Scott Dikkers

Have you ever seen a story in your news feed from The Onion and thought it was real?

Nowadays, it’s hard to tell satire from real news. Scott Dikkers can help, He is the founding and longest serving editor of the onion the original fake newspaper.

Audiences at colleges universities and other educational organizations have a great time when he comes to speak on their campus.  He brings plenty of laughs, of course, and outrageous stories about the crazy characters, wild mix-ups, and legal troubles you might expect to hear about — from the onions storied history, all the way up to the present day. Scott shares an important message that’s uniquely relevant with three big takeaways:

1. Read critically:
   How are we supposed to separate knowledge from conspiracy truth, from lies? It’s not easy anymore.  We live in a world where far too many people believe the Earth is flat, or that we didn’t land on the moon, or that Nanobots are going to turn us all into flesh-eating zombies. Scott will make a big impact with attendees, stressing the importance of approaching everything we read with questions and curiosity instead of blind acceptance.
2. Check your sources:
   Since the day The Onion was founded, Scott has been compelling people to think about where they’re getting their information. Today, a lot of people are understandably confused about how to navigate this strange media landscape we find ourselves in. We have news feeds now instead of newspapers, and we all need to be more Discerning media consumers. This gets to the core of what education is all about.
3. Spread the truth you know:
   We’re all in the media now, whether we like it or not. We distribute information to our friends, family, and to our broader followers, so we all need to be responsible journalists. We didn’t sign up for this, but that’s the price of living in the modern digital world.

Scott engages with students and community members who love asking him questions and getting into lively discussions about media literacy and other topics, from creative writing to entrepreneurship and marketing.

Attendees will walk away from his talk entertained for sure, but also clear-eyed about the importance of being an informed and just maybe, they’ll think twice next time they see something a little too crazy to be true in their news feed.

Scott Dikkers tells the tale of his beginnings in comedy and getting The Onion started, and shares funny stories about how he struggled in the early years, and then achieved great success. As a farm boy with no education, he’ll paint the picture of a starry-eyed kid who loved reading Mad Magazine and dreamt of one day getting his work published to improbably founding the world’s first humor website and heading up America’s longest-surviving humor publication. Dikkers connects his experience to the college audience’s lives by pointing out how much more opportunity they have to start something new like The Onion today, explaining that this is a magical time in their lives when they can make just about anything happen for themselves.