Maybe it Is More Than a Joke: Satire, Mobilization, and Political Participation

Jody C Baumgartner and Brad Lockerbie

Social Science Quarterly, 2018, vol. 99, issue 3, 1060-1074

Abstract: Objective The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between viewing late night political humor and political participation. Methods We used various measures of viewership of late night talk shows and political participation in the 2012 American National Election Studies (ANES) data set. Results We show that viewership of “Late Night with David Letterman,” a simple form of political comedy, seems to be unrelated to political participation. However, viewership of Comedy Central's “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report,” considered by most to be genuine political satire, is associated with higher levels of political participation. Conclusion The results suggest that advocates of political satire may be correct when they suggest that satire mobilizes viewers to political action.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12501

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:socsci:v:99:y:2018:i:3:p:1060-1074

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0038-4941

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science Quarterly is currently edited by Robert L. Lineberry

More articles in Social Science Quarterly from Southwestern Social Science Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().