The Daily Show vs. the New York Times: Comparing Their Effects on Student Political Knowledge and Engagement

Satirical news shows such as The Daily Show are popular with students, but are they appropriate for classroom use? In this two-group, pretest-posttest study, I examine differences in engagement, political knowledge, and political attitudes between two American Government classes: one assigned to wat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of political science education 2020-07, Vol.16 (3), p.300-313
Main Author: Baranowski, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
College Students
Comparative Analysis
Cynicism
Information Sources
Learner Engagement
media
News Reporting
Pedagogy
Periodicals
Political Attitudes
Political Issues
Political Science
Politics
Pretests Posttests
Student Interests
Teaching Methods
Trust (Psychology)
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Satirical news shows such as The Daily Show are popular with students, but are they appropriate for classroom use? In this two-group, pretest-posttest study, I examine differences in engagement, political knowledge, and political attitudes between two American Government classes: one assigned to watch The Daily Show and the other assigned to read The New York Times. The findings reveal no differences in engagement between the groups, but greater political knowledge in The Daily Show group, as well as more cynicism and less trust in government. I conclude that given the surprising lack of greater engagement in The Daily Show class, along with higher levels of cynicism and mistrust in government, The Daily Show may not be an appropriate substitute for The New York Times as a primary political information resource.
ISSN:1551-2169
1551-2177
DOI:10.1080/15512169.2019.1578225