relative persuasive effects of political parodies based on their communication source (user-generated parody [UGP] vs. media-generated parody [MGP]) have been underexplored. To fill this gap, we developed two studies. The first study involved content analysis of more than 330 parody videos posted on YouTube between 2012 and April 2019 in France. Our findings, in Study 1, showed that MGP led to fewer likes and a more negative attitude toward the parody than UGP. The second study, based on controlled experiment, provided evidence through mediation; compared to UGP, MGP led to more negative attitudes toward the parody and less perceived influence of the parody because of a higher perception of the source's intention to manipulate. This mediating effect was significant only when individuals were highly skeptical of traditional media. These findings add to current theories of political parody, free speech and user-generated content and offer actionable insights to practitioners.

中文翻译：

---

使用模仿自由表达对政治家的意见：政治模仿来源的影响（用户与媒体生成的模仿）

根据美国宪法第一修正案有权获得言论自由保护的政治模仿，旨在以幽默的方式批评政客的政策和思想。因此，政治模仿对政治家的品牌形象和声誉构成严重威胁。尽管它们在政治生活和辩论中盛行，但基于其传播来源（用户生成的模仿 [UGP] 与媒体生成的模仿 [MGP]）的政治模仿的相对说服力尚未得到充分探索。为了填补这一空白，我们开展了两项研究。第一项研究涉及对 2012 年至 2019 年 4 月在法国 YouTube 上发布的 330 多个模仿视频进行内容分析。我们在研究 1 中的发现表明，与 UGP 相比，MGP 导致更少的喜欢和对模仿的更消极态度。第二个研究，以对照实验为基础，通过调解提供证据；与 UGP 相比，MGP 导致对模仿的更多负面态度和更少的模仿影响，因为对源的操纵意图的感知更高。只有当个体对传统媒体高度怀疑时，这种中介效应才显着。这些发现增加了当前关于政治模仿、言论自由和用户生成内容的理论，并为从业者提供了可操作的见解。