Late-night comedy television increases political discussion

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-The jokes by late-night comedy television hosts can be just as effective as regular political news in spurring discussion among viewers, a new University of Michigan study shows. In addition, political candidates could help their campaigns with mentions by shows like "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "Late Show with David Letterman" or "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." "The constructive role of comedy shows evidenced in this study suggests that political entertainment may serve as an important catalyst for revitalized civic life," said Hoon Lee, who conducted the research while seeking his doctorate from the U-M Department of Communication Studies. "This is an important finding, because then political candidates may be willing to use comedy programs to enhance their images." About 770 people completed an online experiment and a mail survey. The gender breakdown was nearly equal (51 percent female), most were white (74 percent) and the party affiliation was 36 percent Democrat and 34 percent Republican. They were assigned to one of three groups: late-night comedy, television hard news, or control. The first group of 256 people viewed a short video clip from "The Daily Show" comprising several segments about the government's bailout of big companies. The second group of 254 people was exposed to an "NBC Nightly News" video clip that also featured selected coverage of the government's bailout of big companies.