The Daily Show Effect

[MODU]

Since we already had the "Fox News Effect" thread...

"The Daily Show Effect"

We test the effects of a popular televised source of political humor for young Americans: The Daily Show with John Stewart.  We find that participants exposed to jokes about George W. Bush and John Kerry on The Daily Show tended to rate both candidates more negatively, even when controlling for partisanship and other demographic variables.  Moreover, we find that viewers exhibit more cynicism towards the electoral system and the news media at large. 

(Cont...)

[Gabu]

It's not cynicism if it's true.

[Alcon]

Interesting that their party split was 41-30 Republican.  That seems a rather odd sample for this age group.

I don't dispute the results' validity.  There is a clear correlation between simplicity with which information is presented (ranging from The O'Reilly Factor's "how could anyone possibly disagree?" to whatever TV tabloids are).  I wish they would have also included information about campaign ads, though, or campaign speeches.  Both of these presented slanted, overly simplified versions of the issues and probably increase voter self-perspection more than they should.  Additionally, unlike The Daily Show, their intent is only to provide a sense of education, not entertain.

The "Fox News effect" is much more interesting because it presents a source that claims to be educational; The Daily Show, on the other hand, just shows a human tendency toward infotainment.  Unfortunate as it may be, it is not the fault of The Daily Show - they have never purported to be unbiased or educational; if the "Fox News effect" does exist, on the other hand, that is bias.

[Citizen James]

I think it may be possible that this is a case of mistaken causation.  Perhaps the daily show tends to attract those  who have a  somewhat negative view of  poiliticians and like this form of satire - just as those  who want unabashed conservative bias in their programs are more likely to be attracted to fox news.

I don't think the programs cause the attitudes.  I think people's attitudes determine what sort of programming attracts their attention.

[Alcon]

I think it may be possible that this is a case of mistaken causation.  Perhaps the daily show tends to attract those  who have a  somewhat negative view of  poiliticians and like this form of satire - just as those  who want unabashed conservative bias in their programs are more likely to be attracted to fox news.

I don't think the programs cause the attitudes.  I think people's attitudes determine what sort of programming attracts their attention.

I don't believe the participants were necessarily regular viewers of either The Daily Show or the news.

[Gabu]

As for my actual thoughts on this, I'll defer to Jon Stewart:

"I didn't realize that -- and maybe this explains quite a bit -- that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity."

[Beet]

Now they just need to replicate it across a representative sample of adults.

It could have implications for political strategy-- advertisements that use humor to attack opponents' positions, for example, as a supplement for traditional negative/attack advertising.

[nlm]

http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/naes/2004_03_late-night-knowledge-2_9-21_pr.pdf

(PDF warning)

That's a link to a survey by Annenberg that indicates that the "Daily Show Effect" may be the best thing happening to Americans. According to the survey (yeah, yeah - it's just a stupid survey, I get that), Daily Show viewers were the most knowledgable news watching audience around among the 18-29 year old demographic.

It's kind of silly when you step back and look at it. But silly in interesting - how do the dots really connect - kind of way.