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

  • Benjamin R. Warner

    Benjamin R. Warner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His interests include political extremism, incivility, and political uses of digital media.

    , Hayley Jeanne Hawthorne

    Hayley Jeanne Hawthorne is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. Her interests include political campaigns, particularly issue campaigns, and specifically the campaign for marriage equality in the U.S.

    und Joshua Hawthorne

    Joshua Hawthorne is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His interests include political uses of social media and the influence of uncivil political messages on political violence.

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 14. Oktober 2015
HUMOR
Aus der Zeitschrift HUMOR Band 28 Heft 4

Abstract

Stephen Colbert’s announcement that he would take over Late Night for David Letterman signaled the end of nearly a decade long project in political satire. The evolution of political humor since Colbert began his satirical news program has been accompanied by a dramatic expansion in scholarly understanding of the effects of political comedy. This study contributes to research on the effects of political comedy by adopting a dual-processing approach to determine if exposure to political comedy can affect the political knowledge and attitudes of viewers. Two experiments were conducted to test the learning and persuasive effects of viewing a single clip from Colbert’s well-documented Super PAC parody. The first demonstrated that exposure to Colbert’s Super PAC programming generated modest short-term issue recognition characteristic of online learning. The second experiment demonstrated a substantial priming effect such that viewing argumentative forewarning in a Colbert segment about Super PAC attack ads significantly diminished the persuasive effect of those attacks.

About the authors

Benjamin R. Warner

Benjamin R. Warner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His interests include political extremism, incivility, and political uses of digital media.

Hayley Jeanne Hawthorne

Hayley Jeanne Hawthorne is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. Her interests include political campaigns, particularly issue campaigns, and specifically the campaign for marriage equality in the U.S.

Joshua Hawthorne

Joshua Hawthorne is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri. His interests include political uses of social media and the influence of uncivil political messages on political violence.

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Published Online: 2015-10-14
Published in Print: 2015-10-1

©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton

Heruntergeladen am 27.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/humor-2015-0099/pdf
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