Does Jon Stewart make young voters more cynical?
This from Richard Morin of the Washington Post:
Two political scientists found that young people who watch Stewart’s faux news program, “The Daily Show,” develop cynical views about politics and politicians that could lead them to just say no to voting.
The study apparently measured students’ attitudes about President Bush and Sen. John Kerry after watching episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. A control group watched The CBS Evening News.
The results may be found in American Politics Research, Vol. 34, No. 3, 341-367 (2006). Here’s the abstract:
The Daily Show Effect
Candidate Evaluations, Efficacy, and American YouthJody Baumgartner
Jonathan S. MorrisEast Carolina University
We test the effects of a popular televised source of political humor for young Americans: The Daily Show With Jon 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 toward the electoral system and the news media at large. Despite these negative reactions, viewers of The Daily Show reported increased confidence in their ability to understand the complicated world of politics. Our findings are significant in the burgeoning field of research on the effects of “soft news” on the American public. Although research indicates that soft news contributes to democratic citizenship in America by reaching out to the inattentive public, our findings indicate that The Daily Show may have more detrimental effects, driving down support for political institutions and leaders among those already inclined toward nonparticipation.
You’ll find the full text in .pdf format here.
It seems to me that Baumgartner and Morris could have also tested for Saturday Night Live. And I’ll bet the results would have been the same. I wonder how significant this is. Young people have always participated least in the electoral process. It’s difficult to imagine that The Daily Show has any real effect on that one way or the other. Perhaps they could make the claim that political satire in general, as opposed to soft news, tends to make young people more critical of politicians, politics, and the news media. Does it make them more cynical? What are the cause-and-effect relationships, if any, between these and lack of participation?
I stand by my earlier contention that The Daily Show offers the best media criticism on television today.
