Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper presents a content analysis of the civic cues offered in the 'news' programming most watched by voters 30 and younger today, Jon Stewart's Daily Show, during the 10 weeks preceding Election 2004.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Comedy is generally considered the hardest genre to export, because of its cultural and linguistic specificity. However, American television comedies have managed, with various degrees of suc-ces, to penetrate the television landscapes of most European countries. This paper analyzes the import of American television comedy in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland, focusing on the role and position of central figures in the import of television programming: television buy-ers. Using television import figures as well as interview data, this paper will address, first, the po-sition of TV buyers, mediating between the international field of television exchange and national media contexts. Second, it will address the professional ethos of these television buyers. Ameri-can television import patterns are strongly dependent on the media landscape of a specific coun-try and TV network, much less on cultural similarity between a country and the US. However, while cultural differences may not have a very large impact on cross-national differences in im-port patterns, there are cultural barriers to import: some comedies are “too American” for Euro-pean audiences. Such cultural barriers, I will argue, tend to be the blind spot of cosmopolitan professionals like television buyers.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: This paper challenges the assumption, advanced in recent survey data published by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, that young audiences are abandoning traditional news as a source of election information in favor of late-night comedy programs. Instead, we offer evidence, consistent with Baum’s “gateway” hypothesis (2003), that exposure to late-night comedy increases attention paid to the presidential campaign in national network and cable news. Insofar as campaign news provides the context for the political jokes featured in late-night comedy monologues, late-night television appears to serve a socializing function, such that it motivates viewers to pay more focused attention to the campaign in hard news sources—perhaps so that they feel better equipped to enjoy the comedy. This analysis uses data collected via the National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES) during the 2004 presidential primary season, between October 30, 2003 and June 4, 2004. As hypothesized, cross-sectional results demonstrate that viewers of late-night comedy pay more attention to the campaign in national and network cable news than non-viewers, controlling for a variety of factors. Time series analysis also reveals that the rate of increase in hard news attention over the course of the primary season is greater for viewers of late-night comedy than for non-viewers.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Political pundits, parents, and scholars alike have expressed concern about youth attention to late-night political comedy shows, such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, suggesting that such viewing is deleterious for an active and efficacious citizenry. At the same time, as civic participation declines among adults, it appears to be growing among adolescents. This study assessed the effects of various types of television viewing on civic participation among high school students in a midwestern U.S. urban school district. Results demonstrate that viewing late-night TV had a positive and significant effect on civic participation, and this relationship was mediated by political efficacy. The same did not hold true for viewing national or local TV news. Moreover, viewing these late-night shows was not correlated with political cynicism—a relationship found in previous studies. Implications for the study of late-night TV content and further applications to the study of political socialization are discussed.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: Researchers discuss results of a study conducted with 494 children, 8 to 10 years of age, in Germany, Israel, the USA, Northern Ireland/the Republic of Ireland, and South Africa. Country-specific samples differed according to sex and separately determined stratified socio-cultural sub-groupings. The children watched excerpts from different humorous programs considered typical for the 5 countries, provided moment-by-moment ratings of humor via an electronic “Fun-O-Meter,” and subsequently discussed why segments were funny etc. The data reveal that commonalities among children’s responses to the presented programs are far greater than the differences. Children in very different regions of the world found the programs funny at the same points; a finding supported by the analysis of the group discussions. When international differences in humor appreciation appeared, they stemmed from issues such as language, cultural proximity and media diet, all of which are aspects of familiarity.