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A Qualitative Investigation of Daily Show Viewers: Symbolic Constructions of Identification and Credibility

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A Qualitative Investigation of Daily Show Viewers: Symbolic Constructions of Identification and Credibility A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF DAILY SHOW VIEWERS: SYMBOLIC CONSTRUCTIONS OF IDENTIFICATION AND CREDIBILITY By KATHLEEN SOHAR A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2005 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee for their time, effort and input: Dr. Les Smith, Dr. Michael Weigold, and Dr. Beth Rosenson. And I would like to extend particular appreciation to my chair, Dr. Debbie Treise, for her unwavering support and encouragement. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had the privilege to earn my doctorate under her guidance. I would also like to thank Jody Hedge for her consistent help and positive attitude throughout my graduate career in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. I also would like to thank all of the students whom I taught as a graduate assistant here at the University of Florida, as well as Professor Tim Wilkerson for letting me be his teaching assistant for so many years. In addition, I would like to thank the staff, and particularly my officemates, at the Department of Communication Services at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) here at the University of Florida. Rob, Lisa, Rebecca, Ann, Bill, Aaron, Al, Ron, and Roger represent some of the best people I have ever worked with. I admire their professionalism and their kindness, and am proud to have been a part of their team for so many years. I would like to thank my band, Bound, particularly Bound’s cofounder, Patrick Pagano, who is receiving his M.F.A. this year from Digital Worlds. Playing with this group has been a once in a lifetime experience. ii I would like to thank my family, especially my mother for her constant support, both emotional and financial, throughout my graduate career. And finally, I want to thank Rob Harris for his love and faith in me, and our future. iii PREFACE Political edutainment. It’s the hot term right now. At its most basic level, it represents the merging of news and entertainment programming. On a deeper level, the rise of political edutainment programming signals complex changes in the telecommunication industry that will continue to be felt throughout the next decade(s). On a personal level, my own interest in this topic was ignited back in the late 1990s. I was teaching a news-writing lab at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. In an attempt to increase my students’ interest, I began incorporating alternative “news” from cable sources such as the Daily Show and even seemingly lesser formal programs such as Saturday Night Live. Although many of the students watched these shows, and other alternative satirical programming, most did not initially regard these nontraditional formats as news. I would then lead a participant discussion that revolved around the question: “What is news?” As a graduate student in telecommunications, I began to wonder myself: Exactly what elements constitute a news program, and how does humor, or other entertainment value, factor into the equation? I had always read newspapers and considered myself reasonably well informed about public policy issues. However, when The Daily Show debuted circa 1996, I became a loyal viewer and over time found myself feeling better informed about national and international events. In addition I found myself engaging in more conversations about politics than I had ever previously done. In short, I believed myself to be better informed iv and more involved in public affairs—and I credited this change largely to my regular Daily Show viewing. It is widely acknowledged television has become the primary source of political information for the majority of the American public. However, there is far less agreement concerning the impact different televised formats have on various viewing audiences. The inquiry is further exacerbated by fact that the telecommunication industry as a whole is wrestling with revolutionary changes. Deregulation, digitization, and interactivity are just a few of the variables the researcher must contend with in trying to assess television’s influence in the modern world. As a child I remember waking up before dawn and watching the broadcast signal before the day’s programming began on one of four available networks. Today, any time of day, I can choose between hundreds of programming options on satellite and cable. On top of that, the Internet allows me instant access to viewers across the country (or around the world) to converse with about plot lines, characters, or any other topic I desire. For that matter, if I don’t find something I like on television, I can search the World Wide Web for programming as well. In fact, with my EMAC and a $500 camcorder, I can produce my own programming and post it for others to view and comment on. While somewhat off topic, the above paragraph hopefully illustrates the radical transformation that has occurred in the telecom industry in the past 2 decades. The following investigation was initially fueled by my curiosity concerning the role alternative news programming plays in modern information gathering and attitude formation. My subsequent research has been extremely gratifying and I am excited to be a contributor to the growing literature on this subject. It is my hope that communication v research such as this can help to guide media producers about ways to engage and inform audiences, and that the media industry responds responsibly to the challenges and opportunities new technologies present. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................ ii PREFACE ............................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES...................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES......................................................x ABSTRACT........................................................... xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................1 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................4 Symbolic Interactionism ...............................................4 Political Socialization .................................................8 Humor ............................................................13 Politics and Media Framing ............................................18 Generation X .......................................................34 Source Credibility ...................................................42 The Daily Show.....................................................47 Research Questions ..................................................54 3 STUDY METHODOLOGY ...........................................55 Rationale ..........................................................55 Methods ...........................................................57 Data Analysis.......................................................65 4 RESULTS .........................................................67 Participants.........................................................67 Theme #1—TDS is a Media Satire/News Parody...........................69 Theme #2—Entertainment Program vs. New Genre of News Program ..........74 Theme #3—Credibility ...............................................81 vii 5 DISCUSSION .....................................................106 Discussion of Results................................................106 Theoretical Implications and Avenues for Future Research..................118 Implications for Programming Practitioners ..............................121 Methodological Implications ..........................................123 Limitations........................................................124 Conclusions.......................................................125 APPENDIX A SURVEY.........................................................128 B QUESTION GUIDE FOR FOCUS GROUPS AND INTERVIEWS ...........129 C INTERVIEW AND FOCUS GROUP DATA...........................132 REFERENCES .......................................................135 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.............................................143 viii LIST OF TABLES Table page 2-1 The Daily Show versus traditional news (%) .............................50 2-2 Audience composition: TDS versus network’s talk shows...................51 C-1 Interview data....................................................132 C-2 Focus group #1, July 26, 2004 .......................................133 C-3 Focus group #2, August 11, 2004 .....................................133 C-4 Focus Group #3, October 26, 2004 ....................................134 C-5 Focus group #3, November 1, 2004 ...................................134 C-6 Diarists .........................................................134 ix FIGURE Figure page 2-1 Comedy Central’s audience by age ....................................51 x ABSTRACT Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF DAILY SHOW VIEWERS: SYMBOLIC CONSTRUCTIONS OF IDENTIFICATION AND CREDIBILITY By Kathleen Sohar August 2005 Chair: Debbie Treise Major Department: Journalism and Communications Using a qualitative methodology, this study investigated viewers of The Daily Show (TDS) in order to better understand how the modern television viewing audience, particularly the Generation X demographic, perceives alternative news programming,
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