Transcript Classes 27-30 – Effects of Political Humor

Effects of Political Humor
Laughing Matters, Ch. 8
Jody C. Baumgartner
American Youth & Online
Humor
Main Argument
• Youth voters important to study
– Low voting rates
– Get news from non-traditional places like comedy
– Comedy is memorable, persuasive, and can influence political
attitudes
– Youth are susceptible to persuasion
• Political humor online is commonplace
• Experiment of young voters viewing online political humor
JibJab.com
• 2 brothers, Flash animation, and political satire
• 2004 Presidential Election
– 80 million views before Election Day
– Viewed on every continent and international space station
• Experiment Using President Bush’s 2nd Term
– Control Group (didn’t view clip) vs. Experimental Group
(viewed clip)
– Both Groups Answer Questionnaire About:
• Political Efficacy
• Media Bias
• Evaluation of President Bush
Political Efficacy Results
Internal (Self)
External (Institutional)
Measure
• “People like me don’t have a say in
what the government does.”
• “Sometimes politics and
government seem so complicated
that a person like me can’t
understand what’s going on.”
Measure
• “I don’t think public officials care
much what people like me think.”
• “Democrats and Republicans can
put differences aside.”
Result
• Viewing clip led to slightly higher
internal efficacy
Result
• Viewing clip led to lower external
efficacy
Media Bias & Bush Evaluation Results
Media Bias
Bush Evaluation
Measure
 “The performance of the news
media is biased.”
Measure
 “Bush is leader, competent,
honest, and trustworthy.”
Result
 Viewing clip led to more
negative attitudes of media.
Result
 Viewing clip led to more
positive attitudes of Bush.
Experiment Conclusion
Viewing JibJab humor led to:
1. Believing you can influence politics and understand
what’s going on
2. Believing politicians and government don’t do
anything
3. Believing the news media is bias
4. Believing President Bush is a good leader
In-Class Assignment #14
Let’s watch another JibJab clip: President Obama
In groups, discuss the political messages, symbols, and
themes present in the clip.
Write your thoughts on a group paper.
In case you want to watch later…Other JibJab Political
Humor
 What We Call The News
 2008 Presidential Election
Laughing Matters, Ch. 16
B. Rottinghaus, K. Bird, T. Ridout, & R. Self
“It’s Better Than Being Informed”:
College-aged Viewers of The Daily
Show
Main Argument
 Infotainment popular campaign stop
 American Youth
 Embrace infotainment, TV, and Internet
 Rank Stewart as more credible than network anchors
 Learn more from infotainment than older adults
 So does infotainment increase political knowledge?
 Mixed findings from survey-based research
 For example:
 [+] = Infotainment increased knowledge of 2000 presidential
primary candidates
 [-] = Infotainment only increased knowledge of political scandal
and not issues
Main Argument
 Use focus groups instead of surveys
 Central questions
1.
Why do students watch TDS? What advantages does
TDS have over news?
2. What effect does this have on their perceptions of
media and politics?
Results: Laughing While Learning
Why watch TDS?
1. Funny (duh)
2. Targets all political sides
3. Provides in-depth coverage of issues across time
4. Keeps your attention better than news
5. TDS makes news relevant
6. Escape from reality

News is sad and negative, TDS is comic relief for this
Results: Laughing While Learning
What Effect Does This Have On Youth?
1. Learn about the contradictions, exaggerations, and
spin of news and politicians
2. Leads to a more critical eye for news and politics
3. Recall information better
 Easier to understand than news
4. Gateway to other news

Forces me to watch news if I want to get the joke
Pitfalls of TDS
 Humor is too distracting to learn
 Humor makes show less credible
 Any others?
In-Class Assignment #15
President Obama on TDS
Part 1 = Economy, Part 2 = Health Care, Part 3 = Corruption
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Why did Obama make an appearance on TDS?
What messages did Obama want to communicate?
Who was Obama’s target audience?
What are your opinions of Jon Stewart’s interview?
Was the interview too easy? Hard? Silly? Serious?
How do you think Obama’s appearance influenced
young voters?
Laughing Matters, Ch. 17
Patricia Moy
Effects of Late-Night Comedy &
Talk Shows
Evolution of Infotainment
Campaigning
1992
 Bill Clinton on Arsenio Hall Show
and MTV (briefs)
1996
 First Web campaigning
2000
 Bush & Gore on Oprah, SNL,
Letterman, Leno
 Web campaigning expanded
2004
 Kerry on The Daily Show
Main Argument
 Need to go beyond studying attention, interest, and
media use
 Need to study the backbone of participatory
democracy
 Knowledge (perceived and actual)
 Participation (voting and civic engagement)
 Use national survey data from 2000 & 2004
Results: Perceived Learning
 Where do you learn about presidential campaigns
from?
 Ranking of learn the most to learn the least.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Local TV news
Network TV news
Newspapers
Internet
Late-Night TV
Comedy shows
MTV
Results: Actual Political
Knowledge
 Who knows the most?
 Males, older adults, those with higher levels of
education and income, and whites
 Where do people actually learn?




Newspapers
Network TV news
Internet
Comedy shows
 Where do people fail to learn?
 Local TV news
 Late-Night TV
Results: Voting and Civic
Engagement
Who votes and engages more often?
 Older adults, more educated people, higher income
people, people with more actual political knowledge
 People who read newspapers
 People who watch network TV news
 People who use the Internet
 People who watch comedy shows
Who votes and engages less often?
 People who watch local TV news
Conclusions
 Perception is just that—perception.
 Local TV news contradiction
 People say they learn, but they don’t and are less likely
to vote/participate
 Newspapers still best source to learn and participate
 Internet and comedy shows growing in importance
for learning and participating