Early to bed makes you stupid, and Fox-y
A new Pew Research survey, per Taegan Goddard:
finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news audience behaviors have had little impact on how much Americans know about national and international affairs.”
The most interesting finding is that regular viewers of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart were the most knowledgeable while regular Fox News viewers knew the least.
So when will the broadcast newsproducers of rabid-dog tabloidism and Couric cutesie-ism get the word and start injecting smarts and wit into the dinnertime evening news?
Granted, Stewart’s show has greater leeway to utilize blue humor, but shows in years past, dating back to That Was The Week That Was, with Tom Lehrer, make it clear that even limited wit can draw an audience and inform them. Someone with imagination could produce a smart new blend, which, when combined with smart interviews, would knock out the traditional news programs in the ratings race.
Were it me, I’d blend old, well-known comedians with new to draw the broadest age demographic. Imagine Bob Newhart and Tom Poston paired with Stephanie Miller and Elayne Boosler. The possibilities are endless, but the producers, unfortunately, are limited in their intelligence quotient.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:07 am
That isn’t an accurate statement about the findings of the survey. What the survey found was this:
In other words, FOX viewers were still about average but they weren’t the best informed. Rush Limbaugh listeners were about as well informed as Daily Show watchers.
April 16th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Sharon, no, you’re not right to say Old Blue was inaccurate. You did two things wrong:
1. You only looked at the scores for “high knowledge.” Fox News not only got the second lowest ranking among the high scorers, it also got the second highest ranking among the low scorers.
2. Comparing Fox’s score to a national average is misleading because the national average is going to be weighted by audience size. That is, if Fox News has a much bigger audience than The Daily Show - which I’m prepared to assume it does - then its results, whatever they are, are going to be closer to that national average because it will have that much more of a role in determining what that average is. The only relevant comparisons here are source-to-source, not source-to-average.
With that in mind, what struck me the most was that overall, the “regular audience” of broadcast TV news was the least informed. Which appears to confirm what many of us long suspected.
As a final note, I have to say that in fairness, I don’t think people are more informed because they watch shows like The Daily Show; rather, it’s that more-informed people at the type more likely to watch. After all, the more informed you are, the more you get the jokes.
April 16th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
[…] Courtesy of the Pew Research Center: What does it all mean? Nada. But that hasn’t stopped the blogosphere from analylzing and politicizing the results, which can be roughly summarized thus: Americans are just as ignorant as ever! But some of us (guess who?) are smarter than others. Here are the headlines courtesy of Memeorandum: … Nico / Think Progress: SURVEY: Daily Show/Colbert Viewers Most Knowledgable, Fox News Viewers Rank Lowest James Joyner / Outside The Beltway: What Americans Know: Not Much — A new Pew survey finds … Ezra Klein: Think They’ll Report, And Let You Decide, This Poll? Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report: One can learn a lot from ‘fake’ news Laura / The Galloping Beaver: Education and knowledge. — Via Ezra, interesting results … Daniel Larison / Eunomia: Who Knew? Bryan / Hot Air: Poll: We’re getting dumber Newsdesk / The Swamp: 24/7 news doesn’t make us any smarter RadicalRuss / Pam’s House Blend: Stewart/Colbert = Funny Truth; FOX News = Noisy Truthiness Brendan Nyhan: Ezra Klein gives Fox News a bum rap Jonathan Stein / MotherJones.com: Watch the Daily Show? You’re Smart. … Wonkette: 31% of Americans Have No Idea Who’s Running the Country Garance / theGarance.com: Who is Most Misinformed? — A new study by The Pew Research Center … Libby Spencer / The Impolitic: 24 hour news makes no difference Old Blue / The American Street: Early to bed makes you stupid, and Fox-y […]
June 18th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
[…] what we know By author Courtesy of the Pew Research Center: What does it all mean? Nada. But that hasn’t stopped the blogosphere from analylzing and politicizing the results, which can be roughly summarized thus: Americans are just as ignorant as ever! But some of us (guess who?) are smarter than others. Here are the headlines courtesy of Memeorandum: … Nico / Think Progress: SURVEY: Daily Show/Colbert Viewers Most Knowledgable, Fox News Viewers Rank Lowest James Joyner / Outside The Beltway: What Americans Know: Not Much — A new Pew survey finds … Ezra Klein: Think They’ll Report, And Let You Decide, This Poll? Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report: One can learn a lot from ‘fake’ news Laura / The Galloping Beaver: Education and knowledge. — Via Ezra, interesting results … Daniel Larison / Eunomia: Who Knew? Bryan / Hot Air: Poll: We’re getting dumber Newsdesk / The Swamp: 24/7 news doesn’t make us any smarter RadicalRuss / Pam’s House Blend: Stewart/Colbert = Funny Truth; FOX News = Noisy Truthiness Brendan Nyhan: Ezra Klein gives Fox News a bum rap Jonathan Stein / MotherJones.com: Watch the Daily Show? You’re Smart. … Wonkette: 31% of Americans Have No Idea Who’s Running the Country Garance / theGarance.com: Who is Most Misinformed? — A new study by The Pew Research Center … Libby Spencer / The Impolitic: 24 hour news makes no difference Old Blue / The American Street: Early to bed makes you stupid, and Fox-y […]