Hearing it From Jon Stewart: The Impact of the Daily Show on Public Attentiveness to Politics

This study examines the impact of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, an American political comedy show, on public attentiveness to politics. I found that watching the show was positively related to following the issues that were covered with relative frequency by the program (e.g., the Afghanistan War in 2002 and news about the presidential candidates in 2004) among politically inattentive viewers. As viewers' political attentiveness increased, however, the magnitude of the positive relationship decreased. These findings, in light of those from previous research on the show, call for further investigations of the potential effect of the program and others of its ilk on the U.S. democratic system.