Why do writers use slang in fiction, drama, satire, and journalism?

Writers use slang in fiction, drama, satire, and journalism as a conscious tool to achieve specific effects, such as freshening the language, adding a new dimension of excitement, or making prose more pungent and picturesque.12

In fiction and drama, slang is often employed to demand realism, helping to create authentic character voices and settings. For satirists and humorists, it serves as an indispensable instrument to highlight incongruities, often bordering on social satire by superimposing images that clash with the values of the dominant culture.13

Journalists may use slang to provide fresh, striking expressions for established concepts or to capture the nuances of specific subcultures, such as when reporting on trends or social scenes. Because slang often carries emotional weight or reflects the attitudes of a particular group, writers use it to tell the reader something about the subject, the speaker, and the social context. When used with skill and discrimination, slang allows writers to provide a vocabulary for new shades of meaning that standard language may lack.3421