Easten Michigan Univesity DigitalCommons@EMU Senio Honos Theses Honos College 2013 The Vitual Watecoole: Influences of Political Comedy on Social Media Discussion Andew Abad Follow this and additional woks at: http://commons.emich.edu/honos Pat of the Political Science Commons, and the Theate and Pefomance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Abad, Andew, "The Vitual Watecoole: Influences of Political Comedy on Social Media Discussion" (2013). Senio Honos Theses. 370. http://commons.emich.edu/honos/370 This Open Access Senio Honos Thesis is bought to you fo fee and open access by the Honos College at DigitalCommons@EMU. It has been accepted fo inclusion in Senio Honos Theses by an authoized administato of DigitalCommons@EMU. Fo moe infomation, please contact libi@emich.edu.
The Vitual Watecoole: Influences of Political Comedy on Social Media Discussion Abstact With the emegence of social media activity as a daily phenomenon fo most Ameicans, online uses ae becoming geate consumes of political infomation, and ae choosing to shae that infomation though social media outlets. A vitual "watecoole effect" is ceated, in the fom of online political debates and aguments. This study examines the connection between viewes of political comedy pogammings (television shows like The Daily Show With Jon Stewat and The Colbet Repot) and political discussion on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitte. Using a suvey of EMU undegaduate students that measues political efficacy and media habits, in addition to an expeiment compaing political comedy to taditional news coveage, this pesentation will e-define the peception of younge votes as non-paticipants in the political system and geneate discussion of new mediums of political paticipation in 21st centuy politics. Degee Type Open Access Senio Honos Thesis Depatment Political Science Fist Adviso Dennis Patick Keywods social media, political leaning, political comedy, the daily show with jon stewat, the cobet epot, vitual watecoole Subject Categoies Political Science Theate and Pefomance Studies This open access senio honos thesis is available at DigitalCommons@EMU: http://commons.emich.edu/honos/370
1 THE VIRTUAL WATERCOOLER: Influences of Political Comedy on Social Media Discussion By AndewAbad A Senio Thesis Submitted to the Easten Michigan Univesity Honos College in Patial Fulfillment of the Requiement fo Gaduation with Honos in the Depatment of Political Science and the Depatment of Communication, Media, and Theate Atts Appoved at Ypsilanti, Michigan on this date ~'Q ce,~=< \~. 'Lt::> \3.
2 Acknowledgements This senio thesis poject is a esult of ove two semestes woth of study and a geat deal of help. They say that it takes a village to aise a child, and I do not believe it to be any diffeent fo a student. I have been so vey blessed to have the incedible suppot of the entie EMU community. I want to extend my thanks fist and foemost to my pees, faculty membes, and staff fo allowing me to thive at Easten these past few yeas. The EMU Honos College also deseves thei fai shae of cedit; I am and will always be poud to be an Honos student, and appeciate the guidance and fiendship of D. Becky Sipe, John Feldkamp, and Katie Augustaitis. In egads to the dissemination ofeseach, Geoff Lacom was instumental in the success of the suvey of political paticipation. I would like to ecognize Jeffey Copp and Rachel Shelton fo thei help in ochestating focus goup sessions in Downing Hall and ensuing a good tunout. To D. Dennis Patick and D. Jeff Benstein, I would like to expess how much espect and admiation I have fo both of you. The passion and cae you have fo kids like me is univaled in Ypsilanti o beyond, and you have both given me a gift that I can only hope to epay to futue geneations of students as a pofesso o othewise. Thank you so much fo you time, you advice, and you suppot of my development into something that may esemble a schola sometime soon. Lastly, I would like to thank my close fiends and family. You have been ight hee with me on this cazy ide, and I couldn't be moe thankful fo those who have filled my head and heat full of wondeful memoies. I especially want to thank my stepfathe Andew Piazza, my gandmothe Babaa Doll, and most impotantly my mothe, Julie Piazza, fo thei unyielding confidence and suppot, no matte which diection my passions led me. Eveyone needs a pit cew, and this victoy is evey bit as much theis as it is mine. To Emma, Lyic, Alexus, and
3 baby Gace - I can only hope that my wok as a student inspies you to ty you best, and my wok as a bothe ensues that you have all the tools and encouagement to accomplish whateve you gils can deam of. I'll always be on you team, and will be thee wheneve you need an ea, a shoulde, a helping hand, o a bodyguad, no matte the cicumstance.
