Comedy news shows continue to draw in new viewers
Sara John - STAFF WRITER
Issue date: 1/16/09 Section: Features
While comedy news shows do little or no original reporting, studies have shown young audiences have increasingly made them a preferred and powerful source of news.
The hosts of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" have both witnessed increased ratings since their inceptions in 1999 and 2005 respectively, especially with younger audiences.
Both shows present themselves as fake news programs, focusing more on laughs than on traditional journalism. The different presentation is what draws in the audience who is generally turned off by the seriousness and, in some cases, lack of appealing content on traditional network newscasts.
Des Moines resident Marie James, 26, said, "I am a huge fan of both Stewart and Colbert. I pretty much watch those shows for news. I can't sit through most broadcasts because they don't focus on what I care about. It's mostly elderly issues, like Medicare and prescription drug coverage."
In a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center, people voted Stewart among the journalists they most respected, ranking him in a fourth place tie with Tom Brokaw of NBC and Dan Rather of CBS. A second study, done this year by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, concluded "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," "is clearly impacting American Dialogue," and "getting people to think critically about the public square."
The Pew Report shows 21 percent of people age 18 to 29 watched "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report" as a primary news source, especially for coverage of the presidential campaign. Only 23 percent regularly watched nightly ABC, CBS or NBC reports.
Eight years ago, these numbers were significantly less during the same poll. At that time, only nine percent of young people regularly regarded these shows as primary sources of news, compared with 39 percent watching network shows.
In a 2003 interview with Bill Moyers, Stewart commented on the impact of his own show, stating that his show being so relevant spoke to the sad state of the media. He thought of himself as "a comedian who has the pleasure of writing jokes about things I actually care about."
The hosts of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" have both witnessed increased ratings since their inceptions in 1999 and 2005 respectively, especially with younger audiences.
Both shows present themselves as fake news programs, focusing more on laughs than on traditional journalism. The different presentation is what draws in the audience who is generally turned off by the seriousness and, in some cases, lack of appealing content on traditional network newscasts.
Des Moines resident Marie James, 26, said, "I am a huge fan of both Stewart and Colbert. I pretty much watch those shows for news. I can't sit through most broadcasts because they don't focus on what I care about. It's mostly elderly issues, like Medicare and prescription drug coverage."
In a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center, people voted Stewart among the journalists they most respected, ranking him in a fourth place tie with Tom Brokaw of NBC and Dan Rather of CBS. A second study, done this year by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, concluded "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," "is clearly impacting American Dialogue," and "getting people to think critically about the public square."
The Pew Report shows 21 percent of people age 18 to 29 watched "The Daily Show" or "The Colbert Report" as a primary news source, especially for coverage of the presidential campaign. Only 23 percent regularly watched nightly ABC, CBS or NBC reports.
Eight years ago, these numbers were significantly less during the same poll. At that time, only nine percent of young people regularly regarded these shows as primary sources of news, compared with 39 percent watching network shows.
In a 2003 interview with Bill Moyers, Stewart commented on the impact of his own show, stating that his show being so relevant spoke to the sad state of the media. He thought of himself as "a comedian who has the pleasure of writing jokes about things I actually care about."
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