Political Humor as Democratic Relief? The Effects of Exposure to Comedy and Straight News on Trust and Efficacy

Abstract

Given the increasing prominence and visibility of political comedy programming, communication researchers have made considerable attempts to understand the effects of exposure to this humorous content on common indicators of democratic citizenship like trust in government and political efficacy. Analyzing data from research conducted among undergraduates enrolled at two major public universities in the spring of 2009, the current study offers evidence of a positive relationship between exposure to network political comedy and political trust. Moreover, the results highlight significant relationships between exposure to cable comedy, cable news, online political humor, learning from variety programs, and personal evaluations of internal political efficacy. All told, the current study furthers our understanding of the effects of exposure to comedy and straight news programming on youth political engagement.

Notes

¹Although this percentage may seem low, it mirrors the percentage of Americans (8%) who said they visited candidate Web sites to gather campaign or candidate information (Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 2008a).

²The second video was a 6-min clip from a recent segment of the PBS NewsHour on the growing number of homeless school children in a midsize city. This clip was used as a contrast to the initial stimulus material and was part of an examination of political learning that is the focus of another research effort.

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^bHigh = conservative.

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^aHigh = Republican.

^bHigh = conservative.

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***p < .001.

^# p < .10.