4 Table of Contents Intoduction... 5 Liteatue Review... 7 Methodology... 13 Data and Findings... l6 Social Media and Political Comedy lmplications... 30 Limitations and Futue Reseach...38 Conclusion... 39 Refeences... 41 Appendix A: Undegaduate Suvey fo Political Paticipation...45 Appendix B: Initial Suvey fo Expeimental Session/Post-Clip Suvey... 53 Appendix C: Video Clips used in Expeimental Session... 59
5 The Vitual Watecoole: Influences of Political Comedy on Social Media Discussion Autho: Andew A bad, Easten Michigan Univesity Faculty Sponso: D. Jeffi-ey Benstein, Easten Michigan Univesity Faculty Sponso: D. Dennis Patick, Easten Michigan Univesity With the advent of new technologies, the ways in which an individual engages, pocesses and shaes infomation can change in vaious ways. In politics, these new technologies have become "game changes" fo candidates, fom the ability of a young John F. Kennedy to win a televised debate he would have othewise lost on the adio, to most ecently the ability of Pesident Baack Obama to connect and engage votes using the Intenet But what may be even moe valuable to the study of politics and communication ae the ways that the Intenet, and moe specifically social media websites, ae beginning to efame the context though which people inteact, lean about, and patiicipate in the political system. Social media websites like
6 Facebook, Twitte, and YouTube.com each possess millions of uses that access the site multiple times pe day. The populaity of these sites ceates geat possibilities fo businesses, maketes, and inteest goups acoss industies. Companies, spots teams, and politicians alike all have capitalized off of the social media boom, ceating obust pofiles that boast millions of fiends, followes, o subscibes. The ability fo infomation to be spead though these channels in eal time and each millions has had a pofound effect on ou political landscape, and is beginning to change the ways scholas analyze and study political communication in the 21st centuy. Anothe topic of inteest in this study is the ole that political comedy pogamming, typically best chaacteized as television pogams like The Daily Show with Jon Stewat o The Colbet Repot, can play in cultivating political inteest and activity, especially amongst younge populations. Reseach pefomed by D. Geoffey Baym has highlighted this effect, stating that while, "comedy povides its initial appeal... humo assembles the audience... but comedy also povides the method to engage in seious political citicism" (Baym 2006). The unique chaacteistics that define political comedy pogamming, matched with an exceedingly apathetic audience in egads to taditional politics, offe a legitimate question to eseaches. Is political comedy pogamning changing the ways in which younge people inteact with politics, and what ole, if any, can social media websites play in facilitating this effect? The second facet of this study seeks to fmd a connection between political comedy pogamming and content on social media sites. It is the hope that, if such a link exists, political comedy pogamning helps to foste political discussion and infomation shaing on social media sites, specifically among the youngest geneations of votes.
7 I. Young Votes and Social Media Liteatue Review As the fist geneations of "digital natives" (Pensky 2001) ae enteing college, they ae often chaacteized as among the most politically apathetic and uninvolved (Wattenbeg 2012; Weave Laiscy, et. al. 2011). But as these young adults become a pat of the political system and gain the ight to vote, they ae enteing communities of students that ae inceasingly connected to one anothe though the Intenet and the use of mobile devices like cell phones and tablets. The Pew Intenet and Ameican Life Poject (heeafte Pew) has tacked the influence of these technologies ove time, and shown how the youngest geneations of votes have been by fa the quickest and most consistent adoptes. Ofthe 18-24 age goup, 78% ae smatphone ownes, and of the 95% of all young adults that go online egulaly, 92% use a social media site (Pew 2012, 2013). The ise of social media websites like Face book and Twitte has had an exceptional impact on the study of political communication. Social media websites allow uses to netwok with each othe by ceating an online pofile that can connect to pofiles of othe fi iends o thei fiends' fiends (Ancu and Cozma 2009). The majo populaity of social media websites dates back to aound 2006, when use of social netwoking sites among intenet uses ages 18-29 exploded fom 9% to 49% in only a one yea peiod. (Pew 2011) Of the top 10 most visited websites by Intenet uses in the United States, fou ae chaacteized as social media sites, with Facebook.com is listed as the 2nd most visited website, the video shaing community Y outube.com listed 3'd, pofessional netwoking site Linkedin.com listed 8'\ and Twitte.com listed 9th amongst an aay of websites dedicated to online shopping, news sites, and seach engines (Alexa 2013).
8 This incedible gowth of social media was not by mistake. Fo many, using social media websites pesented the oppotunity fo uses to econnect with lost fiends, maintain connections with thei cuent social netwok, o even to become connected with pospective fiends o omantic inteests. The pimay eason Intenet uses ae joining social media sites is to make connections with family membes and fiends, both old and new. (Pew 2011) While that is the pimay pupose fo most uses, thee ae many othe functions that diffeent social media websites offe thei membes. Connected to a netwok of geneally hundeds, if not thousands of othe uses, these sites allow the ceation and display of use-geneated content, which can be anything fom a status update o shot message to an uploaded pictue o video. Uses ae able to like, comment, and shae these posts with uses connected to thei accounts, speading infomation at an exponential ate. These netwoks have also ceated the possibility of shaed content becoming "vial" defined by the Meiam-Webste dictionay as content, "quickly and widely spead o populaized especially by peson-to-peson electonic communication" (Meiam Webste 2013). The vial possibilities of social media sites have ceated a quasi-gold ush fo businesses and oganizations looking to gain attention and exposue though these online mediums. This has attacted a bevy of mainsteam media content fom nealy evey majo news oganization, as well as aising the pofile of othe online news souces like The Htifjington Post and Yahoo! News that ae moe native to the digital fomat. As ecent as 2009, most taditional news oganizations like The New Yok Times and The Associated Pess have been taking full advantage of the oppotunities to integate with social media websites in a vaiety of ways. Some oganizations have hied social media editos to manage content, and have also adopted ways fo uses to opt into alets fo news and have the ability to shae news infomation with thei netwok
