A dual-processing approach to the effects of viewing political comedy

Abstract

Stephen Colbert’s announcement that he would take over

Lyrical lessons: The potential of informative comedy music as supplementary teaching material

“…Both comedy and music have also been found to be effective within educational contexts in and out of a classroom setting. In previous studies, comedy improved short-term issue recognition, something that corresponds to memory results of online learning (Warner et al 2015;Southwick et al 2002). Furthermore, a teaching tool such as comedic Theoretical Theatre, where teachers "portray characters who physically embody different theories in interactive scenarios including a Question Time-style debate, a chat-show, or a date", has been analysed as a case study and researchers have suggested that it could help ground theoretical material in the classroom compared to traditional lectures (Gravey et al 2017).…”

“…For example, late-night talk shows such as The Daily Show include political issues with a comedic spin and have been shown to cover similar levels of news information as mainstream broadcast journalism (Brewer & Marquardt 2007;Feldman 2007), serving as a source of entertaining information since it first aired in 1996 in the United States. Similarly, comedic videos have also been shown to encourage audiences to think critically about manipulative media messages and weak arguments, for example when exposed to comedian Stephen Colbert's Super PAC video programming that "generated modest short-term issue recognition characteristic of online learning" (Warner et al 2015). Comedy in the media has also been shown to be effective in challenging gender roles and femininity through characters who did not fit traditional molds such as Lucille Ball in the 1950s (White 2016) and in educating audiences about racial issues and reducing racial tension such as with Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle starting in the 1980s (Green & Linders 2016).…”

“…Looking at the history of artists in comedic or novelty music also shows similar trends of informing while entertaining. Comedic music's history can be traced back to troubadours, wandering minstrels, and court jesters criticizing culture and the elite of the time ("Troubadour" 2009;Playing the fool" 2008;Otto 2007), transitioning through vaudeville acts filled with musical performances ("Vaudeville history" 2008), and continuing to the 1950s and 1960s when radio stations played the Top 40 hits that regularly contained novelty and comedy songs (Thompson 2013). Musicians such as Allan Sherman, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones, and Stan Freberg were successful, often making social commentary through musical comedy leading into the 1970s (Saperstein 2015;Graves 2006), exemplified by Allan Sherman's album My Son, the Nut reaching number one on Billboard Top LPs chart in 1962 (Zolotow 1963).…”

Social Media Content Preferences and Political Participation among Nigerian Youths

“…Due to inattentiveness to politics, resulting into 'rational ignorance', there is an increased tendency of political manipulation of politically apathetic citizens (Fishkin, 2009;Zaller, 1991), particularly in the elite-dominated public sphere of the mainstream media (Mustapha & Omar, 2020).Thus, it has been held that the transition to 'high choice' media environment of digital and social media has improved the political involvement among those who consume news rather than entertainment (Prior, 2005).Conversely, other studies conducted in this changing media environment have documented pockets of evidence signalling significant contributions of entertainment preference on political participation among social media users (Chen, 2017;Yu, 2016).Findings supporting influence of social media political satire on youths' political participation are instances of significant contribution of entertainment content to political engagement (Mustapha et al, 2019;Warner et al, 2015).These mixed findings necessitate further investigation into motivations for social media use and their attendant consequences on political participation, especially in a relatively young democracy like Nigeria's. Having research rooted in contexts other than those proposed by an academy that mostly writes from and for the Global North is an imperative if we, as social scientists, want to have a broad perspective to analyse the reality that surrounds us.…”

Participatory effects of political satire revisited in the age of digital media : the role of hard news, political expression and social media

“…This line of research has also tested for the learning effect of exposure to political satire (Feldman, 2013;Hardy et al, 2014;Y. M. Kim & Vishak, 2008; Benjamin R. Warner, Hawthorne, & Hawthorne, 2015). Based on the by-product learning hypothesis (Baum, 2002) and gateway hypothesis (Baum, 2003b), Baum argues that entertainment or comedy associated with soft news reduces the cognitive costs associated with learning about politics in the first place.…”