Satirical articles may also be picked up by serious media.

For instance, the 1998 publication of a single pseudoscientific paper arguing that routine vaccination of children causes autism inspired an entire antivaccination movement,despite the fact that the original paper has repeatedly been discredited by the scientific community.Deliberately unvaccinated children are now contracting contagious diseases that had been virtually eradicated in the United States,with some infections proving fatal.In a slightly less dire example,satirical articles that are formatted to resemble real ones can also be picked up by outlets not in on the joke.