9 offi iends (Glynn, Huge, and Hoffinan 2011; Messing and Westwood 2012). But quietly, these netwoks have also ceated the famewok fo political discouse that has neve been befoe possible; a foum fo individuals that may not explicitly seek political content but may find and inteact with it in the fom of use-geneated and shaed content that can be vey political, especially duing peiods of heavy media coveage aound political events. Anothe phenomenon ceated by the emegence and populaity of social media sites is the way in which news become socialized and shaed with othes. The wok of Messing and Westwood focused on the exposue of Intenet news on social media sites, and agues that the, "socialization of intenet news fundamentally altes the context in which news eading occus, poviding a venue that pomotes exposue to news fom political heteogeneous individuals, and which seves to emphasize social value athe than patisan affiliation" (Messing and Westwood 2012). This not only points to an abeation fom that way news is taditionally viewed, but speaks to a lage point about the ways social media can change discussion. The ability of social media websites to aggegate content fom vitually any online souce intoduces uses to a divese ange of souces and once found to be eading the aticle on a news site, is enticed to continue eading content on the site ecommended by the use's fiends (Messing and Westwood 2012). Combined with a divese netwok of social media contacts, common fo the youngest geneation of votes, uses will become inceasingly exposed to moe divese political infomation. If social media uses ae in fact eading news stoies as a esult of exposue on thei espective sites, it could tanslate to a positive effect on the intenal political efficacy and ate of political paticipation of the uses. In a study of campaign advetisements and online paticipation, Shah et a!. found that, "news use pomotes inceased political knowledge and
10 awaeness of civic oppotunities and objectives, often indiectly though eflection about public affais" (Shah et a!. 2009). The eseaches in this study also found that the news media povides esouces fo discussion and will featue viewpoints that may not be available in a use's standad social netwok. In this way, social media sites fit the model pefectly by poviding a platfom though which one can espond, debate, and lean of political infomation though discussion with not only connected uses but also the netwok fom the oiginal ceato of the content. Shah et a!. concluded in thei study that news consumption does hold a connection to paticipation in both civic and political life and also that thee is a positive effect between news consumption and the use's amount of political expession. While this is cetainly good news fo scholas of political leaning, I believe that this also begins to outline the way social media is ceating new possibilities fo uses to inteact with and consume political news content egulaly. If social endosements made by liking, commenting, and shaing a fiend's post suggest some utility to eading the aticle, if fo no othe eason than to undestand the discussion, than we begin to see that it mattes less about how passionate one may feel about politics, news o othe content, o even patisan affiliation, but athe how you ae motivated socially to connect with you netwok of fiends and choose to inteact with them online. II. Political Comedy Pogamming The effect of socializing content and making it moe popula to nomally apathetic o unmotivated eades is not limited to social media websites. Indeed, political comedy pogamming employs a simila mechanism, using satie and comedy as the appeal athe than the content itself. As a fom of soft news, The Daily Show with Jon Stewat and The Colbet Repot offe viewes a satiical take on ecent political news, egulaly making fun of mainsteam pesonalities, especially politicians (Baumgatne and Mois 2009; Baym 2006).
11 The show is most popula amongst Ameicans between the ages of 18-24, who watch and enjoy the pogam moe often than any othe goup (Baumgatne and Mois 2009). These "fake news" shows ai nightly Monday-Thusday on Comedy Cental in 30-minute time slots between 11:00 PM and midnight and ae late shown as e-uns. Howeve, as much as the pogams like to claim that they ae puely intended fo comedic puposes, many scholas suggest that these shows ae changing the way many Ameicans, especially younge viewes, inteact with and think about politics (Becke, Xenos, and Waisanen 2010). Much of these claims stem fom the idea that these shows, while making fun of politicians and news oganizations, "inteogate the content of news media, the "eal" news that aguably is failing its democatic function" (Baym 2006). The satiical citicism of these events in many ways exposes the flaws of both the mainsteam media today, as well as the boade issues of an ineffective govenment, iddled with patisan gidlock and incompetence. Some scholas have claimed that by pointing out the flaws in ou system, political comedy viewes may ultimately become moe cynical and disenchanted with ou system of govenment (Baumgatne and Mois 2009), while othes (Cao 2008) find no evidence to show that viewes of these pogams ae discouaged fom political paticipation. Convesely, many scholas have studied how political comedy encouages political paticipation. Cao and Bewe explain that, "political comedy shows may incease political paticipation by fosteing common expeiences and opinions among views. Moeove, such pogams usually pesent politics in an entetaining manne, which may lead viewes to think that politics is enjoyable, theeby stimulating political paticipation" (Cao and Bewe 2008).A gowing body of liteatue also suggests that political comedy pogamming is inceasingly effective in simplifying complex political issues, aising a viewe's self-efficacy, which in tun
12 inceases paticipation (Baumgatne and Mois 2009; Baym and Shah 2011; Cao 2008). In the context of younge votes, these effects have begun to outline a geate push to edefine citizenship and civic engagement in the digital ea. Baym and Shah wite, "E-mailing a Colbet clip o embedding a TDS video thus can be seen as a political act o a pefomance of citizenship -a means of engaging with and intevening in mattes of pesonal and public concen" (Baym and Shah 2011 ). Clealy, this type of action is highly conducive to the younge, moe connected, geneations of votes tageted in this study. Accoding to Pew (2012), 81% of cell phone uses 18-24 use thei phone to distact themselves duing beaks, get infomation, o engage with othes while watching TV. Twenty eight pecent of espondents admit to using thei phones to see what othes ae saying about what they ae watching, and 43% say they exchange text messages with othes watching the same thing. An additional 28% say they post thei own comments online about a television pogam, which might be on a social media website. Most impotantly, the data may suggest that young adults ae moe citical consumes of such mateial, with 43% admitting to using thei cell phones to check whethe something they head on television was in fact tue. This speaks vey well to claims that by watching political comedy, they ae pimed to question the things they see and hea, lean moe about cetain topics, and ae at the vey least somewhat willing to geneate thei own content based on thei expeiences. Aside fom using thei phones and talking about the television shows they watch, young adults ae also moe likely to watch, post, and shae video clips online. Ninety-two pecent of adults aged 18-29 watch videos on a site like You Tube o Vimeo, and 57% watch videos on a social media website (Pew 2013). Specifically in egads to comedy poganuning, the gene was indicated as the top type of video viewed online acoss age goups, but was found the most popula oveall by those aged 18-29, with 82% of online video watches saying they watch
