Shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Politically
Incorrect with Bill Maher, Saturday Night Live, and even South Park represent an underresearched
subfield of discourse about political communication and persuasion. These
shows manage to reach audiences not traditionally known for high levels of political
engagement and draw them in with their comedic framework. This thesis investigates the
impact of televised political satire on public perceptions of presidential candidates and
campaign issues and the direct result these impacts may have on presidential elections.
This thesis first gives some background in the types of communication and personalities
of the front-men and women of these shows and then moves into a historical account of
how the exigence for this recent explicit hybridization between comedy and news
emerged. It then analyzes how these comedians view their own role within media and
politics. It provides a thick account of the liberalizing force televised political satire has
been for the American political climate so far, and where it will likely lead us in the near
future with the growth of new communication technologies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1200 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | McKenzie, John Marshall, II |
| Contributors | Aune, Jim |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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