A satire is essentially a way for people to ridicule a shortcoming of a thing, idea, person etc. with the intent of shaming that said item into improvement. This differs from regular humor and parody. Humor is just that...meant to make us laugh without really seeing the issue involved or to let us laugh at an issue without really trying to solve it. Parody essentially will make mock, make fun, or parodize something that has already been created (think about my keyword assignment and the examples I used. That essentially is a parody).
I would assume that an author would use a satire to get his point across even more than just the use of humor. By using humor, you're only slightly pick at the pathos argument. Using a satire you are literally THROWING your opinion of an issue into someone's face and ridiculing that issue in the hopes that the reader will get them to change the issue.
However there are some drawbacks. One is, is that they won't take you seriously and just laugh it off before going onto something else. Another would be that you would appear cynical and people would end up getting defensive over the issue and try to find flaws in your argument. There is a thin line between getting the point across or just shoving it into the face of the reader to the point where they will get annoyed and toss the argument out the window.
The job of people who use satire is to find that line and stay on it.
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