13 comedy o humo videos. Video types explicitly labeled "News" o "Politics" do less well, with only 57% and 35% of online viewes admitting to watch espectively (Pew 2013). This again points to the attactiveness that humo and satie can have both on TV and on emeging media platfoms, giving it a distinct advantage ove taditional news souces. Both social media websites and political comedy pogamming ae two mechanisms by which young votes ae inceasingly attacted to and inteacting with political content. These two complementay mediums and thei abilities ae yet to be fully discoveed, but available liteatue and elevant data fom the last decade show a clea, positive tend in chaacteistics of leaning and engagement with political content that could have a temendous effect on the way we think about political communication and young votes. Methodology The pimay goal fo this study is to dete1mine how these tends in social media use and political comedy viewing ae begilming to edefine political paticipation, civic engagement, and political efficacy in college-age votes. Despite the liteatue and polling egading both subjects, one must also wonde whethe o not the data ae epesentative of thei own suoundings. To exploe this question, and lean moe about the ways that students at Easten Michigan Univesity ae using social media and political comedy to foste paticipation, civic engagement, and self-efficacy, a study was designed in two distinct pats, each looking to answe diffeent questions elating to the boade topic at hand. I. Undegaduate Suvey of Political Paticipation The fist aspect of the poject was the ceation of an online suvey that would be sent out to voting-age (ove 18) college students at Easten Michigan Univesity. The suvey in total was
14 30 questions, and was ceated in an effot to get a boad sense of the college-age population's political beliefs, efficacy, and paticipation. (The entie suvey is epoduced in Appendix A.) The fist thee questions of the suvey wee asked in an effot to gauge the individual's political efficacy, asking if the espondent felt qualified to paticipate in politics, whethe o not they fotmd politics complicated, and if they felt like they had a good undestanding of the impotant national issues facing ou county. The next seies of questions looked specifically at paticipation, and asked if they had voted in the most ecent election, whethe o not thei pefeed candidate won, and what thei most ecent voting expeience was. Questions 8-11 dealt specifically with political knowledge, asking the espondent to identify the Pesident and Vice Pesident's political affiliation, as well as to name the majoity paty in the House and Senate. Respondents wee also asked to name the Speake of the House of Repesentatives and the Senate Majoity Leade. Questions 12-14 asked the espondent to ate how much they felt they paticipated in politics, whethe o not thei level of paticipation has changed since enteing college, and how often they discussed politics with family o fiends, if at all. Questions 15-16 looked to establish a link between political paticipation and social media, asking espondents whee they communicated about politics, with social media websites listed as an answe choice. Question 16 was the only question in the suvey to deal with political comedy pogamming, asking espondents to ate how fequently they accessed a specific list of news souces, with The Daily Show with Jon Stewat and The Colbet Repot both listed as "news souces". Questions 17-30 wee explicitly listed as demogaphic infomation and wee asked in an effot to analyze the population of students taking the suvey.
15 II. Expeimental Study on Political Comedy vs. Taditional News and Focus Goups The second half of the study was intended to study the elationship between political comedy pogamming and college students and was expeimental by design. Composed of goups of 10-12 students living in esidence halls on-campus, a pe-test suvey was initially distibuted to all students that asked fo espondents to disclose thei media habits, paty affiliation, and pesonal inteest in two specific political issues. (All mateial fom expeimental study is shown in Appendix B.) The fst two goups wee asked to ate pesonal inteest in "the ongoing political gidlock and filibusteing in the US Senate" and "the US Supeme Cout and its eview of civil ights legislation". The next phase of the expeiment was to show the goups of students clips fom fou television pogams, two taditional news pogams (NBC Nightly News with Bian Williams and PBS NewsHou) and two political comedy pogams (The Daily Show with Jon Stewat and The Colbett Repot). Fo the puposes of the study, the clips wee contolled to discuss the same two issues, both aied duing the fst week ofmach 2013; the Rand Paul filibuste on done stikes and the Supeme Cout's decision to hea a case challenging the Voting Rights Act. Clips wee pesented to each goup in a andom ode, altenating between a taditional news clip and a political comedy clip. Each goup of students saw two seies of clips, totaling in eight clips fom the fou shows. While each clip diffeed slightly in tems oflength, they geneally lasted between 3-5 minutes each. Afte the clips wee shown, the students wee asked to take a post-clip suvey, which asked questions diectly elating to the content of the clips and the expeience elated to watching each show, ating the pogams on claity, elevance, explanation of concepts, and bias. The suvey also diectly asked students to conside whethe o not they would conside shaing the clips with othes, eithe by wod of mouth, e-mail, o though a social media website. Lastly, the
16 suvey asked students to answe geneal knowledge questions about the content of the clips themselves. Afte the post-clip suveys wee completed, the students wee teated to the incentive of fee food and wee asked to gathe infomally to talk about the expeiment and the boade topics associated with the study itself. A shot 20-30 minute focus goup session was infomally conducted aftewad. While some students may have been familia with myself o othe subjects duing the session, no names o identifying infomation was eve collected duing the couse of the study. Data and Findings I. Data and Findings fom Undegaduate Suvey of Political Paticipation The suvey was distibuted to univesity students via e-mail by M. Geoff Lacom, Executive Diecto of Media Relations at EMU, on Mach 12, 2013. The suvey was closed two days late on Mach 14u', 2013, and eceived ove 500 student esponses. Afte the suvey was closed, espondents that did not indicate thei consent to take the suvey o left the suvey befoe completion wee emoved fom the dataset, leaving 452 valid esponses. Of the 452 students who consented to answe the suvey questions, 442 espondents answeed evey question of the suvey. This esponse total, geneally high fo an undegaduate student's eseach effots, allowed fo a sizeable sample of EMU students that could yield statistically significant data. To begin the suvey, we asked espondents to espond Figue 1 to thee statements and agee by answeing l fael qualified to paticipate in politics. yes o disagee by answeing no. Related to political self-efficacy, Figue 1 shows that 73.1% of espondents felt qualified to
17 paticipate in politics. Typically, those with highe levels of efficacy would answe yes and feel confident in thei ole as votes and paticipants. Those with lowe levels would not feel comfotable and answe no. Fom this question, we can asset that most feel some sense of belonging in the political wold, egadless of inteest. Howeve, 61% of the same espondent pool ageed with the statement, "Sometimes politics is too complicated fo me to undestand". This shows that while they feel some sense of efficacy, politics emains a complicated and sometimes confusing subject of study. Howeve, eflecting most liteatue pefomed on the subject of voting behavio, thee-quaties of espondents believed that they had a good undestanding of impotant national issues. To effectively gauge levels of political paticipation, the suvey asked about voting behavio and candidate pefeence. One statistically significant piece of data is that some 81% pecent of espondents epoted that they had voted in the most ecent Pesidential election. Howeve, this data may be ovestated by some who actually did not but epoted voting to make it appea that they wee fulfilling the civic duties associated with citizenship (Pesse, Taugott, and Taugott 1990). Additionally, the suvey's opt-in natue eflects a goup of espondents that geneally paticipate moe than those who do not choose to espond. About two-thids of espondents eithe suppoted o voted fo the incumbent Democat, Pesident Baack Obama, while about a thid pefeed o voted fo Republican nominee Mitt Ronmey. The suvey also included a numbe of political knowledge questions that vaied in difficulty. The easiest question, asking espondents to name the political paty ofthe Pesident and Vice Pesident, was answeed coectly by 97% of espondents. Fom thee, the questions inceased in difficulty, asking which political paty had the majoity of seats in the Senate (54% coectly said Democats), who the
18 Senate Majoity leade was (52% coectly identified Hay Reid), and who was the Speake of the House of Repesentatives (62% wee able to coectly name John Boehne). One goal of this suvey was to see how much of a ole a college envionment could have on political paticipation. Indeed, in a setting ipe with oppotunities to leam moe about the political system, intoduced to a divesity of people and thought, combined with the oppotunity to voluntee, potest, and ally fo political change though student oganizations, one could hypothesize that a college campus could spu involvement in political causes. When asked to identify how thei level of paticipation has changed since enteing college, Figue 2 shows that 45% of espondents said that thei level of political paticipation eithe inceased o lagely inceased since becoming a student. Even though half of espondents didn't sense a change, the data emains statistically significant, eaffmnin.g a college campus as a potential acceleant fo political activity. Figue 2 How.has you level of polltlcal paticipation changed since becoming a college student? ttei~ lag.:> Qe.,eMi!i ID1~e -NoChofl!i& tu!iinc.. lliiij lalge. lnc83s'$ 20% 30%
19 To finish the suvey, we asked specific demogaphic questions that would give us a bette idea of ou pool at lage. While some questions wee hade to quantify because of thei open-ended natue, othes wee easie to discen. Related to EMU's composition as a commute school, 45% of espondents identified as tansfe students, unusually high fo most othe college campuses. Only 28% of espondents live on-campus, and thee-quates ae employed in addition to academic wok, mostly pat-time. A little less than half of espondents epoted to come fom middle class families, and a clea majoity identified as Caucasian, which pesents a common limitation of suvey data. Also faily common was the gende beakdown, in which 67% of espondents identified as female and 33% identified as male. Just ove half of espondents ae also elatively new to EMU, having stated in 2011 o 2012. Reflecting ou lage numbes of tansfe students, ove 65% of espondents ae of junio o senio status, meaning they have completed 61 o moe cedit hous towads gaduation. These data also eflect the somewhat olde age of the espondent pool, with the aveage espondent being 25 yeas of age. The most elevant section of the suvey was focused on how egulaly espondents communicate about politics and the mechanisms they use to do so. By having uses self-epot thei communication habits, we can gain moe data on not only thei habits, but also thei peceptions about the influence of the political wold on daily communication. While about half of espondents epoted that they communicated about politics about once pe month o less, almost 20% epoted talking about politics with fiends o family 2-3 times pe week, with anothe 20% of espondents saying they talked about politics once pe week. But what be most
20 emegent fom this suvey is the data fom the next question, shown in Figue 3, which asks how espondents chose to communicate with othes about politics. Figue 3 How have you communicated about politics (issues, candidates, etc.) with you family o fiends, if at all? (Check all that apply) 100%,-----~~-------------------------------------------------------- 80%-1-- 60%-t-~ 0%-j-- As we can see fom the data, in-peson communication is by fa the most popula amongst espondents. Howeve, the clea second in how espondents talk about politics is social media websites like Facebook and Twitte. This data shows that people peceive social media sites to be a place fo political discouse and use it in vaying amounts to paticipate in the political pocess. This peception, combined with cicumstances of heavy political activity like the pimay season o the yea leading up to the geneal election, could lead to even geate paticipation and activity on these sites.
21 Leaning the media habits of college students is also of geat impotance to this study. The suvey asked espondents to indicate how fequently they accessed a vaiety of news souces acoss media. Majo news netwoks and oganization, both local and national, wee listed between newspapes, adio, television, and online countepats. Fo the puposes of this study, The Daily Show with Jon Stewat and The Colbet Repot wee also added as news souces. Figue 4 Among news souces, How fequently do you access the following news souces eithe In pint, on television/adio, o online? local television, and to a lesse extent local newspape, continue to emain the most popula, even amongst the student populations Wilh Six a moe ~ ti.es pet \li-e<ik ~=~to..:t ERDnwoW.iceaweek suveyed. VVhenlooking at national netwok news We!IS!e tjcumal syndicates like MSNBC, FOXNews, and CNN, we Locol newspopec- 50% see that thee ae many casual viewes who may watch once o twice a week, but fewe than 10% who watch thee o moe times pe week. Among news souces watched thee to five times pe week, political comedy pogamming was second only to local TV news among choices. Indeed, both TDS and Colbet had, in compaison to the est of the field, stong followings of viewes that would allow fo moe nuanced analysis of thei own habits and tendencies, especially in egads to social media use.
22 II. Data and Findings fom Expeimental Study on Political Comedy vs. Taditional News In an effot to get moe specific data egading the effects of political comedy pogamming on student audiences, two expeimental sessions wee held. The fist of two sessions occued on Monday, Mach 18th, 2013 in Buell Hall, a Residence Hall fo uppeclassman on-campus. The second and final session took place late the same week, on Wednesday Mach 20th, 2013 in Downing Hall, anothe Residence Hall on campus that equied a 3.0 GPA fo esidency and featued mainly Honos students. These demogaphics mioed the high achieving and geneally olde student espondent pool of the suvey in Phase 1, and wee ecuited andomly to paticipate. The sessions wee attended by 11 and 12 esidents, espectively. This gave us a total of 23 espondents fo the both suveys that wee distibuted, befoe and afte pmticipants viewed television clips. Looking at the each goup individually, thee wee no meaningful coss-goup diffeences acoss suveys. Since the goups wee shown the same clips and completed the same suveys, the analysis of data will include all esponses fom both sessions. The pe-clip suvey was distibuted as paticipants wee getting settled into the lounge. The goup did not move on to watching the clips until all attendees finished the suvey. The hype link to the fist suvey was distibuted online though e-mail message and consisted of 5 shot questions that aimed to gathe infomation on the goup's media habits, specifically with political comedy pogamming, inteest in the topics that the clips petained to, and paty pefeence. As expected, most had some exposue to TDS and Colbet in the past, about half claiming to watch each show "aely" o "sometimes". A modified vesion of the media souces question was asked, asking how often they accessed each television netwok fo specifically political content. Comedy Cental, the netwok that boadcasts TDS and Colbet, was listed as an
23 answe choice, and was, supisingly, the most popula1 81Uongst espondents, with 52% of espondents claiming to access the site fo political infomation at least sometimes. CNN was the second choice amongst these students, mioing data fom the lage suvey with 39% claiming to watch at least sometimes fo political infomation. The next two questions elated to inteest in the subjects of the clips they would be viewing. About 65% ofthe espondents wee at least somewhat inteested in the "ongoing political gidlock and filibusteing in the US Senate" and ove half of espondents indicated they wee "inteested" o "vey inteested" in the "US Supeme Cout and its eview of civil ights legislation". Pehaps the most confusing data fom the pe-clip suvey was fom the final question, asking espondents to indicate the political paty they most eadily identify with. Figue 5 shows the beakdown of pa1iicipants by paty identification, with ove 40% identifying as independent, the est split between the two majo paties and a popula libetaian choice 81Uongst students. While a majoity of the paticipants identified as independent, liteatue and data suggest that the concept of a tuly independent vote is nothing shot of myth (Keith et al. 1992), with many possessing patisan schemas (Cao 2008) on specific issues o ultimately voting the popula ticket. CNN exit poll data fom the last fou majo national elections shows that in each case (the 2006 midtem elections, 2008 pesidential election, 2010 midtem elections, and 2012 pesidential election), independents wee hadly split, in each case voting fo eithe Democats o Republicans by a comfotable 5% magin o moe, and in 2010, iding the winds of a Republican landslide, saw a magin of ove 19% in favo of the GOP (CNN 2006; 2008; 2010; 2012).
24 Figue 5 What political paty do you most eadily Identify with? 00~~---------------------------------------------- The goups wee then shown two sets of fou clips, altemating between a political comedy clip (fom TDS and Colbet) and a taditional news clip (PBS NewsHou and NBC Nightly News) fo each issue. Afte the last clip of the second set ended, a second link was e mailed to paticipants to take the post-clip suvey. This suvey was bit longe than the pevious, with 13 questions that asked espondents to ate the clips on a vaiety of factos, indicate pefeence of the shows and types of clips, and to answe basic knowledge questions that could be logicauy answeed afte leaning about the stoies. The fist question asked the paticipants to indicate which pogams they found paticulaly inteesting and engaging, and the esults wee unsupisingly clea in favo of political comedy pogamming. The Colbet Repot was pefeed by 83% of viewes, with The Daily Show with Jon Stewat only a few pecentage points behind, pefeed by 78% of viewes. Fo compadson, Nightly News with Bian Williams was only found inteesting and engaging by
25 17% of viewes, and PBS NewsHou did even wose, with only 2 of the 23 paticipants (a mee 8.7%) fmding the pogam of inteest to them. The next fou questions, petaining to each of the fou pogams viewed, asked espondents to agee o disagee (on a five point Liket scale) with the following fou statements: 1. This show pesented infomation clealy 2. This show included elevant and legitimate content (news souces, epotes, guests) 3. This show explained concepts and issues well 4. This show was not biased in its epoting of the issues and stoies These statements can be simplified to the fou chaacteistics: claity, content, explanation of concepts, and bias. The questions in the suvey wee pesented to espondents to ate one show at a time on each of the fou statements. Tables 1-4 wee compiled fom this data and pesent to compae esponses fo each statement between each of the pogams. Table 1: Claity (This show pesented infomation clealy) Show Stongly Disagee Neutal Agee Stongly Agee Disagee Nightly News 4.3% (1) 4.3 (1) 26.1%(6) 43.5% (10) 21.7% (5) with Bian Williams The Colbet 0 21.7% (5) 8.7% (2) 56.5% (13) 13% (3) Repot PBS NewsHou 0 8.7% (2) 13% (3) 52.2% (12) 26.1% (6) The Daily Show 4.3% (1) 8.7% (2) 17.4% (4) 56.5% (13) 13.0% (3) with Jon Stewat
26 As we can see in Table I, most espondents believed that all fou shows wee elatively clea in thei pesentation of the infomation. PBS NewsHou ated the highest amongst viewes, but both political comedy pogams and Nightly News with Bian Williams wee believed to be simila in claity. One supise in this table is the 22% who felt that The Colbet Repot was unclea. This could possibly have to do with the natue of the clips themselves, o with the way that comedy was used to pesent the stoy. In the focus goups, some espondents did note that sometimes the comedy did daw them away fom the messages and content of the stoies themselves and moe towads the jokes the pesonalities wee making. This concen was shaed amongst moe of the goup, aguing that while the jokes wee amusing and they laughed, they didn't get as good of a sense fo the stoy as they did when watching the taditional news clips. Anothe potential point of contention aises when thee is some question of whethe the infomation expessed on political comedy pogams is legitimate, both in tems of the clips shown and in the context in which they ae used. Table 2: Content (This show included elevant and legitimate content (news souces, epotes, guests) Show Stongly Disagee Neutal Agee Stongly Agee Disagee Nightly News 0 13% (3) 17.4% (4) 52.2% (12) 17.4%(4) with Bian Williams The Colbet 4.3% (1) 8.7% (2) 39.1% (9) 39.1% (9) 8.7% (2) Repot PBS NewsHou 0 4.3% (1) 21.7% (5) 56.5% (13) 17.4%(4) The Daily Show 4.3% (1) 13% (3) 17.4% (4) 56.5% (13) 8.7% (2) with Jon Stewat
27 In egads to content, taditional news was just slightly favoed ove the political comedy choices, although, The Daily Show was ated as high as the two taditional news options. The Colbet Repot was the lowest ated of the fou choices, an indication that the specific clips shown may not have been peceived as ich in content as the othes. PBS NewsHou again scoed the highest out of all shows listed with close to thee quates of viewes eithe ageeing o stongly ageeing that the show was clea. Focus goup discussion of the clips' content affimed the data, with many paticipants making the agument in favo of political comedy that much of the content shown was taken fom taditional news souces and then satiized. Indeed, Baym' s eseach notes that "dawing on live boadcast coveage of public statements and govenment poceedings, the content of The Daily Show esembles much of the mainsteam news media (Baym 2006). Table 3: Explanation of Concepts (This show explained concepts and issues well) Show Stongly Disagee Neutal Agee Stongly Agee Disagee Nightly News 4.3% (1) 8.7% (2) 34.8% (8) 30.4 (7) 21.7% (5) with Bian Williams The Colbet 0 17.4% (4) 30.4% (7) 39.1% (9) 13% (3) Repot PBS NewsHou 4.3% (1) 4.3% (1) 30.4% (7) 47.8% (11) 13% (3) The Daily Show 4.3% (1) 17.4% (4) 13% (3) 52.2% (12) 13.0% (3) with Jon Stewat Rating the clips on explanation of concepts, viewes seemed at least patially split on the question of whethe o not political comedy pogams fit the bill. While The Daily Show with
28 Jon Stewat was the top choice in this categoy, ove 20% disageed o stongly disageed with the statement. This speaks to the subjectivity of these claims, and shows that blanket appeal may not exist in egads to these pogams. All shows listed continued to satisfy the espondents, with a majoity affiming each show explained concepts elatively well. Table 4: Bias (This show was not biased in its epoting of the issues and stoies) Show Stongly Disagee Neutal Agee Stongly Agee Disagee Nightly News 8.7% (2) 4.3 (1) 43.5% (10) 30.4% (7) 13% (3) with Bian Williams The Colbet 17.4%(4) 34.8% (8) 39.1% (9) 8.7% (2) 0 Repot PBS NewsHou 4.3% (I) 8.7% (2) 52.2% (12) 17.4%(4) 17.4%(4) The Daily Show 13% (2) 34.8% (8) 34.8% (8) 17.4% (4) 0 with Jon Stewat Last in ou analysis is the question of bias. The peceived bias towad left-leaning political comedy boadcasts was noted in the liteatue to pehaps beed cynicism duing the Bush administation (Baumgatne and Mois 2009), and to eflect a libeal agenda duing boadcasts (Becke, Xenos, and Waisanen 201 0). The bias was affimed by viewes, with a clea majoity of espondents ating the political pogams as at least neutal and in many cases, biased. While cetainly thee ae taditional news netwoks that ae peceived as biased themselves, the data points to one of the specific flaws political comedy pogamming can have when evaluated against taditional news pogams, and epesents one of the boundaies of such a study. While political comedy shows will discuss simila issues, povide simila explanations and featue
29 simila guests and mateial (Baym 2006), they ae ultimately peceived as moe biased because of thei tendency to satiize the stoies pesented, ceating a "hostile media bias" between the gene and taditional news (Becke, Xenos, and Waisanen 2010). Focus goup sentiment suppoted these claims, especially amongst the second goup of mostly Honos students, who agued that it's had to legitimize the content of the pogams because of whee it is being viewed and how it is pesented. This emains a citical baie fo poponents of political comedy as a mechanism of political leaning, and is the most specific and significant diffeence identified between the fou pogams analyzed. The suvey concluded with a seies of five knowledge questions elating to the two sets of clips and the content featued. While vaying slightly fom question to question, a majoity of viewes was able to answe the questions coectly (afte watching fou consecutive television clips pe1taining to the same event o stoy). In compaison, some these questions wee moe difficult o confusing than the knowledge questions asked in the lage suvey used in Phase 1, and affimed that viewes wee engaged enough duing the expeiment to etain some infomation about the stoies, albeit biefly. One paticula question that aose was whethe the ode of the clips had any effect on the ability of paticipants to conectly answe the questions. Howeve, acoss both goups of paticipants, each goup eceiving a diffeent ode of clips fo each issue, the data showed vitually no diffeence between goups, with each set of paticipants pefonning easonably well on each question, baing some confusion on a paticula question that asked espondents to indicate anyone who spoke out against the filibuste pefomed by Rand Paul on the topic of done stikes. Some espondents may not have the ead the question closely, as nealy 44% selected Paul as an answe. Even so, almost 74% wee able to identify at least one coect answe, stating conectly that Republican Senato (and 2008 Pesidential
30 nominee) John McCain did speak out against Paul's actions. Senato Lindsey Gaham, cetainly less popula and familia on the national stage than McCain, was only identified by 22% of viewes as having spoken out against Paul. Social Media and Political Comedy Implications I. Social Media and Political Engagement As both the liteatue and data have shown, social media websites ae becoming established centes of political activity and communication among young votes. Though the technological capabilities of social media platfoms, uses ae able to ceate and inteact with seemingly endless amounts of political content posted, discussed, and shaed by the millions that join them. But political activity on social media platfoms is not limited to inteacting with political mateial o liking a candidate's page. Pew (2012) outlined a list of eight diffeent civic activities that wee possible on social media platfoms, and asked espondents to indicate if they used the sites in the following ways: I. Like/pomote political mateial 2. Encouage othes to vote 3. Post thoughts on issues 4. Repast political content 5. Encouage othes to act 6. Post links to political stoies 7. Belong to political goup on SNS (social netwoking sites) 8. Follow officials/candidates on social media
31 As expected, the youngest geneations of votes outpefomed thei olde countepats in each of the eight categoies, highlighted in Figue 6. While political action has yet to affect a majoity of social media uses in any age goup, we continue to see stong data especially fom young adults, with at least a quate of uses 18-24 claiming they used social media fo each of the activities listed. This data maks a continued gowth of social media activity since the mainsteam success of these sites beginning in 2006, and sets expectations even highe fo futue yeas, especially as political opeations become moe and moe digitally focused. Figue 6 Younge social media uses ae moe likely to use the tools fo civic activities N cf usett. 6f S«iGJ netwcking sites c PHitt«who we Sf:Kf<l! ~.8d'#1 th~ Wd}'J BAgti11l 29 iii-30-.:s?agllss(hl $;Ages6S. - i:zt.:h Post R~ tho~"" --"" co.tent.o:>\lj ~s--e: PGSt.5nic:!0 Ucn~:t to> fcffow ott'lu: to xt pofttic! ~! offici:il.s I ::toi~ S-t'OGf16n-5«5 andld:l~ -en~! n-&dia Souce: P.e\V Re:se:m:::h cette'slntem~t & Ameican life Poject Civk :Engageme:ntsUIVS'(~ -conduced!uly 16«AUgust 7~ zou oo landline and ~~ phones and in Cltgflsh and spanish. N fu sociaj metfta usets ages u- 29=32:3.. N fo social media uses ag-es: 3()..4~3S.a. N fo social media we~-s agg '50-64~323. N fo- social media,.,.., ~5+:16?. Thee is also an inceasing amount of evidence to suggest that civic engagement on social media platfoms can act as a spingboad to futhe political inteest and activity. A Pew epot on Civic Engagement states that, "43% of social netwoking site uses say they have decided to lean moe about a political o social issue because of something they ead about on a social netwoking site", with an additional 18% of uses who have decided to take action involving a
32 political o social issue because of something they ead on social media platfoms (Pew 2012). These data becomes the basis of an agument by many scholas to edefine civic engagement and the meaning of citizenship in the political landscape. D. Russell Dalton of the Univesity of Califonia, Ivine wites in his book, The Good Citizen: How a Younge Geneation is Reshaping Ameican Politics (2009), "Educational and geneational pattens show how social change is eshaping political action. The engaged citizen (of today) is moe likely to paticipate in boycotts, "buycotts", demonstations, and othe foms of contentious action" (p. 72). Dalton's wok explains how the definitions that wee used to define and pedict political activity may no longe be elevant to a new geneation of votes who ae getting involved in new ways and in diffeent places, including the Intenet. Using the data in the Undegaduate Suvey of Political Paticipation, I was able to cosstabulate and futhe analyze the data, specifically in egads to the goup of espondents that had indicated they had used social media websites to communicate with othes about politics. These "social media politicos" outpefomed the field in each of the political knowledge questions asked duing the suvey by a consistent 5% magin, except fo an insignificant one pecent diffeence on the easiest question asked (96% of the social media politicos answeed coectly, compaed to 97% of the field). The social media goup also was shown to have highe levels of intenal political efficacy, with 8% moe of the social media goup indicating they felt qualified to paticipate in politics. Only 53.6% felt that politics was too complicated to undestand (compaed to 61% of the entie sample) and 80% believed they had a good undestanding of the impotant national issues facing the county, up fom 75% of the pool. Vote tmnout was also highe, with 5% moe of the social media goup epoting voting in the last election.